From: jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Jay Maynard)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Interesting tidbit from September 7, 1992 PC Week
Date: 27 Sep 92 16:59:55 GMT
Article-I.D.: lib.7437
Organization: UT Health Science Center Houston

In article <1992Sep24.184039.6311@microsoft.com> philipla@microsoft.com (Phil Lafornara) writes:
>In article <7410@lib.tmc.edu> jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Jay Maynard) writes:
>>It isn't, huh? What happens when I write a program that depends on the Win32
                                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>API and try to run it on the Win16 API? Do I have a choice beyond cough and
>>die?
>     You misinterpreted my statement.  You also apparently haven't heard
>about Win32s.

OK, educate me. How can NT provide features that are significantly beyond
what's available in Windows on DOS, and have applications be written that
depend on those features, and yet have those applications still run under a
system that doesn't provide those features?

>>Competition, yes. Unfair competition, with beta releases to the entire
>>civilized world for no other purpose besides FUD, no.
>     This has been said before, but it apparently needs to be said
>again.  The SDK release is not a beta.  It is not intended for testing,
>it is intended for developing applications.  The purpose of the SDK
>is not FUD.  The purpose of the SDK is to ensure that there will be
>a large supply of Windows NT applications at the time that the OS
>ships.

Get real. Do you honestly mean to tell me that MS will reject and ignore bug
reports on the SDK/beta? (Are they really that STOOPID?)

MS can publicly say it's not a beta all they want. The simple fact is that it
fulfills all the requirements of a beta: it's prerelease code, and it's being
tested beyond the group that built it. The Jargon File (available for FTP from
pit-manager.mit.edu) says, "to beta-test is to test a pre-release (potentially
unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it available to selected
customers and users." This sounds like a perfect description of the NT
SDK/beta, the selection criterion being that the customer has a CD-ROM drive
and is willing to spend a paltry $69. The SDK/beta passes the duck test: it
walks like a beta, quacks like a beta, and smells like a beta.

If the purpose of the SDK/beta was really to ensure that there will be a large
supply of Windows NT applications at the time that the OS ships, then why is
it available to ANYONE with $69 and the hardware to run it? That purpose would
be accomplished by simply making it available to qualified developers.

It's available to everyone because MS thinks that that will keep them willing
to wait for NT and not jump to OS/2. MS will never admit it, but their actions
speak far louder than their words.

>     I see plenty of bitching at MS, and it isn't all coming from you.
>     You also show no evidence for your assertion that MS is "taking
>advantage" of its press connections, or that MS is "trying to keep
>people from looking at OS/2 on its own merits."  Would you care to
>elaborate?

Will Zachmann.
That's all I need to say on that issue.

>     I'm still waiting for some description of these "sleazeball tricks."
>You are including the release of the SDK, which is a fairly straight-
>forward business decision.  Are your other tricks similar, in that
>they would only be interpreted as "sleazeball" by someone with an
>agenda?

Mainly, the SDK/beta; the other actions in that category are that MS screwed
those who believed them last time, developers as well as customers, by
removing OS/2 support from everything in sight. If MS really believed that
competition in the OS market was a Good Thing, then they would be ready to
take customers' apps dollar, regardless of which OS they chose. Again, their
actions speak louder than their words: they're overtly trying to kill OS/2.
-- 
Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can
jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu      | adequately be explained by stupidity.
    Vote for a REAL change on 3 November: Throw out the check-bouncing,
  tax-and-spend Democrat Congress! (obviously, not an opinion of UTHSCH)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy