Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Path: sparky!uunet!microsoft!hexnut!davidds
From: davi...@microsoft.com (David D'Souza)
Subject: Future of OS/2 under Gerstner
Message-ID: <1993Mar31.102555.12465@microsoft.com>
Date: 31 Mar 93 10:25:55 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation
Lines: 63
Hmm, maybe time for a new thread...
So, it looks like IBM is getting a new CEO: Louis Gerstner Jr. The
(ex) chairman and CEO of RJR Nabisco. This guy has a reputation
of being very pro shareholder, practical, results-oriented, take
no prisoners sort of guy. In spite of all these antismoking
campaigns, health conscience society, and outright smoking bans,
Gerstner has done whatever was needed to keep RJR profitable and
growing.
What's going to happen when he heads up IBM??? How does one make IBM
profitable again? Get rid of main frames? Get rid of OS/2? Break up
the company? Merge the company? Remember, this guy actually used PCs
to keep his previous company going. He knows nothing about things like
better architectured, multi-threaded, 32-bit, blah blah blah
techno-speak. This is a market driven, business savy, PC using sort of
CEO.
I predict it's back to the basics for IBM. IBM means great machines.
They know hardware. Time to consolidate and concentrate on their bread
and butter hardware technologies. Reduce the cost, and turn the
mainframes into great distributed, fault-tolerant, very fast, very high
capacity servers for PC networks. Devote more research into producing
state of the art PC hardware such as portables that blow away the Apple
Duo's, move into vertical market hand held pcs, continue the PS/2 line
for business and start adding network, sound, video, fax, telephone,
teleconferencing hardware, and produce a fun home PC. Work to reduce
the cost of all these machines, don't do this we have two lines of PCs,
expensive (high quality) and cheap (motherboard of the week club)
nonsense. There should be one type of IBM hardware, great,
highquality, inexpensive stuff. If you have to, sell cheapo clones
under some other name.
Provide consulting services to help existing customers migrate from
mainframes to distributed PCs. Services to port their software or
to encourage 3rd partys to do so would also be here. Bring PCs into
small businesses etc.
As part of the back to the basics approach, it would be time to dump
OS/2 and other software development. Just like mainframes, it doesn't
make money for the company or the shareholders. Sell OS/2 to Novell,
they seem to be hungry for niche operating systems. Remember things
like Hollywood, IBM Current, Office Vision, IBM DOS all of which have
been more a drain on company profits than anything else. There just
hasn't been a super successful software product from the company;
Gerstner just doesn't have time to fix the software AND the hardware
side of things. Dump them for now, trim your workforce some more,
start making IBM hardware #1 again.
The goal is to get people specifically asking for IBM hardware again.
Right now, people are buying Windows compatible PCs or PCs that run
windows well ie the software is driving the hardware. First take
advantage of this and get people specifically asking for IBM hardware.
People should come to know that IBM hardware runs their existing
apps better,faster than anything else out there. Once this is
successful and the company is making a profit again, maybe then it's
time to evolve the hardware, and come out with the software that takes
advantage of the IBM hardware better than any other products.
-Dave
Disclaimer: The opinions and predictions are my own.
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Path: sparky!uunet!mnemosyne.cs.du.edu!nyx!jmaynard
From: jmayn...@nyx.cs.du.edu (Jay Maynard)
Subject: Re: Future of OS/2 under Gerstner
Message-ID: <1993Mar31.132157.1446@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
of Denver for the Denver community. The University has neither
control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Sender: use...@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu (netnews admin account)
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
References: <1993Mar31.102555.12465@microsoft.com>
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 93 13:21:57 GMT
Lines: 18
In article <1993Mar31.102555.12...@microsoft.com> davi...@microsoft.com
(David D'Souza) writes:
>As part of the back to the basics approach, it would be time to dump
>OS/2 and other software development. Just like mainframes, it doesn't
>make money for the company or the shareholders. Sell OS/2 to Novell,
>they seem to be hungry for niche operating systems.
Sorry. IBM doesn't abandon its users, unlike Microsoft.
My university pays $500K/year to IBM in software licensing fees
_for_one_machine_ (the one I manage). Software makes money for IBM. It's been
suggested that IBM must become more aggressive, not less, in the software
arena to survive. Dumping OS/2 would be a stoopid move even if they did drop
customers who believe them about strategic directions.
--
Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can
jmayn...@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu | adequately be explained by stupidity.
"I can understand if it just won't work but I think locking up my system
to tell me this is a little excessive." -- Steve Luzynski
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Path: gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!ira.uka.de!scsing.switch.ch!aragorn.unibe.ch!news
From: (dave duling)
Subject: Re: Future of OS/2 under Gerstner
Message-ID: <1993Apr1.191304.19523@aragorn.unibe.ch>
Sender: n...@aragorn.unibe.ch
Reply-To: dul...@vaxe.niehs.nih.gov
Organization: niehs
References: <1993Mar31.132157.1446@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 19:13:04 GMT
Lines: 17
>
>My university pays $500K/year to IBM in software licensing fees
>_for_one_machine_ (the one I manage). Software makes money for IBM. It's been
>suggested that IBM must become more aggressive, not less, in the software
>arena to survive. Dumping OS/2 would be a stoopid move even if they did drop
>customers who believe them about strategic directions.
>--
>Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can
>jmayn...@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu | adequately be explained by stupidity.
> "I can understand if it just won't work but I think locking up my system
> to tell me this is a little excessive." -- Steve Luzynski
You mean "tmc.edu" pays IBM $500K/year and they still have to hire someone
to manage this mainframe. IBM couldn't just throw in ONE person for that
much money ?....
-- Dave Duling "dul...@vaxe.niehs.nih.gov"
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
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cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mnemosyne.cs.du.edu!nyx!jmaynard
From: jmayn...@nyx.cs.du.edu (Jay Maynard)
Subject: Re: Future of OS/2 under Gerstner
Message-ID: <1993Apr2.224904.7693@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
of Denver for the Denver community. The University has neither
control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Sender: use...@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu (netnews admin account)
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
References: <1993Mar31.132157.1446@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
<1993Apr1.191304.19523@aragorn.unibe.ch>
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 93 22:49:04 GMT
Lines: 14
In article <1993Apr1.191304.19...@aragorn.unibe.ch> dul...@vaxe.niehs.nih.gov writes:
>You mean "tmc.edu" pays IBM $500K/year and they still have to hire someone
>to manage this mainframe. IBM couldn't just throw in ONE person for that
>much money ?....
Nope, and for the very good reason that the University of Texas Houston Health
Science Center (who I really work for) wouldn't trust anyone but UTHHSC
employees managing their system. Mainframe systems programming is an entirely
different world from Unix or PCs.
--
Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can
jmayn...@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu | adequately be explained by stupidity.
"I can understand if it just won't work but I think locking up my system
to tell me this is a little excessive." -- Steve Luzynski