Re: Win 95

[Matt Ion <mion -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM>]

On Tue, 29 Aug 1995 13:05:45 -0400 you wrote:

>As an OS/2 user, I'm not offended that IBM loads windows on it's PCs.
>After all, they are a software AND hardware company.

>They're just trying to catch as much business as anyone else would.

The thing is, even though they all fall under the massive IBM umbrella, the PC
Company and Personal Software Products (the people who do OS/2) are really two
separate entities... and as you say, PCC is just as interested in making money
as any other PC manufacturer.  Unfortunately, they have always had a bit of a
blind spot when it comes to IBM software (although their DOS/Win3.1 offers
have always used PC-DOS rather than MS-DOS).

>> Rick Waugh said:
>> <<Except that IBM has as much as admitted that OS/2 is dead.>>

I saw a great fake headline... "Lou Gerstner orders steak medium-rare;
Industry analysts predict it spells the death of OS/2".  The thing is, if OS/2
dies, you'd better REALLY worry, since almost all of the automatic tellers in
North America are running OS/2 (behind that friendly little money machine is
very often a wee 386 running OS/2 1.3).  Many of the airline-reservation
networks and terminals are running OS/2.  Many major banks (including Canada's
largest, the Royal Bank) are based on OS/2.  Dead?  I don't think so.

>> I agree; I knew which way the wind was blowing when I saw a press release
>> photo of IBM's newest Power PC in my local paper and what did it have on the
>> screen? Windows NT!!! IBM has also just become the last major personal
>> computer manufacturer to sign an agreement with Microsoft to ship Windows 95
>> on each of their new computers.

Actually, IBM PowerSeries machines will come pre-loaded with the customer's
choice of AIX (IBM's version of Unix), Solaris, Windows NT, or OS/2 Warp for
PowerPC (although a beta version is currently the only one available, with the
gold release due early fourth quarter, last I heard).  And no, you won't see
Win95 preloads on PowerPC.  Not unless Microsoft comes up with a PPC version
of DOS.





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