From: x90wardell@gw.wmich.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: OS/2 2.x will loose its battle against NT if .....
Date: 10 Oct 92 10:20:45 EST
Organization: Western Michigan University

In article <1992Oct9.003603.1793@news.Hawaii.Edu>, lkan@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Linus Kan) writes:
> 
> o NT sells for below $199
> o NT tailored to Intel x86 platform and sells for below $99
> 
> Anyone out there believes that NT would sell for about $500?
> I don't think so--it's just a gimmick!  It's an estimated price
> so that tempted users like me would buy OS/2 because it's cheap.
> Microsoft says that--do you think they'll actually sell NT for
> that price?  Think about it--if you were a sales strategist at 
> Microsoft, how much would you suggest NT sell for  in order to 
> maintain total monopoly on Intel based OS?  $500 for NT is
> quite ridiculous--it's all just a (brillant) gimmick and a false
> 'add'.

	Quite an interesting fantasy you have there.  Boy, how
tricky of MS, scare away customers by giving a "gimick" high price.
Chances are, the product will ship for $495 which, by the way, is
not that unreasonable for an OS of its magnitude.  A $495 price
wouldn't keep me away if it does everything I want it to.  


> 
> I'm sure Microsoft is reading the OS/2 newsgroups and get user
> evaluations and problems plus tips and ideas so that they could
> improve their NT code.  And since NT and OS/2 are similar in code,
> Microsoft is learning its mistakes from the release of OS/2 2.0
> --us OS/2 users did all the test Microsoft needed for the NT kernel.
> I'm sure the first release of NT would have less BUGS than OS/2 2.0.
> I've had my share of bugs with OS/2!
> 

	Huh?  OS/2 doesn't have a kernel anything like NT.  I am sure
MS has learned a lot from people ripping on each other or people
complaining that the WPS is too slow (NT doesn't even have an OO shell).


> 
> I feel that Windows NT would sell for below $100--maybe at a lost
> but what does Microsoft have to loose--they've got profits from
> its other popular applications.  Anyone suspected that Microsoft
> would sell NT for $69 to developers?...well they did!
> 
	Selling to developers a "pre-beta" for developing at $69
is not exactly a bargain.  Just like IBM selling its "pre-release"
for $99 was no bargain either.  For $69, it should have been a lot
better than it was.  I am sure any of the MS employees on here can
mention that NT development is likely costing MS into the billions of
dollars.  According to what I read in Datamations, OS/2 cost IBM
several billion dollars to develop.  MS could not afford to just dump
it to everyone at $99 a copy.  Maybe upgraders might get something
quite reasonable like that but for the amount of work that is going 
into it, $495 is not outragious.  Sheesh, in a world where we pay
that much for a text based word processor...



> Well, when NT is ready for release, Microsoft would come out hard
> with a powerful campign against OS/2.  The final analysis--OS/2 2.x
> would NOT survive in the long run--unless die-hard OS/2 users
> want to be unique and sway away from the mainstream, ie. Windows.

	That is rather idealistic.  If NT is going to require more
than 8 megs to run well than it will be just a niche OS for workstations.
Motherboards in general have to have 4 meg simms to get past 8 megs
of total memory which is an expensive replacement.  NT won't be the
mainstream even if it sells as well as MS thinks it will in the first
couple years.  Maybe in 95 it could become mainstream but until that
time, I believe OS/2 will be more than obscure.


> 
> Hey--I have OS/2 2.0 on my system...won't be there long though.
> If I do switch to Windows NT, I'll opt for a better desktop manager
> ...maybe a 32-bit Norton Desktop (and hopefully it'll be a radical
> change from the Windows 3.x version--ie. a Norton Desktop similar to
> the Workplace Shell).
> 

	For your purposes, what is it you hope to get out of NT that
OS/2 doesn't already offer you?  Are you planning to network it or
something?
          
> :) lkan
> 
> 

=================================
Brad Wardell  **Happy OS/2 2.0 User**
Project Director
Stardock Systems (SDS)
Western Michigan University
=================================


Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy