GUI

Henry Spencer henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org
Fri Nov 28 03:21:59 UTC 2003


On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, William Park wrote:
> > There were features in OS/2, back in 1992, that have still not
> > appeared in Windows...
> 
> If it's so good, then why couldn't IBM sell it?

Utter, total, repeated and compounded, planning and marketing ineptness. 
Chapman's "In Search of Stupidity" has a whole chapter on the OS/2
disaster: 

+ too much time and effort wasted on silly mainframe-compatibility
  features
+ the decision to bring out an initial non-GUI version to help market the 
  PS/2 machines
+ grossly excessive prices for OS/2 itself and (even more important) the
  development kit
+ no cooperation with third-party software builders to get key applications
  in place
+ no attempt to exploit the opportunity to bundle it with a memory upgrade
  (OS/2 needed lots, and memory prices had just jumped... but IBM was one
  of the world's biggest memory makers)
+ no cooperation with third-party hardware builders (so the initial GUI 
  release couldn't run most people's printers!)
+ rumors that the API might change radically with integration of NeXTStep
+ failure to exploit the good-quality OS/2 applications built by IBM's
  Desktop Software division
+ a lost opportunity to bring Microsoft to heel by exploiting the 
  agreement between the two companies in IBM's favor
+ misguided attempts to be Windows compatible
+ more rumors of radical changes impending
+ a marketing campaign grossly botched after Paramount objected to the use
  of Star Trek themes without permission
+ IBM's CEO says it's too late to "go after the desktop"
+ the coup de grace:  IBM's OS/2 boss says he will put Windows 95 on his
  own home machines when it appears

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org

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