From: x90wardell@gw.wmich.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: OS/2 VS NT! The Future War Looms...
Date: 14 Sep 92 02:21:17 GMT
Organization: Western Michigan University

>>I know you're all giddy about OS/2, and fine... I have no problem
>>with that, but to ignore the lack of ISV support and IBM's poor
>>bug fix record to date (Where is that _June_ CSD?  Why is Windows 3.1
>>support going to be even later?) is (hmmmm... I'm having trouble
>>finding a polite adjective.).  Seriously... if you really like OS/2
>>and want it to succeed over NT, then I would quit spending my time
>>bragging about NT's non-existant lateness... and would spend more
>>time worrying about convincing ISV's to support OS/2 and to kick
>>IBM's butt until they get OS/2's house in order.
> 
> What "June CSD"?  That was an unsubstantiated rumor, and you know it.  It is
> painfully apparent that there is no longer any problem with ISV support, and
> if there was any doubt of this, it should be gone by now.  Back to the CSD,
> the ONLY statement IBM has mad about it is that it would be released in the
> FALL.  By my calander June is not in the fall, in fact we haven't even gotten
> there yet.  Most OS/2 supporter, aren't "bragging over NT's non-existant
> lateness", instead, they are contradicting the false rumors that NT will
> somehow be released around the beginning of the year.  IT WON'T.  I will be
> more than happy to eat those words, but frankly, it will take an act of the
> diety of your choice for it to happen.  In addition, many of us OS/2
> supporters ARE kicking IBM's butt about it, but more importantly the actual
> developers as well.
>>

	Well in my own rather biased opinion, I see things like this:

If NT ships in December and is not a disaster, then OS/2 is rather doomed.
Plain and simple.  IBM is and has been rather incompetent in the handling
of OS/2 thus far and even though they have cleaned up their act some,
they could never stop the MS marketting machine.  

If NT ships 1Q93 it will be a lot closer.  Borland C++ for OS/2 will
have been rleased, Stacker for OS/2 will be out and the Word Perfect,
Corel Draw, and Lotus apps will all be in 2.0 format (32 bit).  These
are bread and butter apps and users are not likely to dump OS/2 and
their apps away so that they can logon to their computer and return
to the braindead program manager interface.  But those apps will just
have been released and many users (such as myself) may still be using
OS/2 simply as an incredibly wonderful GUI with good multitasking
over DOS and Windows progs.

If NT ships 2Q93 then NT and OS/2 will have to live together in harmony.
Both will live for quite awhile in their of niches with DOS and Windows
3.1 being mainstream for awhile.  But OS/2 will be easily the more
used OS of the two.  No one I know is going to dump Unix off their
work station so that they can play with the PC GUI (as they call it). So
NT will be hurting if it ships in this area of time.

3Q93 and beyond:
If NT ships by this time, too bad.  NT will be a tiny little nich with
OS/2 the obvious successor.  All the main apps will be likely to be out
by this time.  The PC Press will have a lot of OS/2 apps to be reviewed
and OS/2 will likely be bugfree or virtually with lots of drivers and
other support.  I say this because 3Q91 was when the apps started
to really pour into Windows 3.0 which was released 2Q90 (like OS/2 2Q92).
But NT will be as good as dead.  By this time, Taligent will probably
be making little press leaks about how "wonderful" it will be.

Anyway, this also assumes that NT is released with all its goodies
intact and actully runs DOS and Windows programs reasonably.

					-Brad