From: loflin (Don Loflin)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Pink, OS/2, and AIX
Keywords: Mach III Pink OS/2 Mac NT etc...
Date: 13 Oct 92 17:38:10 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin

In article <1992Oct6.124056.16929@panix.com> os2man@panix.com (Larry Salomon Jr.) writes:
>In <kaz.718349948@vincent2.iastate.edu> kaz@iastate.edu (Jimmy Buffet) writes:
>
>>I was just wondering if anyone has had these same thoughts...  is OS/2 a 
>>"prerelease" of the "pink" operating system we all know so little about?
>>Putting OS/2 on the Mach 3 Kernel for multi-platform support (including 
>>cross-platform application use, I imagine.  I don't think NT includes this) 
>>seems like a major project.  IBM wouldn't work on such an aspiring project 
>>if Pink is going to come along and make OS/2 obsolete.  The mac app rumours, 
>>of which I am very skeptical, make me even more suspicious.  
>
>IBM claimed that Pink would not make OS/2 obsolete, and that there would
>be a migration path from OS/2 to Pink.
>
>It is my opinion that the OS/2 and AIX combining is IBM's answer to NT,
>and might even be incorporated into this Pink that we keep hearing
>about.
>

I went to an IBM info session recently which was on this very subject.
IBM intends to converge (but not merge) their OS's (AIX, OS/2, Taligent).
An applications developer will have the same technologies available on
AIX and OS/2, eventually.   Each OS will remain distinct, though,
because, IBM feels, some customers have requirements which are fulfilled
by only one or the other (which is very true, IMHO).

IBM is porting OS/2 to run on Mach 3.0, and this does seem to be IBM's
answer to NT.  Mach already runs on many CPUs, possibly saving development
and debugging time, where NT must be debugged for each new CPU.  In fact,
IBM has already demonstrated OS/2 on Mach (see one of the recent October 
InfoWorld issues).  

SOM and the WPS have been offered to Taligent for use in the Taligent O.S. 
(largely based on Pink).  SOM and WPS will also be available on AIX 
eventually, I believe.  IBM is working to convince Taligent to use Mach
for the Taligent OS as well, making integration of the three possible.
Taligent is some time off, probably '94.  Taligent is OO to the core.
Code reusuability is a primary design concern, and a dev environment with
app builders a la NeXTStep will be embedded.  As IBM put it, Taligent
is not layered onto another OS, as is NeXTStep.  It is "OO to the bottom
level."  

OS/2 will be offered on RS6000s and presumably PowerPCs, on top of Mach. AIX
will continue to be offered as well.  You should be able to run both at the 
same time, machine resources withstanding.   Taligent, too, if they go with 
Mach.  They may support Win32 eventually (i.e put Mach in place of the NT 
kernel). 

Oh, lest I forget, Apple's System 7 will run on the PowerPCs as well, and
while Apple will use their own Microkernel initially (just as AIX does now),
it will probably use Mach later (at least, that's what IBM hopes I gather,
and they are working to convince Apple to do so).

After hearing IBM's positions, I for one,  feel much more confident in the
future of OS/2 (and AIX).  Taligent/Pink will be an alternative, not a
successor per se, just as Unix/NT/DOS-Windows are alternatives to OS/2
today.

DISCLAIMER:  These impressions and opinions are based on my recollections 
and notes only, and should not be construed as accurate or official IBM 
statements.  I don't even work for IBM :-)


-------
Don Loflin
loflin@emx.cc.utexas.edu
(512) 471-3241 x413
Just my opinions...