OS/2 is dead. Long live OS/2

[Phil Morris]

<eric at snark.thyrsus.com> (Eric S. Raymond) writes:

>Four is that UNIX's lock on the general-purpose multi-user market is now secure.
>There was never any serious technical challenge from OS/2, but because many
>Fortune 500 companies could be conned into overlooking its dependence on the
>80x86 line it had a serious psychological impact.  Neither DOS nor Windows
>can cut it for multi-user use and nothing else has the backing to break into a
>maturing market.  So UNIX is it.
>
>      Eric S. Raymond = eric at snark.thyrsus.com  (mad mastermind of TMN-Netnews)

Don't be so sure -- Microsoft now has a fair amount of experience doing all
the things that made OS/2 a "competitor" with *nix.  All of these things will
be quickly migrating into Windows 386(/2?).  Overall, Gates sees that his
current hot product already has good penetration into the market, so all he
needs to do is enhance it appropriately to lock up the market (once again).
And just in case he's wrong, Microsoft owns 20% of SCO with options for up
to 50% (currently -- could easily just completely buy SCO).

I'll continue betting on Gates -- he's hardly ever wrong in his outlook and
when he is, he stops the blood flow quickly.  And this is reflected in the
market, the stop just keeps going up.

-Phil Morris
--------
Phil Morris (pmorris at dgi0.bbn.com)
Disclaimer: ME? I'm only a non-smoking cat; can't believe a word I meow.