From: mbk@gibbs.ucsd.edu (Matt Kennel)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Microsoft's perfect strategy.
Date: 2 Jan 1993 00:29:31 GMT
Organization: Institute For Nonlinear Science, UCSD
NNTP-Posting-Host: gibbs.ucsd.edu
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

cantor@iguana.cis.ohio-state.edu (scott eric cantor) writes:
:  And if what I read about MS's plans in InfoWorld is
: true, I'm even more convinced because a 16 bit/32 bit hybrid DOS is being
: written that will run a fully 32-bit version of Windows that basically gives
: you NT without the networking or security.  But DOS will still lie underneath
: it.  It's not going anywhere.

This is clearly Microsoft's ideal stragegy.

I'll pretend to be Bill Gates for a while.

"Ok the long term goal is to ensure that Win NT kills everything else.
How do I do that?  Backwards compatibility.

Unfortunately, DOS is so simple and stupid that lots of people have been
able to figure out how to reimplement it.  Like OS/2 and all the UNIX
vendors.  They even have it on a Mac.

Now, Windows is alot more complicated and a lot harder to get right.  This
is the key. We've already knocked off DR-DOS.  I thought that OS/2 would
have fallen, but those guys have managed to get Windows 3.1 working on
it, so we have to try harder.  Already lots of people are writing programs
for Win3.1, which is great.

What I need is for WinNT to offer something that nobody else can do.  
Which is windows compatibility, after all, we have th source code.  So,
the solution is Windows 4.0.  We'll add "some" NT features to it that
are essential for some new applications (memo: tell Apps group to make heavy
use of them) and make sure that it cannot be emulated.  Let's delay
real NT a while so that we can get this kludge out and get applications 
written for it.  Really, there's no technical reason to keep on extending
stupid Windows, but I cared about that I wouldn't be a billionaire now. 
I wonder if we can buy an algorithm patent that we'll stick into Windows 4.0---
just to make sure.  

: 
: >Competition in the OS market is much more intense
: >now than it was 5 years ago, and I personally expect that trend to
: >continue.  Any one of SunOS-NextStep-OS/2-Nt-Solaris-Pink-etc could
: >be the next DOS, though it is more likely that they will just each
: >end up with some share of the high-end market.

If I can hold out pushing windows as long as possible we'll certainly 
win.  I was worried about OS/2 for a while, but thank god for Wall street!
What perfect timing.  IBM stock hits record lows, and we hit record highs.
Who'll buy IBM stuff now, anyway.

Too bad about NeXTstep.  They have some really good shit.  (memo
to marketing:  make up some stuff about WNT's "micro-kernel" and
"object-orientation".).  

: 
: 	I agree, but UNIX will still no more than a niche player on the
: desktop, and OS/2 is stuck in that same limbo unless and until apps start
: appearing.

Yeah.  I coudn't have said it better myself.  In fact, I think I have
said it myself!  Can't believe everybody believes me so easily.  All the
PC rags I've locked up and even now BYTE is eating out of my hand.
There aren't any Apps for WNT at all, it hasn't even shipped, and UNIX
is superior to WNT, especially NeXTstep, but if everybody's
so gullible to believe me that's their tough shit, I guess!  You know, I like
being a billionaire."

: 
: >* Happy ex-developer of OS/2 v2
: >* -----
: >* "Not even close to being a Microsoft spokesbeing"
: >* Robert Reichel (robertre@microsoft.com)
: 
: 
: 
: [-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
: [ Scott Cantor			     UNIX is a small, fast, efficient     ]
: [ Ohio State University		     operating system upon which every    ]
: [ Columbus, Ohio		     graduate student in the universe has ]
: [ 				     played pin the tail on the donkey.   ]
: [ cantor@cis.ohio-state.edu		          ---- a UNIX guru        ]
: [-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
: 

--
-Matt Kennel  		mbk@inls1.ucsd.edu
-Institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California, San Diego
-*** AD: Archive for nonlinear dynamics papers & programs: FTP to
-***     lyapunov.ucsd.edu, username "anonymous".