From: brian@jaguar.cs.utah.edu (Brian Sturgill)
Subject: Tidbits 01/06/93
Originator: brian@jaguar.cs.utah.edu
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 93 06:30:28 GMT


Index
	Future MS-DOS to fuse 32-bit DOS, Windows.
	Novell's acquisition of USL sends stock edging downward.
	Next in trouble/Ross Next Boss at IBM?
	MS and MM at COMDEX
	Windows BIG at COMDEX
	FTC closing in on antitrust action against Microsoft
	Miscellaneous quotes and charts from a MacWeek year end report.

------------
[PCWeek; December 28, 1992/January 4, 1993; Page 1,10]
Future MS-DOS to fuse 32-bit DOS, Windows.
	By Amy Cortese

Microsoft Corp. plans to brief key developers next month on a MS-DOS follow-on
that could signal the end of the line for the decade-old operating system
as we know it.

The offering, code-named Chicago, is slated for delivery in 18 months
to 24 months and will meld 32-bit versions of DOS and Windows into one
product. This represents Microsoft's most determined effort to migrate
the huge installed base of DOS customers to Windows, observers said.

By fusing the two environments and adding 32-bit capabilities, Microsoft
would bypass many of the restrictions of the aging DOS foundations while
transforming Windows into an operating system in its own right, the said.
...

Chicago is likely to be positioned as Microsoft's low-end graphical Windows
client for 386-class machines, while NT will serve as a high-end, secure
Windows operating environment, sources said. DOS 6.0 will likely continue
to be offered, but only marginally enhanced.

The 32-bit Windows operating system will also feature a revamped interface
that represents a leap ahead in usability, said Microsoft officials and
sources familiar with the technology. The interface will be dramatically
enhanced for ease of use and will provide an environment where users can
work in an information-oriented way rather than in the application paradigm
of today's Windows, Microsoft officials said.

With this new approach, for example, spreadsheets, graphics and other
data types could be organized and accessed by task or subject matter,
rather than by the applications that they originated in, they said.
...

------------
[PCWeek; December 28, 1992/January 4, 1993; Page 135]
Novell's acquisition of USL sends stock edging downward.

Concern over the $350 million price tag on Novell Inc.'s proposed
acquisition of Unix Systems Laboratories Inc. pushed Novell's stock down
$1.50 on Dec. 21 and 50 cents Dec. 22 to close at $26.75.

While analysts said Novell's move will bolster its Unix position in time
to counter Microsoft Corp.'s forthcoming Windows NT, the current state
of USL's operations and its unseasoned management led them to question
the outlay. But Novell is capable of stream-lining operations, they said.
...

------------
[InfoWorld; December 21, 1992; Page 78]
[Cringley's column]
...
Not everyone is so happy. The stress level at Next Inc., for example,
is off the meter. Steve Jobs is driving his kids toward a new hardware
generation as the company runs on fumes and on money borrowed from Canon.
Bad idea.

The Japanese understand Unix and the basics of client/server computing,
but the don't know about development environments.  NextStep is the best
such environment around and is at least two years ahead of its nearest
competitor. This ought to be treated as a strategic technology, but just
as Fujitsu sucked up Poqet, Canon is ready to engulf Next.

Trying to preserve his controlling interest in Next, Steve has been borrowing
from Canon. But if the new workstations don't make it and the auditors
decide Next's book value is less than the debt, Canon gets the whole company.
with his blind insistence on building hardware, rather than becoming just
a very successful software entrepreneur, Jobs is throwing his company
away.

ROSS FOR BOSS? This year we've been invited mainly to tree-trimming parties.
It's a wonder, with all this trimming, that any trees are even left.

Having tried and failed to trim IBM down to fighting weight, Wall Street
was betting last week that John Akers is on his way out as CEO. Guess
whose name I kept hearing for an Akers replacement? Ross Perot. I am not
kidding.

While they're waiting for Ross to take the job, then turn it down, then
take it again, IBM plans to introduce a multimedia PS/1 in the first quarter
of '93. it will have a sound card, CD ROM, multimedia OS/2, and cost just
under $1,800. What it definitely _won't_ have is IBM's 2.88-megabyte floppy
drive, which was introduced and then withdrawn in less than a month.

First thing for Ross to work on: Why is it that IBM lists a 17-inch monitor
in its ValuePoint catalog yet won't let you buy the damned thing as part
of a system?
...

-------------
[Computer Technology Review; December 1992; Page 1,15]
Microsoft Lets the Sunshine--And Multimedia--Into COMDEX
	by George McNamara

We have seen the future, and it cooks.
...
Its driver is no longer the stolid blue of IBM but the Day-Glo of Intel
and Microsoft, the Yin and Yang of hardware and software chutzpah.

The Windows ensign and "Intel Inside" seal were everywhere at Comdex,
megabuck security blankets for the reseller channel, giving it the warm
fuzzies about an industry that finally not only had an infrastructure,
but even a plan, a vision for the future...and its name was Windows NT.

