I.B.M. to Offer New Version of OS/2 Warp

I.B.M. to Offer New Version of OS/2 Warp

By Laurence Zuckerman
The New York Times

May 17, 1995

I.B.M. will introduce a new version of its OS/2 operating system today that includes several new features to make it easier for users to communicate with other computers.

The new software, which is called OS/2 Warp Connect, will be given a glitzy send-off in Grand Central Terminal. It is the latest attempt by the International Business Machines Corporation to gain ground in its uphill battle against the Microsoft Corporation and its more popular Windows operating system.

Aimed at corporate computer users from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, the new package contains several networking software features now available at extra cost. I.B.M. has said it has improved the coordination among the programs, making them easier to use together with OS/2 Warp.

The intention is to provide a single product that lets customers share printers, software applications and information with a variety of computers and operating systems -- without having to spend hours learning how to interact with each one.

"It was easy when you wanted to connect 10 machines, but now corporations want to connect thousands of computers and they want them all to work together all the time," said Richard Villars, director of network architecture research at the International Data Corporation, a consulting firm in Framingham, Mass.

The new package has gotten good reviews from testers of early versions and it puts I.B.M. ahead of its rivals in providing an integrated solution for communications, a fact the company hopes will help OS/2 gain adherents among corporate clients.

I.B.M. has sold 9 million copies of OS/2, with more than 2 million copies of OS/2 Warp sold since it was introduced last fall, the company said. But that overall number remains a fraction of the more than 60 million copies of Windows sold.

Mr. Villars said that though I.B.M. had modified OS/2 Warp to be able to run software designed for Windows, the advantages offered by the new version would not be enough to convince many Windows customers to switch.

Thus, he said, by linking its new networking features to OS/2, I.B.M. is ignoring a huge market segment seeking to solve the same communications problems. "Customers are looking for the company that will help insure universal connectivity regardless of the systems that they have in place," he said.
An executive close to I.B.M. said yesterday that the company had no plans to market a comparable communications package that would run on Windows alone.