From: brian@jaguar.cs.utah.edu (Brian Sturgill)
Subject: Tidbits 01/27/93
Organization: University of Utah Computer Science
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 00:02:03 GMT


Well, my final beta is out, so Tidbits are back.  I'm behind in my
trade rags, but probably have time to catch up now, so expect another
issue real soon.

INDEX:
	Cringley on Windows for Workgroups.
	PC Market share, 1992.
	Novell to cooperate with Microsoft in making an NT driver.
	Note on Novell buying USL stories.
	DEC to show beta versions of Pathworks.
	Windows, NT and OS/2 at Comdex
	Banyan Vines networks support WFW
	Interesting "rumors" about NT.

---------
[InfoWorld; January 11, 1993; Page 98]
[Cringely's column]
...
Finally, the most recent copies of Windows for Workgroups work
better, thanks to slipstreamed (and unannounced) improvements.
Early adopters, complain!
...

---------
[InfoWorld; January 11, 1993; Page 96]
[Begin Chart]
IBM	12.4
Apple	11.9
Compaq	 6.6
NEC	 5.1
Dell	 3.5
Other	60.5
[End Chart]

---------
[Open Systems Today; January 4, 1993; Page 4]
'Coopetition' With NT Is Novell's Agenda
	Paul Kapustka

Even as Novell added Unix to its anti Microsoft arsenel last
month, it pledged to continue working with the Redmond, Wash.,
firm to ensure interoperability between the two companies' future
flagship products.

The purchase of Unix will pit Novell against Microsoft more
directly than ever in the battle for control of the desktops and
networks of the future.  But despite competitive factors and
recent legal bad blood between the PC software giants, Novell
still will work with Microsoft to ensure that applications
writeen for NT-based platforms will work with NetWare, according
to John Edwards, Novell executive vice president.

Edwards said Novell can't afford to ignore NT, regardless of any
competitive issues or disputes between the firms.

"We'll still have teams working together to make sure Windows NT
can plug into NetWare," Edwards said. "We have to make sure that
Windows NT applications have full access to NetWare services."
...

---------
[
A Note on Novell buying USL stories (by Me).

There were numerous articles about Novell buying USL during this
period, but pretty much all of the were speculative, with the
Unix rags not understanding the PC world and the PC rags not
understanding the Unix world.

A quick quote from Open Systems Today (1/4/93, 4) eptimizes the
cultural clash between the two worlds:

	John Gilmore of Cygnus Support, sees things from a high
	level, though it's definitely Shakespearean: Fire all the
	lawyers.

	"Novell would give Microsoft the biggest kick in the
	pants it had ever seen if they would fire all the USL
	lawyers and make the Unix system free to everyone in
	source code.  Suddenly, the best high-end OS would have
	free distribution and a huge network of support people
	(the Internet).  Novell retains control by providing a
	strong central organization that definces the future of
	Unix. They should be able to make $100 million a year
	just charging for support. Few lawyers and licenses and
	more solid work is what'll beat Microsoft. Factionalism
	and more legal leeching will play right into their
	hands."

Gilmore clearly has never read a Novell license if he thinks that
it is even a remote possibility that his advice will be taken. And
apparently he does not understand the large number of features
missing in the Unix environment that are standardly available in
the PC world.  Nor does he seem to have any idea of the numbers
and kinds of applications available on PCs that make the kinds of
"free" software he supports so strongly look like toys.  (Really,
only in the area of developer tools does "free" software even come
close to the quality of software available in the PC world.  Even
in this area, there is much better available, though you do have
the disadvantage of having to pay for it.  However, for the average
user, there is almost no "free" software available).

Now picture Ray Noorda's face when he realizes that not only is
Gilmore quite serious about what he said, but that he [Noorda] has
inherited an OS where a significant and influenential minority of
the end-user community hold such views. Imagine Novell resellers
coping with such people.

It should be interesting.

]

---------- [Infoworld; January 11, 1993, Page 1, 96]

DEC to show beta versions of Pathworks
	By Jayne Wilson

Demonstrating its commitment to integrating multivendor
enterprises, Digitial Equipment Corp. will preview beta versions
of Pathworks for both NetWare and Windows NT at NetWorld this
week.

The products will bring Pathworks-linked PCs file and print
services and built-in wide area networking capabilities from
NetWare and NT servers, DEC officials said.
...
"Supporting NetWare is critical \[to DEC\], given the installed
base," said Kevin O'Neill, vice president of research at Business
Research Group, in Newton, Mass. "The NT version of Pathworks
provides an opportunity for NT to penetrate accounts dominated by
NetWare."
...
The NetWare product is expected to be released in the second
quarter of 1993.  Pathworks for NT will be available when Windows
NT is released.

----------
[
The following is a post to a bulletin board, (I forget which one)
by Fred Langa (Windows magazine editor).
It's kinda making the rounds amongst NT fans.
It comes very close to saying what I feel about the OS/2 vs NT "battle".
]
Windows Roundtable
Category 3,  Topic 18
Message 1         Sun Nov 22, 1992
FLANGA                       at 11:06 EST

  Windows, NT and OS/2 at Comdex


What a week. 145,000 people, 2000 booths in half a dozen
locations.  A zoo.  Windows was everywhere, but that's probably
no surprise.

