Let's face it--OS/2 users do a lot more talking than we do acting. We talk about
how unfair the PC media has been to OS/2, and we're quite right to do so. We talk
about how Microsoft's anti-competitive and sometimes illegal actions have hurt OS/2's
chances to "make it big", and we're right to do so. We also talk about
how little real commitment IBM has to OS/2, and again we are right to do so.
But when it comes time to actually do something to change the market, we, as
a group, collapse. Sure, we fork out some hard earned cash every once in awhile
for some hot new shareware product or to take a trip to the annual Warpstock convention,
but we've been unable to collectively unite on any single campaign to alter the
minds of the PC media, IBM, or the governments of the world which are currently
battling Microsoft for anti-competitive practices (Japan, Europe, the United States).
OS/2 users are no less active than any other group, but we do have considerably
fewer members than, say, the Windows users of the world. When 10% of a 100 million
member group do something, it gets noticed. 10% of a 5 million member group doesn't
have quite the same impact. It's rather ironic that 1998 has marked a turning point
in which Microsoft lost control of the media--but that media still widely refuses
to acknowledge OS/2 as a viable option nor to acknowledge OS/2 users as anything
more than zealots of a dead cause.
We need decisive action as a group.
Mark Dodel, Editor of VOICE, has been providing the mailing address of the US
Department of Justice for several months in his editorials in this Newsletter. He
has urged OS/2 users not only to write to the DoJ about Microsoft's practices, but
about IBM's as well. One thing he has not clarified, however, is that we must, as
a group, send mail to this address which clearly and concisely expresses our concerns
with IBM's apparent lack of commitment to OS/2 as a desktop operating system. They
still seem to love it for the corporate server market, but they do very little for
the desktop market these days (what they do for it is wonderful, but it's not enough).
We cannot afford to have our voices tainted by the few who will, invariably,
write snotty, unflattering letters which serve only to reinforce the common misconception
that we are all wild eyed radicals simply looking for a reason to complain. We have
everything to complain about, and it is our right as humans to do so, but in order
to effect any positive change, we must do so in an appropriate manner. Again,
there is probably no difference in the percentage of these zealot OS/2 users compared
to zealot Windows users or zealot Linux users or... but since we have far fewer
users overall, the media see no reason to treat us with respect. We simply do not
have the clout to run Ziff-Davis and other media publishers out of business for
their banal snivelling. If they don't see us as a serious market, they can't see
us as a serious threat, and so they generalize us.
That must change. OS/2 users must unite under a common banner of consumer choice
and respectable behavior. This is the only way we will ever be taken seriously by
anyone outside our community. All OS/2 users must pull together--everyone from the
EFNet #os/2 chatters to the Undernet #os/2 chatters, WarpCity to OS/2 e-Zine, VOICE
to TeamOS/2. As the saying goes, divided we fall.
This is perhaps the single most important point in time for OS/2 users to be
making their unified voice heard. Microsoft is under pressure from the governments
of the world, Intel and many major software developers are looking into BeOS and
Linux as a branch away from Windows, and IBM are poised to release OS/2 Warp Server
5.0 (for e-Business). Several "camps" have set up to prod IBM into supporting
OS/2 as a desktop operating system, including the 21Warp campaign, and it is these
camps which must be supported by all of us if we plan to still be using OS/2 three
years from now.
IBM see only numbers, and they care only for large ones. In addition to the petitions
to get IBM to release an OS/2 Warp 5.0 workstation/client, there has been discussion
(how serious I cannot say) about OS/2 users forming together in one large union
as if a company and then petition IBM for that Warp 5 client. The idea is that,
with some form of guaranteed sales figure, IBM would not be able to turn us down
without losing credibility with their existing big business customers. It's certainly
a possibility, and one I urge every OS/2 user to consider seriously and discuss
with others. It never will become a reality unless we work together to make it so.
In the end, our hard work and dedication would pay off handsomely.
The final question that comes to mind is "Just what is meant by a Warp 5
client?" This will be the topic of my next View From the End (User)
article in December, 1998.