From: rahayden@news.weeg.uiowa.edu (R Andrew Hayden)
Subject: Survivability
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 19:25:55 GMT

I am not an OS/2 user.  I am currently a user of DOS 5/Win 3.1 trying to
decide where to go to next.

On the advice of several people, I've taken part of my OS research to
.advocacy as a way to try to determine the differences between OS/2 and NT
and whatever else is out there.

Frankly, I don't care what funky things OS/2 or NT can do.  All I want is
an OS that will let me multitask decently, eliminate the 640k obsolete
memory barrier, and get rid of that hampering 8+3 naming requirement.  In
addition, I want to keep my DOS and Windows programs because I don't have
the money to invest in a whole new software library.

Fine, I'm not going to argue whether OS/2 or NT can do this.  Someone else
can argue those points.

No, my question has to do with the survivability of OS/2 (I've pretty much
decided to make the switch).  

Two and a half years ago when Windows 3.0 cam out, I immediately started
using it and I very much liked it.  Unfortunately, there was very little
software available, either commercial or shareware via the net.

Part of the guage I use to determine the viability of an OS is by the
amount of software available for it.  Today, you can walk in to any
computer store and find a specific Windows software section.  There are
hundreds of Win shareware programs available via mail-order or the net. 
In thsi sense, Windows is a success.

This is after roughly two years of availability.

Now, I in turn look at OS/2.  Right now, there is no OS/2 software section
at my computer story.  In addition, there are far far fewer OS/2 FTP sites
on the net and far far fewer OS/2 shareware programs available than
Windows programs.

Now, I know this isn't a good measure of how good an OS is, but is parts
of the measure I use and I suspect part of the measure that many other
people use, how much FREE/CHEAP software is available for that OS (now
lets not argue that OS/2 can run all DOS and Windows programs, that isn't
the point of this post).

So my question, if you've managed to read this far without flaming me,
what will the OS/2 OS look like in a year, when it is roughly as old as
the Windows 3.x series is right now?  Will there be more programs?  Will
there be more migrations of Windows versions to OS/2 versions?  Will I be
able to walk into a computer store and find an OS/2 secion?

The reason I ask is that I would hate to make any kind of software or
hardware investment into an OS that is going to die a gory death in the
next 24 months.

Can we put aside some of the "NT is better, no it's not, yes it is, no
it's not, yes it is you asshole, fuck you, bite me!" arguments in the
forum and perhaps discuss a little about what the future of OS2 holds, and
perhaps wait until NT is born before arguing abotu what it can do.

I appreciate your comments.

Flames will be giggled at.

-- 
]> I love my country                   + Robert Hayden                     <]
]> But I fear my government.           +                                   <]
]> Blind faith in your leaders, or in  +    rahayden@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu  <]
]> anything, will get you killed.      +    aq650@slc4.INS.CWRU.Edu        <]