By: dON k. eITNER (freiheit@tstonramp.com)
http://www.tstonramp.com/~freiheit/
With the 1998 Winter Olympics over, I'd like to reflect on an unusual occurrence
I witnessed during them--an occurrence which, even more oddly, has not ended yet--IBM
are actively marketing OS/2 again.
Oh sure, it all started with the "OS/2 Is Great For Running Java" trend,
progressed through the e-Business stage aimed at corporations, and is currently
running along with the notion that if OS/2 can handle the world's most watched sporting
events (scoring, record keeping, and serving up the information immediately to news
commentators) then it's more than capable of handling your corporation's networking
needs; but the advertising is there nonetheless. What amazed me most was that this
marketing was not kept to a minimum on only business-related websites and tech journals.
More than a few times I've seen these OS/2 Warp ad banners gracing the pages of
Browserwatch, the NoNags file archives (of only Win32 applications) and industry
magazines from Ziff-Davis and C|Net. These are all places where people in the home
and SOHO markets go to get news about the computer industry, keep up with the DoJ
vs Microsoft case, and ask questions of tech-oriented people about their new Packard
Bell system which isn't running quite right.
The single most aggressive OS/2 marketing campaign in years is upon us, and it
makes me feel pretty good, until I remember that the ads, despite being located
in places where SOHO users will see them, are aimed at corporations who might be
wanting to implement WorkSpace on Demand but who aren't too interested in the standard
Warp client as we all know and love it. I'm not quite sure, but I detect something
sinister (maybe not sinister toward OS/2 users but toward the alternative operating
systems made by that other big software company in Redmond) lurking just under the
surface. It's entirely possible that, with the massive public and industry outcries
against MS these past few months, IBM are seeing their best chance in years to get
OS/2 back into the public eye and the pages of industry magazines. People have never
cried out so forcefully or in so many numbers for a viable alternative, and IBM
has had that alternative all along--now it's just time to start selling it with
renewed vigor.
Of course I could be full of hot air, but the number of advertisements floating
around lead me to believe otherwise. For the sake of argument, let us look at the
possibility that IBM are indeed trying to abandon the home market entirely in favor
of the Server/WSoD market for corporations.
What would become of OS/2's home and SOHO markets? Chances are they'd continue
to grow steadily for several years. With OS/2 regaining its good name in the media
for being the OS that kills NT's widespread acceptance before it's too late (the
media are unlikely to talk of the freeware Linux OS in this manner even though it
too is having a hand in this already) smaller businesses might be more apt to see
that OS/2 is a wise investment--"if the world's largest banking firms use it
for its speed and stability, why not me?" Add to this the first truly viable
office suite for OS/2 in years--Lotus' soon to be released SmartSuite/2, Domino
web server, and continuing product lines from Sundial, and you've got yourself a
good argument in favor of OS/2's SOHO market. This still leaves the home market
to the wolves, however.
This is where game developers from PolyEx and Stardock step in. Stardock still
seem quite interested in providing games for OS/2--Links, Entrepreneur, and the
Galactic Civilizations II Gold Edition either having been released last year, having
been released this year, or being readied to be released this year. PolyEx, who
made a decent name for themselves with Vigilence on Talos V and the Wordup Graphics
Toolkit/2 are scheduled to release a new title for OS/2, with BeOS, MacOS, and Rhapsody
ports soon to follow. The game is called Hopkins FBI and is a port of a DOS based
game in French. These ports, however, are being redone in English. For the people
who get their kicks now by blood and guts games like Duke Nukem 3D and Quake, Hopkins
FBI is just what the doctor ordered. I saw a demonstration of it (the DOS version)
at last year's Warpstock and I must say I've not seen a more putridly violent game
in a long time. This is definitely not something that would appeal to IBM's corporate
customers, but with it running natively on OS/2 systems, a lot of people at home
can show it off to their friends as proof that OS/2 isn't running too far behind
the pack for adolescent games development.
Then there is, of course, the recently released (as an alpha level test) Win32-OS/2
converter. So far it's little more than a converter for Quake II, but this alone
is ample evidence that the project is capable of doing what it was made to do--convert
Win32 applications people use into native OS/2 applications. With this, you won't
have to keep relying on Win95 or NT to do your work or to play your games and use
OS/2 only as a hobby. We chose to use OS/2 because it was the best choice at the
time, because it's fast, stable, and not bound to Microsoft's historically proven
tendency to change standards at a whim to force mass upgrades. With Win32-OS/2 you
can still run OS/2 for all those reasons while using the applications your boss
and your kids say you have to use. Expect to see a lot more support for Win32 applications
come out of this project within the next year.
For internet access, OS/2 users everywhere should be pleased as punch (however
pleased that is) about the Opera web browser being ported to OS/2. It's currently
under development as an Open32 based port (like SmartSuite) but the people doing
the port have said this is mainly for a short time-to-market and the product will
become more OS/2 enhanced over time. One definite possibility here is to build in
a hook to IBM's Java Virtual Machine (supposedly the fastest and most compatible
JVM in the industry at the time of this writing) which would kill one of the biggest
complaints of Opera as a non-Java capable browser. This is the first good news for
OS/2 users who browse the World Wide Web as it gives us a viable alternative to
IBM/Netscape's eternally delayed Communicator/2.
Last but not least, Netscape's decision earlier in this year to release the source
code to their next version of Communicator as freeware under something similar to
Linux's General Public License which could prompt a lot of new development of interesting
applications. This sort of code could be used to create HTML compliant word processors/desktop
publishing systems (hook it in with the Smack! labeling program and you might really
have an industry contender on your hands), HTML based help file systems, more online
and offline web browsers that keep up with the most modern standards of HTML and
JavaScript instead of lagging with the ancient WebExplorer DLLs, desktop enhancers
similar to what Microsoft are feebly trying to do with Internet Explorer on Win98/NT5,
and more.
Yes indeed, OS/2's home and SOHO markets look pretty good from where I sit, even
though at times I do still voice concern and doubts about IBM's handling of my favorite
operating system. While we may not pick up five or seven million new users next
year, the viability of using OS/2 stands to gain significantly from recent developments
and it could come to pass that OS/2 users will stop being labeled as fanatics and
operating system religionists by those who worship at the altar of the OS that is
not an OS.
Lotus - (http://www.lotus.com)
PolyEx - (http://www.polyex.com)
Stardock - (http://www.stardock.com)
Win32-OS/2 project - (http://www.io.com/~timur/win32os2.html)
Opera Software - (http://www.operasoftware.com)
Netscape - (http://home.netscape.com)