Replies

To: Locomotive Breath

IBM tried to compete with MSft with OS/2. It was decent but was hung up on having to play nice with the mainframe biz. MSFT also arm twisted the system builders into signing an agreement that said if they shipped any PC with windows they had to ship all PCs with windows. This meant all PCs came with windows for “free” but you had to pay extra for OS/2 or any other OS.

14 posted on 04/12/2008 6:34:52 AM PDT by Sunnyflorida (Drill in the Gulf of Mexico/Anwar & we can join OPEC!!! || Write in Thomas Sowell for President.)

To: Sunnyflorida

153 posted on 04/12/2008 5:07:06 PM PDT by Locomotive Breath

To: Sunnyflorida; Locomotive Breath

It was decent but was hung up on having to play nice with the mainframe biz.

Just a nit, but OS/2's original problem was that IBM insisted on it being able to run on 286's. Mainframes were not a special issue for OS/2, as even Windows had to play nicely with them, and always has, with decent 3270 and 5250 emulation software.

Subsequent problems for OS/2 relate to the fact that IBM had a bunch of dunces in charge at every step of the way.

Anyone curious about how bad a job IBM did with OS/2 should read Gordon Letwin's famous usenet posting on the topic:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.ms-windows.misc/msg/d710490b745d5e5e?&hl=en

162 posted on 04/12/2008 7:08:37 PM PDT by krb (If you're not outraged, people probably like having you around.)

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794