IBM, Microsoft Define Their Intentions for OS/2, Windows
 
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
LAS VEGAS (Microbytes Daily News Service) --- Microsoft chairman
Bill Gates and IBM Entry Systems Division president Jim Cannavino
took to the stage at Comdex Monday to clarify their plans for
OS/2 and Windows and to quiet speculation about troubles between
their two companies.
 
Gates made several important announcements. First, the 32-bit
version of OS/2 that will fully support the 386 and 486
processors will become available to software developers -- in
identical versions from Microsoft and IBM -- before the end of
this year and during 1990 to end users. As yet unnamed, but
likely to be called OS/2 2.0, it will become the high-end
standard platform and will require, Gates said, a 386/486 CPU and
4 megabytes of RAM. At the same time, release 1.2 will become the
OS/2 entry point, requiring a 286 or above and 3 megabytes of
RAM, 1 megabyte less than it does now. At some time in the
future, the memory requirement will be further reduced to only 2
megabytes, he claimed.
 
The 32-bit OS/2 will include demand paging, 32-bit linear
addressing, and the ability to run multiple DOS applications
concurrently. Additionally, it will offer features never to be
supported in the 16-bit implementation: symmetrical
multiprocessing, object-oriented module support, and compliance
with Department of Defense security requirements, he said.
 
Gates also announced the intention to make OS/2 portable,
permitting it to be used on other 32-bit systems, including RISC
machines. This raises the prospect that IBM could be considering
OS/2 for its delayed second-generation RTs.
 
Cannavino announced that Windows will hereafter be positioned as
the entry-level environment for IBM systems with less than 2
megabytes of RAM. While this could be seen as an endorsement,
Cannavino was blunt in pointing out capabilites that Windows will
not offer: Windows won't be a server platform, he said, nor will
it ever contain features found in OS/2 such as distributed
processing, a 32-bit flat memory model, multiple threads, or long
file names.
 
The statements would seem to end any prospects for the rumored
"PM Lite" that IBM was considering, a junior version of
Presentation Manager to run under DOS with an extender. PM Lite
would have competed with Windows and been controlled by IBM.
 
Both IBM and Microsoft have committed by mid-1990 to bring out
new graphical applications for OS/2-PM first, and then later (if
later) for Windows. It was this commitment that caused some
people here to speculate Gates had been "taken to the woodshed"
by Cannavino and told to stop monkeying around with Windows.
 
The companies have reduced memory requirements for 1.2 in part by
making the DOS compatibility box "swappable," which means that
its 512K of reserved space can be liberated when DOS applications
are not in use. Microsoft and IBM did not say how they plan to
reduce its needs by another megabyte. But when asked whether
there would be a PM Lite, Cannavino said, "Yes. OS/2 1.2 is it."
 
 
OS/2 EE Capabilities Extended to All OS/2 Editions
IBM has pledged to eliminate much of the confusion surrounding
the different versions of OS/2 by making the capabilities of the
Extended Edition available to all OS/2 users, Cannavino said.
 
Cannavino, however, refused to characterize this as an unbundling
of the OS/2 Database Manager, Communications Manager, and LAN
Requester. The promise is merely to "work together" to make EE
functions, possibly including even OfficeVision, available to
users of the standard edition of OS/2.
 
IBM and Microsoft also pledged to eventually converge the
Microsoft LAN Manager and the IBM LAN Server, thus eliminating
the confusion created by their incompatibilities.
 
                              --- Andy Reinhardt
 
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