You could see it in their faces as they watched the presentations of products
that however new or even exotic still worked within the comfort zone of
Windows. This they understood; now they could put themseleves into the
picture. Finally they were being shown a way out of DOS that didn't lead
them into the UNIX thicket. Now they could concentrate on the application
technology, and the margins therein.

As for the coming of Windows NT itself, most companies salivated over
it, and some like DEC and MIPS bet the farm on it. And when you added
the second coming, Pentium, you started to see that golden glow in the
dawn sky, and listened for the trumpets.
...

------------
[Computer Technology Review; December 1992; Page 2,15]
Wireless WANs, SCSI, Windows Star At Comdex
	by Dave Trowbridge
...
WIN WITH WINDOWS

It's no longer necessary for the Interface Group to put aside a section
of Comdex devoted to Windows computing -- it's now almost impossible to
find a booth that _doesn't_ feature Windows in some way. There is no doubt
that Windows is the de facto standard for PC computing, and much evidence
at this Comdex that Windows NT will be the same for workstation computing.

The most compelling evidence for the coming triumph of Windows NT was
not, however, at the Microsoft ISV booth, where vendors were displaying
NT applications. Instead, the real NT excitement was at the DEC booth,
where numerous NT applications were running on the Alpha AXP PC, an EISA-bus
personal computer based on Digital's new Alpha chip. ISVs noted that porting
to the Alpha was a matter of hours or days only, and the box is all one
could wish in a personal workstation: incredibly fast, responsive, and
yet utterly familiar.

Digital is literally betting their company on Windows NT, for if NT doesn't
fly, then neither does Alpha, and, as a Digital spokesman said: "Alpha
is not a part of Digital -- Digital is a part of Alpha." The company intends
to license any and all parts of their Alpha technology to all comers,
hoping to make it an industry standard. If they succeed, you can kiss
UNIX good-bye, except as a Macintosh-like niche player -- Windows NT is
that good.

And on the PC side, Windows for Workgroups was another winner at Comdex.
The demonstrations of its coordinating capabilities, which scale seamlessly
to any size workgroup, were utterly compelling. Microsoft really appears
to have listened to its customers and made an effort to understand their
workgroup computing needs: the built-in Email and scheduling applications
would appear to satisfy the needs of the majority of users right out of
the box.

------------
[MacWeek; January 4, 1993; Page 76,78]
FTC closing in on antitrust action against Microsoft
	by Jon Swartz

Washington -- After months of rumors an vague press rumblings
surrounding a Federal Trade Commission investigation into Microsoft
Corp.'s business practices, the commission's staff reportedly is ready
to urge antitrust action against the software giant.

A newsletter based here last month reported that staff lawyers in the
FTC's Bureau of Competition are seeking authorization from the five
FTC commissioners to seek a preliminary injunction against Microsoft.

According to the publication FTC:Watch, the FTC is seeking to modify
Microsoft's method of licensing its MS-DOS operating system software
to computer manufacturers, alleging that current practices are
calculated to discourage the use of competing operating systems, such
as IBM Corp's OS/2 and Novell Inc.'s DR DOS.

The publication said that FTC staffers specifically want to end
Microsoft's practice of requiring some hardware manufacturers that
license MS-DOS to pay a royalty on every computer they sell -- not
just those that have DOS installed when they leave the factory.

...

A change could hurt Microsoft only if manufacturers started shipping
other operating systems -- specifically OS/2 and DR DOS -- in greater
numbers. But analysts said there isn't a big demand for either system.

Meanwhile, industry sources said Novell, Borland International Inc.
and WordPerfect Corp. are considering independent antitrust actions
against

------------
[MacWeek; January 4, 1993; Page 88, 89, 94]
[Miscellaneous quotes and charts from a year end report.]
...
Recent Department of Commerce projections show that business spending
for computer hardware will rise much less quickly in 1993 than it did
in 1992. Revenues for software and post-sales services, however, are
expected to keep pace with last year's growth rate.
...
[Begin Chart]
SYSTEM 7

1992	15%
1993	45%
Base: Total Macs
System 7 is installed on three times as many Macs as last year.

[End Chart]
...
[Begin Chart]
ALL OPERATING SYSTEMS IN

System 6		53%
System 7		45%
System 5 or earlier	 1%

Base: Macs installed


DOS with character interface only	53%
DOS with Microsoft Windows 3		39%
OS/2					 3%
Unix					 3%
Other operating system			 1%

Base: IBM PCs and compatibles installed
-------------

Brian
-- 
C. Brian Sturgill                          NeXTStep 486 is for _YOU_!!!!
University of Utah                    Microsoft needs competition, but I want
Center for Software Science          to be one of the many running Windows NT!
brian@cs.utah.edu; CIS: 70363,1373    :-) :-) :-)  NT SDK: $69; (800) 227-4679
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy