From: pathak@mitre.org (Heeren Pathak)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: What's the deal with OS/2 2.0 and...
Date: 31 Mar 92 16:34:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: linus.1992Mar31.163400.3244
Organization: Mitre Corporation

In article <4671@umriscc.isc.umr.edu>, ckincy@mcs213i.cs.umr.edu (Charles Kincy) writes:
>
> OK, I will say this one more time:
>

Well, maybe if you listen to what other people are saying we might get somewhere...

What people are pointing out is that they have Windows, they get buy on Windows,
and they aren't willing to go through the risk of purchasing OS/2 if the price
is too high.  You have to remember, ORDINARY people don't buy operating system.
They buy applications that just happen to run on a particular OS or machine.
 
> (1)  Yes, I realize that IBM tends to be a bit high-strung when it sells
> its products.  BUT, we, as purveyors to the trade of software development
> must MAKE A STAND and PURCHASE THE SUPERIOR operating system.  If we don't
> we will have to suffer the consequences of DEVELOPING and USING apps
> under an inferior operating system and an inferior operating environment.
> Granted, those of us who make our livelihoods on Windows apps must break
> down and develop them anyway.  But why not expend the extra effort on
> an equivalent OS/2 2.0 app?  I can almost guarantee that it will require
> 1/10th the effort and have double the quality.  
> 

Well, you still the to make the effort, which requires a certain amount of investment,
marketing, packaging, etc...  Also, while you might think that Windows is an 
inferior OS, a lot of other people don't.  In fact, IMHO the biggest obstacle
facing OS/2 is that fact that people think the OS/2 sucks, Window is wonderful,
IBM can't build an OS, but Microsoft can.  While these perceptions are totally
wrong, they do exist and people have to be given an incentive to take the risk.
A cheap price tends to be a big incentive.


> (2)  Have you even seen OS/2?  If not, then shut up.  NOTHING, and I mean 
> NOTHING rubs me raw more than people who downgrade OS/2 WHEN THEY HAVEN'T
> EVEN SEEN IT!!  Granted, advertising is 9/10ths of the law in software
> these days (unfortunately), but it is up to those who are knowledgeable
> to spread the word to those who aren't.  Those who spread FUD and other
> misinformation are doing the industry a great disservice.
> 

Well, I have seen it OS/2.  I have OS/2 1.3 and I am running a 2.0 beta.  I think
OS/2 is wonderful but unfortunately those marketing types who are spreading the
FUD can still sink it.  The history of the industry is littered with "superior" 
products that have bombed. 

> (3)  Unless you wish to see substandard PC applications in the future,
> SUPPORT OS/2 NOW!!  Otherwise, it may be too late, and all software will
> bear the Microsoft logo.
> 

One could argue that the PC market doesn't want high quality.  After all, they
lived with DOS for how many year??? ;-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heeren Pathak                         |	 Television is a device that permits
pathak@mitre.org                      |	 people who haven't anything to do to 
Mitre Corporation                     |	 watch people who can't do anything.
(617) 271-7465                        |		               	-- Fred Allen
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Disclaimer: Mine not Mitre's.