I totally argree with you, and I am trying to spread the word myself too, we should really be clear and sure about our support for OS/2 but without assaulting people who are using other systems. Solely with reasonable arguments you can convince someone to use a system. I doubt any of those so called OS/2 advocates have convinced more than 200 Windows Users to use OS/2 instead, something I achieved together with three other people here in The Netherlands (and without letting them copy our original disks, they all paid for OS/2 (and many OS/2 applications)).
If you want to convince people to use OS/2, you must show three things I believe:
Your comments on the flames the Win 95 user received reminded me of some things I have been reading on BIX. BIX used to stand for Byte Information Exchange and was a part of Byte magazine.
Jerry Pounell, Byte collumist and S.F. author is still on BIX discussing computers, politics and what ever. He has related that he is very reluctant to talk about OS/2 in his writings. Why, is M.S. paying off Byte mag? Does he hate OS/2? No, but any time OS/2 is mentioned by him in Byte he gets scads of Email about it from the OS/2 loonies.
What is a OS/2 loonie? They are the extreamists. If you cannot say that OS/2 is the best of everything in every way then you are the devil, in the pay Bill Gates and want the destruction of OS/2.
In their overexcitement they have discourged him from ever talking about OS/2 in print again. We have lost a strong voice in print. These fools are not just scaring away new users but the media as well.
Excelent! This is the kind of thing that OS/2 users should be reminded of over and over again.
I am a programmer and work with about 8 other programmers. I do firmware so the platform is not all that important. EVERYBODY in the company uses Windows 95 except for myself and another programmer. The ONLY reason I do not use Warp at work is because they won't do the (network) support and I don't have the time to do my own. My department (hardware development) really does not have the say in what platforms are used for our solutions, so, of course, they lean towards NT and Win95.
We have to interface to systems other than PCs now, such as AS/400, System/36. I often hear the developent stategey and the problems that arise with this integration. This is where I offer what I know and suggest using OS/2 for the host platform. All of the sudden, OS/2 becomes a viable solution for our product. The power (IPC, preemtion, multi-threads) far outdoes the others.
I thought the same thing from the screen shots (the ones released by IBM before the beta), and was sorely disappointed. I was then one of the lucky few to be selected for the beta, and I changed my mind instantly. The Merlin screen shots do not, in any way, do it justice. For some reason, Merlin is much more impressive once it is actually up and running on your computer (I don't understand it either). I am forced to use Windows 95 at work, and it is depressingly ugly compared to my Merlin box.
Further, I completely fail to understand the persistant "looks like Windows 95" accusation. The two operating systems look no more alike than did Warp and Windows 95 -- both have a very distinctive look, and I could never mistake one for the other.
In what way is Merlin more like Windows 95 than Warp was? The WarpCenter is _nothing_ like the Windows 95 task bar. The only similarity is the flyout menus -- but Object Desktop's Control Center has those, and nobody accuses it of being a Windows 95 clone. Merlin's windows do not look anything like the Windows 95 windows.
Merlin's fonts (I _love_ Warp Sans) do not look anything like Windows 95's fonts. Merlin's icons do not look anything like Windows 95's icons. I use both systems on a daily basis. With all due respect, I think that if such a similarity existed I would have noticed it by now. You are judging from screenshots - you might want to at least wait until you have put it on your computer to make such a harsh judgment (and I do mean harsh -- I think Windows 95 is ugly).
By the way, after dictating a note to someone you won't care what the thing looks like.
I would like to congratulate OS/2 e-Zine! on your excellent idea to allow OS/2 outsiders, such as Steve Den Beste, to convey his/her insightful suggestions concerning the promotion of OS/2. The OS/2 community can only gain from "outside" views, for it is no secret that outsiders can contribute fresh answers to continually plagueing problems. Since c.o.os2.advocacy can be little rabid to outsiders, OS/2 e-Zine! is the perfect constructive avenue to convey these views. I hope that "The View from Outside", with its wide array of input from outsiders, becomes a permanent addition.
*Loved* Steve Beste's article. It's exactly what OS/2 user's need: a level-headed outside opinion. Keep the straight-jacket on him though... just in case...
Gday Mate,
Just letting you know that I have Voicetype up and running on a DX4-100 with 32 meg ram, even though I have to use an American accent. But Yes Merlin is incredible. I Just hope IBM really does promote the sucker and not rest on its laurels again.
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