Unix vs. Big Blue

[David L. Summerville]

I work in a totally IBM shop. I have an interesting problem. It seems
that my employer has discovered Unix.  
The Top Brass decided to commission a study of Unix. And since the 
"logical" next step for us is to "advance" to OS/2, R&D has been 
preparing a study comparing OS/2 and Unix.  And I have been asked to
help. 

For the record, OS/2 is just like DOS.  It has 29 internal commands,
31 external commands. ("Internal": RAM based; "External": File based)
Right now only an 80286 binary is available.  To do multitasking you 
cavort back and forth between "shells" using an 'Alt-ESC' key
sequence.  (The same sequence, BTW, is used to toggle between
3270 emulation and DOS on a PS/2.)  

To make a long story short, I think OS/2 is s--t.  I dread having the
same limited toolset I had with DOS.  To make a longer story shorter,
the Unix <-> OS/2 equation looks like this to my company: 

			------
			|    |
			--^--- 
			 / \
			/   \
		     ------  \
		     |UNIX|   \	
                     ------   ------------------------------------------
		              | OS/2 (plus) everything ever written    |
		              |	for it (plus) everything ever promised |
			      |	for it, (plus) everything ever written |
			      |	for DOS. 	    		       |
			      ------------------------------------------

The best argument I made in favor of Unix was that "Nothing could be
added to OS/2 to make it more than Unix is off-the-shelf".  I threw in
some PD applications like the spreadsheet sc to make the point.  I
tried pointing out that Unix is infinitely more functional but the
response came back that applications will be added to OS/2 to gain the
same functionality.  Will the functionality of the add-on programs
exceed the functionality of the applications that could be developed
using Unix in-house?  Maybe so. 

Then, of course, there's the Presentation Manager.  It looks and acts
like Microsoft Windows.  And such a deal: Requires only a Model 70
with about 4 Meg to really run.  Per User. 

My dilemma is that my employer has been encouraged to want "the right
things." The consequence is that the company is getting locked in
again, just like the old days, and I can't seem to do anything to stop
it. 

If you've fought this battle successfully, please drop me a line.  
I'd really like to hear how this war is waged in other companies. 
-- 
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  	David Summerville 		   osu-cis!n8emr!topcat!david
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