Very Computer

and anyway, when was the last time you heard the CEO of IBM claiming that
"OS/2 will be the most popular form of UNIX ever..." which is what Bill the Gates
claimed about Windows NT...:-)

John

: All of the other smug replies aside...

: Windows currently claims an installed base of approximately 10,000,000 --
: that's millions folks -- and Microsoft convervatively plans on NT taking about
: 10% of that base, i.e. 1,000,000 machines.  By any account that is a shitload
: of machines. More than the entire installed base of all Unix machines together.

But not more than OS/2 : 3,000,000 and counting (in the 10 best selling utils of
June, and that's in two weeks!). Do we have 3/1 more OS/2 stuff than NT ?

It doesn't matter what NT _is_. People see NT as  Windows: the next
generation (Just two weeks ago, NewsWeek called NT - Win 3.1 successor!)

:       Brotzman's definition of "shitload":  any amount larger
:       than any one person wants to deal with.

: We can make all the cute remarks about "MS-DOG" and "Windoze" we like, and
: guess what, thousands of businesses are still going to generate billions of
: dollars of revenues using applications based on DOS and Windows.  Why?  Because
: it is cost-effective and easy.

: Personally, I love Linux, otherwise I wouldn't have spent the money on an
: additional 200-Megabyte hard drive just for Linux.  But I haven't wiped my
: MS-DOG disk because I like to be able to crank up Windows and Microsoft Word to
: do simple word-processing tasks for my consulting business.  I could do the
: work in twice the time in LaTeX, but why bother?  My customers expect
: performance, not a product done "right" in twice the time (by the way, I
: consider myself an expert in LaTeX, having written several style files and
: Megabytes of documents in LaTeX; MS Word is just easier for simple tasks).

: We of the academic world must come to grips with the simple fact that it is the
: business world that really drives computer technology.  Unix vendors can make
: a buck from government and university systems, but until they have the
: installed application base that a business needs, they are going to continue
: being intimidated by Microsoft with their enormous market share.

: -- Hughes STX                         DECNET:    NDADSA::BROTZMAN

: --

: -- Hughes STX                         DECNET:    NDADSA::BROTZMAN

Looks like we're in for a rocky future...

-bob

p.s.  Anyone catch the "OUTLAND" comic strip series regarding Bill the Gates?
I found yesterday's strip rather amusing in a way...

Quote:>counting Solaris for Intel here).

Quote:>The ability of Windows NT to hoard up installed base is by no means
>proven.  Remember the last time Mr. Gates talked about "the most
>important program ever written?".  The trade rags howled about it.
>Everyone talked about it.  Nobody bought.

Quote:>Microsoft has market share in tiny machines.  That does not make
>up the entire computer industry.  E.g. when IBM used to have sales
>of 60 billion, only 2 billion used to come from the PC world.

Quote:>The PC world gets media attention, that does not make it the only
>game in the computer industry.  The Unix industry is very firmly
>entrenched as the inheritor of the mainframe shakedown.  Even if
>Windows NT is great at beating off OS/2 and Unix and the Mac on
>the PC mindset, it will still leave the Unix industry holding around
>$50 billion of sales a year right now.

765.000 SPARC
815.000 Total

(June '93 numbers)

Quote:>We can make all the cute remarks about "MS-DOG" and "Windoze" we like, and
>guess what, thousands of businesses are still going to generate billions of
>dollars of revenues using applications based on DOS and Windows.  Why?  Because
>it is cost-effective and easy.

Quote:>We of the academic world must come to grips with the simple fact that it is the
>business world that really drives computer technology.  Unix vendors can make
>a buck from government and university systems, but until they have the
>installed application base that a business needs, they are going to continue
>being intimidated by Microsoft with their enormous market share.

--
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        "The Council's IT strategy over the past five years has been
to downsize to Unix.  But... market share and application availability
are more important that technical superiority."

I nearly choked on that one.  If MS can get corporate customers to
make decisions like this, their marketing department must have
headhunted Gandalf.

Cheers,
 Stephen.
---

Department of Computer Science, Edinburgh University, Scotland.

--
Matthew Roderick                                                Read & Enjoy.
B2 Developments                                       +44 [0]782 771000 x3241
ICL.                Spelling & typing errors have been left for orthentisity.
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- John Wiggins

---------------------------------------------------------------------
"My opinions are my own, blah blah blah...."

: Then again, many of those alleged Windoze users got their software the
: same way I did: buy a machine with it already bundled.  Windoze makes a
: great game environment.  I love playing MineSweeper!!  :-)  Other than
: that, I have little use for it.

Try asking the seller any remotely technical questions and watch how they
react.

: >>The ability of Windows NT to hoard up installed base is by no means
: >>proven.  Remember the last time Mr. Gates talked about "the most
: >>important program ever written?".  The trade rags howled about it.
: >>Everyone talked about it.  Nobody bought.

: > Yeah, but that was then. This is now. We would all like to see
: > MS bomb. but it isn't likely.

: True.  I recently saw an article in the UK computer press about a
: local government council who had decided to ditch Unix in favour of NT
: on a LARGE local network.  They explained:

:       "The Council's IT strategy over the past five years has been
: to downsize to Unix.  But... market share and application availability
: are more important that technical superiority."

What market share for NT?

Me thinks a case of the people in suits taking advice from the
salespeople. Probably ignoring their own experts.

: I nearly choked on that one.  If MS can get corporate customers to
: make decisions like this, their marketing department must have
: headhunted Gandalf.