OS/2 was around, too. IBM had a couple of relatively high-profile
events, which were good to see, although the content was (to me)
kinda light.

For example, at an OS/2 press briefing, IBM's Lee Reiswig proudly
announced that there are now 600 OS/2 apps shipping. He did not
mention that, at Spring Comdex, he'd predicted in public that
there'd be 1,000 apps by now. A 40% shortfall is a *big* difference.

Most of the 600 apps are vertical market apps, not mainstream
stuff, too.

In the first 90 days, IBM shipped a million copies of OS/2. In the
second 90 days, the tire kickers fell off and IBM shipped half a
million more; a substantially reduced volume.

A million and a half copies in 180 days isn't peanuts: this is a
major product, in wide use. But for comparison: Microsoft is still
shipping a million copies of Windows *every 30 days;* or 6 million
copies in the time it took IBM to ship 1.5 million.

The IBM Ultimedia booth is filled with amazing software, and some
very nice hardware. Almost everything there is vertical market stuff.

Last Spring, I wrote in WinMag (in an editorial where I listed the
five best reasons for someone to choose OS/2 over Windows) that
specialty/vertical niches were one area where OS/2 could really shine.
That appears to be coming true happening.

OS/2 is *not* shining in the mainstream. I'm not the only one who
thinks so; this isn't a case of a myopic Windows bigot seeing what
isn't there. Amy Wohl, for example (she's a well-known consultant
for large corporations) says that most of the developers she knows
(commercial and private) have put their OS/2 stuff on lower priorities
than Windows and NT.

I dunno. When NT slipped, I though maybe IBM would have another
chance to pull this one off. but It looks like they're not doing it.
There was nothing at Comdex--- zero, zip, nada--- that would lead
me to believe that OS/2 is moving into a power position. It's still
a nice system with many real strengths; but I still think it's
going to be a relatively minor player compared to Windows & NT.

Lots of NT activity at the show. More NT demos running outside the
MS both than there are OS/2 demos running outside the IBM booth,
maybe by a factor of three, from what I saw. The Microsoft NT booth
was jammed.

Make of this what you will: A large, well-known video card vendor
was running OS/2 and NT (beta) side by side to demonstrate the fact
that the vendor has driver support for both. But they only left the
display up for a few hours on the first day of the show because it
was having an unintentional effect: the NT beta was running the
demo about twice as fast as the shipping OS/2. the video vendor
didn't want to p** o** IBM, so he killed that part of the exhibit.

Interesting sidelight on the floor: despite the fact that OS/2 is
not breaking into the mainstream in a big way, the distrust and
even hatred of Microsoft here is palpable. MS is getting itself
into the position where IBM used to be: the Big Bad Company that
controls the industry, and that's almost universally disliked.
Kind of a necessary evil.

The flip side of that is a kind of "root for the underdog" feeling
for IBM. These industry politics are skewing the reactions of some
people on the floor here, and it's a shame to see technical and
market sense get blown away by politics. A lot of OS/2 fans have
a beleaguered, frayed-nerve air. It reminds me of dealing with
the Amiga fans a few years back. You'd say "Yes, the Amiga is a
very nice machine, but it's just not cutting it in the market."
and the Amiga folks would go ballistic, as if stating the fact
made you an idiot enemy of the Amiga and All That Is Right And
Holy.

There's some of that with OS/2, now. Mention obvious, factual,
affect-free statements such as "Windows is outselling OS/2 4 to
1" and they go ballistic, as if stating anything that fails to
put OS/2 in the best possible light proves you're a Bill Gates
fan and a lover of cooperative multitasking and even lower
perversions. 8-)

It'd be funny, except ordinary people are getting caught in the
crossfile as the smoke of the religious wars obscures the real
issues. Ah well.

----------
[Infoworld; January 11, 1993, Page 3]
Banyan Vines networks support WFW

Windows for Workgroups (WFW) users will be able to run on Vines
networks with a driver available immediately from both Banyan
Systems and Microsoft Corp., officials from the companies said.
The driver, whcih is free to WFW users, adds Vinces support to
LAN Manager and Novell Inc.'s NetWare. Users can obtain the
driver from Microsoft (800) 227-4679 or Banyan (800) 222-6926.

--------
[Mysterious Informant :-)]
[
I am told by people that should know that a recent internal
NT drop supports Enhanced Mode 16-bit Windows apps.  This fact
combined with a few other rumors, leads me to believe that
DOS/16-bit Windows compatibilty advantages for OS/2 will be small
or non-existant.
Certainly not big enough to be a significant sales factor.

NT seems also to be doing amazingly well at getting third-party driver
support.
]

--------

Brian
-- 
C. Brian Sturgill                  Windows, WfW, Windows NT and some OS/2 2.0
University of Utah                 information available via anonymous ftp to
Center for Software Science        easy.cs.utah.edu. Also all my Tidbits posts.
brian@cs.utah.edu; CIS: 70363,1373     Windows NT SDK: $69; (800) 227-4679