February 23, 2013
— Open Blogger OS/2 refuses to die even though IBM abandoned it many years ago.
The code base is being maintained, and expanded, new stuff added all the time apparently. The good thing about orphan products like this? Nobody bothers putting in the effort to develop attacks for them. There's a lot more Window, Mac, Linux, Android, etc targets.
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Posted by: Open Blogger at
07:21 AM
| Comments (175)
Post contains 90 words, total size 1 kb.
Where's the sanscrit .5 font? H/A has it all the time.
Posted by: Journolist at February 23, 2013 07:29 AM (MYBiY)
Posted by: Journolist at February 23, 2013 07:29 AM (MYBiY)
True, but:
1) If an OS tries to be compatible with other OS's and run many of the same programs, then it will likely be vulnerable to some of the same vulnerabilities.
2) An obscure OS is less likely to have its vulnerabilities discovered and thus patched. (Sort of the same idea as if you keep your kids away from all other kids, they won't be sick as often, but neither will their immune system become more robust.)
Posted by: Nicholas Kronos at February 23, 2013 07:32 AM (m2IdD)
Posted by: Fritz at February 23, 2013 07:34 AM (WM+rJ)
what are the advantages of OS/2 over, say, Ubuntu Linux?
Posted by: chemjeff hates snow at February 23, 2013 07:34 AM (BBWjt)
OS/2 was a true multitasking OS, vastly superior to Windows 3.1, which had no process protection. OS/2 had a Windows 3.1 compatibility mode that was more stable and reliable.
What killed OS/2 was IBMÂ’s total indifference to developers and marketers. I wanted to write a device driver for OS/2, but IBM wanted something like $10,000 for the Device Driver Kit (DDK) and another $5K or so for the compiler.
In contrast, Microsoft gave away their Device Driver Kit (DDK) for free with a compiler thrown in. And they gave great marketing support including a hardware compatibility program that granted hardware vendors the right to use the Windows logo and artwork in ad copy to sell Windows compatible hardware.
So all the hardware vendors (including mine) turned their backs on OS/2 and embraced Windows. This despite the fact that by any technical measure OS/2 was the superior platform by far. OS/2 had a 100% compatible Win 3.1 subsystem (IBM cross-licensed their source code with Microsoft). So a device driver written for OS/2 would also support Win 3.1 apps.
If IBMÂ’s management werenÂ’t such idiots we would be running OS/8 today instead of Windows 8.
Posted by: Huusker at February 23, 2013 07:35 AM (PaKLC)
Posted by: snowybeach at February 23, 2013 07:36 AM (LpQbZ)
Microsoft went on to push Windows 3.1 which essentially took over everything. That was also about the time I finally pulled the plug on DOS.
Posted by: Vic at February 23, 2013 07:38 AM (53z96)
Hoo boy doesn't that just suck.
Also, I know I'm late to the "Aliens: Colonial Marines" mess, but it's panning out that they totally lied to everyone in the demo. Also, it's being alleged that the developers at Gearbox took money from Sega and spent it on Borderlands 2: http://tinyurl.com/adcv898
Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at February 23, 2013 07:39 AM (QTHTd)
Posted by: t-bird at February 23, 2013 07:40 AM (FcR7P)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at February 23, 2013 07:40 AM (piMMO)
Posted by: RWC at February 23, 2013 07:41 AM (sqp6o)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at February 23, 2013 11:40 AM (piMMO)
I am wondering if they are talking about government bomb plants like Savannah River and Hanford.
Posted by: Vic at February 23, 2013 07:41 AM (53z96)
By any measure, the most advanced hardware/software systems was the commodore Amiga.
I had a multitasking operating system.
It had a superior graphics and sound capabilities.
It's video output was NTSC compliant.
It's main problem was the company was run worse than Mitt Romeny's presidential campaign!
Posted by: General Woundwort at February 23, 2013 07:42 AM (zOP5o)
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit. at February 23, 2013 07:43 AM (+z4pE)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at February 23, 2013 07:43 AM (piMMO)
Posted by: Oldsailors Poet is no longer shamelessly hawking his book Amy Lynn available on amazon. at February 23, 2013 07:43 AM (l86i3)
Posted by: RWC at February 23, 2013 07:43 AM (sqp6o)
Posted by: The Altair 8800 at February 23, 2013 07:45 AM (Lxw+T)
What's keeping it alive now is a combination of a small group of enthusiasts plus the strength/growth of Linux. A bunch of smart guys have streamlined the porting of Linux programs to OS/2 and this includes device drivers! I always used OS/2 as a file server at home because it played nicer with outsiders than did Win32. However, when the old IBM peer networking started to struggle with newer versions of Win and Linux, I just installed a ported version of Samba. Presto! Now with things like Lucide (a pdf reader), Firefox, Thunderbird plus OpenOffice, you can still do plenty with OS/2. The only thing where it always lags deals with multimedia. Sigh.
