gfengstad@laconn.fidonet.org (Grant Fengstad) (02/26/89)
Forgive my ignorance, but this whole issue has me confused. My understanding of IBM's master plan is to provide a SAA interface standard amoung their computer line for consistency. This in concept is great - if it'll ever come together. This is my problem..... If SAA is IBM's strategic direction, then why is there so much confusion with AIX and X Windows. First IBM says that it is going to implement X Windows as the common user interface for AIX, and then it goes off and pays Steve Jobs $10 million dollars for his interface (which in no way resembles Presentation Manager). Does anyone really know what is happening???? -- Grant Fengstad - via FidoNet node 1:134/104 UUCP: ...att!alberta!calgary!xenlink!laconn!gfengstad ARPA: gfengstad@laconn.fidonet.org
pda@stiatl.UUCP (Paul Anderson) (02/27/89)
In article <14.24074304@laconn.fidonet.org> gfengstad@laconn.fidonet.org (Grant Fengstad) writes: >Forgive my ignorance, but this whole issue has me confused. My understanding [stuff about IBM product positioning and planning deleted] >Does anyone really know what is happening???? Yes and No. The "Yes" is: IBM is executing its standard strategy of 20 years. It is confusing the marketplace while it implements as much of its 'new' arch- itecture as possible. This will give them a 9 month lead on the market before competition catches up. (They can afford to throw $10 million at a few things just to keep up a smoke screen). The "No" is: I sure don't know exactly what is happening, but there are analysts that bet their mortgage on the fact they know what IBM (and DEC, Apple, etc) will do next. My opinion: IBM still believes that a closed, proprietary architecture that only they service and sell hardware/software support for is the way to go. MSDOS is a colossal embarrassement for them. The PS/2 line and microchannel architecture reinforces their longstanding position on closed architecture (why else lock it up with so many patents?). So, I expect SAA to be the way they will go overall, with clumsy 3rd party interfaces poorly supported (such as X) or very expensive. Paul -- Paul Anderson gatech!stiatl!pda (404) 841-4000 X isn't just an adventure, X is a way of life...
DAN@YKTVMV.BITNET (03/02/89)
IBM is a very big company. The right hand does not always know what
the left hand is doing. This leads to lots of confusing or ambiguous
statements. The waters are further muddied by the reporters who
report what they think they heard (or what they wish they heard).
Beyond the honest reporters who are trying to report the facts, there
are a large number of pundits who try to construct what they think is
happening (or wish was happening) based on various rumors and
speculations. Reading these, as an insider, is often hillarious and
sometimes sad as one wishes that was what was really happening.
Of course sometimes they are right but that is for me to know and you
to guess. Anyone who believes a conspiracy theory when a stupidity
theory is sufficient to explain the phenomenon is kidding himself,
but they sure make better reading. Try organanizing a conspiracy with
more than 5 or 6 people envolved.
In particular the AIX part of IBM is fairly independent of the rest
of IBM, MVS, VM, PC-DOS (the SAA crowd). Thus a statement made by
someone outside the AIX community probably should have been qualified
"except for AIX". But then we are so small they tend to forget we
exist. This does not mean that the AIX people do not watch what the
rest of IBM is doing and saying. We conform when it is convienient or
when it is necessary e.g. SNA communications protocols. They watch
and listen also, e.g. NFS and TCP/IP on VM and MVS. IBM is big enough
that it can pursue producing multiple versions of things. Thus for
Motif vs NextStep, IBM could decide to produce both and let the
customer decide. It could just as easily decide to produce one or the
other or neither.
It is clear that AIX does and will continue to support X. In fact
the current implementation is quite good and uptodate, i.e. R3. It is
hard to imagine doing anything to X so that it could not support Motif
even if you had to buy it from someone else. The same could be said
for OpenLook if and when it appears. NextStep is more problematic as
it does not run on X. There is real work to do to port it or make it
run cooperatively ala the X11/NeWS merge. You can make your own
guesses as to when or if these things will happen.
I might add that I know of no technical reason why full SAA
compatibility is not possible. To speculate beyond the technical
possibility would put me in the pundit category, which I am not. IBM
has a full commitment to support AIX and all the emerging standards
that come with Unix. Anything else above and beyond that would be done
for marketing reasons to make the system more attractive to a wider
audience.
History is the best predictor of the future. AIX started somewhat
proprietary but with successive releases has become more and more open.
It now supports much of BSD and all of NFS. We are working very hard
with OSF on producing OSF/1 which will be extremely open, perhaps the
most open piece of large software ever produced.
At UniForm Terry Lautenbach, who is senior vice president and general
manager of IBM United States in the keynote address made the following
points:
- "..we are increasing our commitment to Unix and the open
software environment...And frankly, I wouldn't be here today if
IBM wasn't dead serious about this market."
- "We plan to converge our operating systems on two strategic
platforms, AIX and SAA, and offer strong linkages between both."
Walt Daniels
IBM Research
(Except for the last paragraph, all opinions above are mine and
not necessarily those of IBM)