Microsoft announces MS OS/2 version 1.3

Business Wire

October 30, 1990

REDMOND, Wash. -- Microsoft Corp. Tuesday announced MS OS/2 operating system version 1.3.

The new product is an update to MS OS/2 with improvements for low-memory systems. The new version includes improved performance of the install program and graphical file manager as well as enhancements to the shell.

``Microsoft OS/2 version 1.3 is part of the new cross-licensing agreement between Microsoft and IBM,'' said Steve Ballmer, senior vice president of systems software at Microsoft. ``IBM and Microsoft are committed to providing a family of PC operating systems and graphical operating environments -- including MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and MS OS/2 -- that are compatible and scalable from entry-level to high-end, advanced PCs.''

Microsoft will begin supplying MS OS/2 version 1.3 to its OEM customers within 90 days. The product requires minimal adaptation on the part of OEMs because there are no new application programming interfaces (APIs) or device driver interfaces. Consequently, the update will operate with existing MS OS/2 device drivers. Additionally, LAN Manager 2.0 will support OS/2 version 1.3 on the server.

New MS OS/2 Applications Available

OS/2 has a steadily growing application base, to which several new and updated products have been added in recent months. Microsoft Excel, the leading graphical spreadsheet, has recently been updated to take advantage of improvements in MS OS/2 version 1.2 and above. The update, Microsoft Excel for OS/2 version 2.21, supports OfficeVision for OS/2 and UNC file names. It runs on OS/2 version 1.3 with at least 2 MB of RAM. Additionally, Microsoft Word version 1.1 for OS/2, which will be available by the end of 1990, is a full-featured, graphical word processor that conforms to the IBM CUA (common user access) standard, supports extended attributes and takes advantage of OS/2 long file names. Word for OS/2 rounds out the Word family of products, providing cross-platform word processing capability for many popular platforms.

Other companies have recently introduced OS/2 applications as well. InfoAlliance, from Software Publishing Corp., is a client/server software product which lets personal computer users on a network transparently access and manipulate data located in disparate databases. Another example, Freelance/G from Lotus, is a presentation package that allows users to create related slides using templates. Other examples include Designer by Micrografx, Wingz by Informix and Ventura Publisher version 3.0 by Ventura Software Inc. These applications run on MS OS/2 version 1.2 and above.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) develops, markets and supports a wide range of software for business and professional use, including operating systems, network products, languages and application programs, as well as books, hardware and CD-ROM products for the microcomputer marketplace.

NOTE:

-- IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp.

-- Microsoft, MS, the Microsoft logo and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corp.

-- Freelance is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corp.

-- OS/2 is a registered trademark licensed to Microsoft Corp.

-- Ventura Publisher is a registered trademark of Xerox Corp.

-- Wingz is a trademark of Informix Software Inc.

CONTACT: Microsoft Corp., Redmond Brenda Hansen or Marty Taucher, 206/882-8080 For General Sales and Product Information, 800/426-9400 or The Waggener Group, Portland Claire Lematta or Pam Edstrom, 503/245-0905 17:20 ET