larrys@watson.ibm.com (larrys) (06/26/91)
Now it is not my place to criticize, but I would like to address a few things that have been bothering me for quite some time. I don't like Bill Gates. His attitude is too self-righteous for his own good. "Other than usability, making sure Windows is the winning OS is our highest priority", said he in the memo leaked to PC Week. "If we do succeed, then we will be done forever with the poor code, poor design, poor process and other overhead that [working with] IBM had led us to." I am sick of hearing Bill Gates say stuff like this, so I will ask the one obvious question: How come the first version of OS/2 1.3 to NOT be extremely influenced by Microsoft (i.e. in lines of code) was the first one to really be praised by the press in terms of function provided, performance, and memory/DASD required? It would seem that if Microsoft is so d*@% good, then OS/2 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2 would have been the greatest thing since sliced bread. But it took 4 versions AND the estrangement of IBM and Microsoft to produce a good product. ...AND if you thought that was good, see my posting last night about OS/2 2.0, which Microsoft had even less to do with that OS/2 1.3. Bill Gates, maybe you ought to sell a few more hundred thousand shares so that you don't lose too much money (why DID he sell 400,000 shares anyways?). "Our strategy is to make sure that we evolve the Windows API and get developers to take advantage of the new features rapidly, while IBM has a poor product with poor Windows functionality." 1) Has anyone tried programming for Windows and then PM? If you have, then you know what a nightmare programming for Windows is, compared to PM. 2) What new features? Multithreading? More memory? Preemptive multitasking? OS/2 has it, and has it NOW. 3) Poor product with poor Windows functionality? Just because we don't think the universe revolves around Windows doesn't mean we have a poor product. AND with OS/2 2.0 coming out in 4Q91 and the currently consumers perception that Windows isn't "all it's cracked up to be", the trend will shift from Windows to OS/2 2.0. Look, I'm not out to start a holy war about who is better. Those who prefer Windows, try OS/2 2.0. If it isn't a "better Windows than Windows" or a "better DOS than DOS", then IBM will truly be flushed out of the PC operating system business and you'll never have to listen to this again. Cheers, Larry Salomon, Jr. (aka 'Q') LARRYS@YKTVMV.BITNET OS/2 Applications and Tools larrys@ibmman.watson.ibm.com IBM T.J. Watson Research Center larrys@eng.clemson.edu Yorktown Heights, NY