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Dear Sirs,
I would like to point out some errors and inaccuracies in the review of IBM's
OS/2 Warp Server for e-Business that you recently wrote/published.
In that article you stated:
>"...four-CPU multiprocessor support,.."
This is incorrect. The current Warp Server for e-Business scales to **64** Intel-based
CPUs. And it is optimized for 16. That is a significant omission, and radically
changes the scalability factor. That puts OS/2 well in Unix range -- and perhaps
beyond. It certainly puts OS/2 far ahead of NT, and Linux, both of which have paultry
SMP capabilities. I would also wager that it would outperform Netware. Dare we see
a *true* evaluation from Infoworld?? Your article doesn't even make an attempt to
make a performance comparison. Taking this scalability and performance into consideration,
the cost of Warp Server for e-Business is completely justified. You would need to
purchase 8 copies (or more) of NT (plus hardware & administrator costs) to match
the performance, scalability and reliability of Warp Server for e-Business. In the
end, NT would be just as expensive - or more expensive. Please make your articles
accurate.
>"...you pay for that power by enduring an outdated user interface,.."
Perhaps, compared to NT. But with NT you pay the penalty that it is completely
unreliable, doesn't scale, and generally doesn't work well. Surely OS/2's user interface
is superior and easier to use than X. And many people find OS/2's object oriented
user interface far superior to windows.
>"...and a tiny set of third-party applications."
No one can deny that there are fewer applications for OS/2 than NT or Unix. However,
to me, it is not the *quantity* of the applications available for a platform, but
the *quality* of them. All of the applications in the world are useless to me if
they don't work well. And it is difficult to create applications that work well
on an operating system that is fundamentally broken. And there *are* applications
for OS/2.
>"...Presentation Manager, a Windows 3.1 contemporary
This is misleading. Presentation Manager, although extant since Windows 3.1,
is technologically more akin to the Windows NT GUI. Presentation Manager is a fully
32bit, preemptively multithreading GUI which technically has little resemblance
to the cooperatively multitasking DOS GUI shell of Windows 3.1. Please don't make
your articles misleading.
>"The Java-based Logical Volume Manager (LVM) brings less to the party
>than is needed--you can't format a volume or change its file system type
>from within LVM
This is also inaccurate. The LVM itself is actually written in C. Only the GUI
administration portion of the LVM is written in Java. And you *can* format a volume
from within the LVM (just not from within the LVM GUI) - otherwise what would be
the point? Please make your articles accurate.
>"...but the missing CORBA support leaves OS/2 with nothing to compare
to
>Microsoft's Component Object Model technology.
This is also inaccurate. IBM is promoting Enterprise Java Beans as a replacement
to CORBA, and is a direct competitor to COM. But you must have missed this.
>"The Domino Go Web server, an adapted edition of the Unix/Linux Apache
>server
This is incorrect. The Domino Go Web server is an entirely separate, and higher
performing, web server that Lotus developed independently. It existed as a commercial
product before Apache became popular. IBM is working on an "IBM sanctioned"
version of Apache for OS/2 (Apache is already available on OS/2) as a replacement
for Lotus Go, but these are definitely *not* the same product. Please make your
articles accurate.
>Support for it [Lotus Go] is scheduled to be discontinued in 2001...
This is true - it is to be replaced by IBM-Apache for OS/2. But this contradicts
what you previously wrote about Go being based on Apache. If Go were based on Apache,
then IBM could not "discontinue" it because anyone could provide it. Please
make your articles logically consistent.
>"Microsoft ... and gives its users massive free updates."
IBM also provides 'massive free updates.' I purchased the earlier version of
Warp Server just prior to the release of Warp Server for e-Business, and IBM sent
me an upgrade to Warp Server for e-Business *for free* when it was released. Will
Microsoft be providing free updates of Windows 2000 users to users of NT 4? Doubtful.
IBM provides all of the fixes to Warp Server for free. Microsoft provides little
in the way of upgrades that IBM does not.
OS/2 has been abused by the press for years now, do you still feel the need to
continue this practice? Windows has already become the dominant OS. There is no
longer a need for disinformation about OS/2 in order to promote Windows. Just state
the accurate and objective facts, please.
Please note these errors and publish a correction. Also, in the future do the
necessary research to ensure that your reviews are accurate, and not misleading
- before publishing them.
Regards,
Robert Blake
It sickens me to see how Microsoft has manipulated the market with illegal contracts
and outright threats to force cosumers and businesses to use their computer operating
systems.
Bill Gates' monopoly in the computer software market, has forced almost all commercial
development to stop for the platform I use IBM's OS/2. IBM won't even install their
own operating system on their own computers.
Because of this I, like many others have been forced to pay a "Microsoft
Tax" everytime I purchase a new Personal Computer. I have to pay for Microsoft
Windows even though I don't run it. I want to see Microsoft punished for their outrageous
crimes. Please do what you can to see that Bill Gates doesn't buy his way out of
his punishment. Not only should Microsoft pay a hefty fine for the financial damage
they have wreaked, but their principals should serve time in prison for their crimes.
"You can get aurora for free, if you are a member of IBM Solution Deleloper
. Actually you have access to all things in Devcon"
As an additional clarification, once you subscribe to DevCon you can access any
download files available for your membership status. In addition this subscription
includes quarterly (approximately), CDROM sets mailed to your subscribed address.
This includes software demos, programming code examples, and documentation. Some
items are only available for download, some are only on the CDROMs and some are
on both. Developers who register with IBM's Solution Developer Program site http://www.developer.ibm.com,
may be granted full access as well.