But the Workplace Shell is still the best desktop around (it's ~1995 technology!) and it blows away the horrid mess that is Win 8 (Metro, aaarrrrggghhhh!!!)
Posted by: MichiCanuck at February 23, 2013 07:48 AM (UMX2T)
Posted by: Vic at February 23, 2013 07:48 AM (53z96)
Our local news introduced Ray LaHood and the air traffic controllers threat with the phrase, "The latest in a series of scare tactics regarding the budget is the threat that air travel will be disrupted.."
So apparently someone locally is fed up with this.
Posted by: Miss Marple at February 23, 2013 07:48 AM (GoIUi)
Posted by: alex at February 23, 2013 07:49 AM (Q755k)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at February 23, 2013 07:50 AM (piMMO)
Posted by: Albie Damned at February 23, 2013 07:50 AM (448H4)
That's because Bill Gates is the one who actually helped IBM develop OS/2 initially.
It was his decision to write OS/2 in machine language that ultimately doomed OS2 as it was infinitely more difficult to adapt it to new chip sets.
He used OS2 as the testing grounds for what would become Win 3.0
Posted by: General Woundwort at February 23, 2013 07:50 AM (zOP5o)
it took six years to develop, and was outsourced to multiple companies. Gearbox was one; TimeGate was another.
Gearbox and TimeGate bickered and argued over how to develop the game.
In the meantime a demo came out with good graphics and (it seems) a better script; but this demo was likely for gameplay that got scrapped. Also some of the devs had told the press that the game was going to be TEH AWESOME which it is not.
It's been running between 4 and 5.5 / 10 ratings in the sites I've looked at. The game is almost as good as Gearbox's other recent turd "Duke Nukem Forever".
Testers have been leaking reports to Reddit etc that they knew the game was going to suck all along, but couldn't do anything about it. Gearbox and TimeGate have been blaming each other through the press.
And if Gearbox did take money for this game, and spent it on their own game, then my understanding of the law is that this practice is somewhat frowned upon.
Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at February 23, 2013 07:51 AM (QTHTd)
Posted by: Sticky Wicket at February 23, 2013 07:51 AM (eyJh9)
Posted by: rickl at February 23, 2013 07:52 AM (sdi6R)
Just pulled up to " Day of Resistance" rally in West Chester, OH
I hope those go well, with large turnouts. Of course, they'll probably be ignored by the media or slimed if they are covered.
Dim pols should be alarmed at firearms sales figures, but they're not too bright to begin with.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit. at February 23, 2013 07:53 AM (+z4pE)
O/T but sweet fucking fancy Moses, I have to pass this on for those who've never seen it (I don't recall it being linked here....h/t to smalldeadanimals blog).
I'm sure everyone remembers George 'I don't debate Israelis' Galloway from one of the Morning News Dumps this week.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/csd4b7r (yootube)
Yeah....uh, holy fuck.
Posted by: Lurking Canuck at February 23, 2013 07:55 AM (0WLla)
That's not an accurate characterization. The JDA had Microsoft targeting the OEM market, and IBM targeting the IBM hardware market (which at the time was the microchannel PS/2 machines).
The "split" happened in the OS/2 2.0 timeframe. By that time, IBM had setup a OEM hardware test lab in Boca Raton that had about 300 OEM machines, and scads more OEM adapter cards for testing.
There was friction because MS didn't want to do OS/2 1.3 (the last of the 16 bit versions) and wanted to focus all efforts on OS/2 2.0. IBM felt its customer base wanted another 16 bit version in the interim because OS/2 1.2 was growing long in the tooth and performed poorly due to its memory requirements on the machines of the day.
As a result, OS/2 1.3 was an IBM only effort and a small team (of about 10) was peeled off to do the development work. The code was speeded up, memory reduced, and some rather novel tricks put into the segment swapping machinery (ex "grouped" swapout of small segments to reduce disk I/O)
MS wasn't happy with the OS/2 Workplace shell either. They felt the market could have been hit a year earlier has 2.0 shipped with the 1.3 shell (and they were right). Workplace hell was unstable and rife with bugs, but Lee Reiswig, the IBM VP overseeing all this was smitten and dug in his heels.
It wasn't the clone hardware thing, IBM and MS cooperated all along on making that stuff work
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 07:56 AM (/gHaE)
Posted by: HeatherRadish� drinking beer at February 23, 2013 07:57 AM (hO8IJ)
Posted by: Filthy Scandi Snowbilly at February 23, 2013 07:57 AM (XhMkP)
I had an Amiga 2000 with a flicker fixer that let me go to 1280x400 resolution!!!
Freaking PC's and Macs were driving their displays at 640x400 with 16 colors!!!
Amiga in HAM mode could pump out visually stunning images with 4095 colors.
Again the only thing that held the Amiga back were the idiots running the company!
Posted by: General Woundwort at February 23, 2013 07:58 AM (zOP5o)
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 08:00 AM (/gHaE)
Yeah....uh, holy fuck.
Yuck. I feel the need to shower after watching that disgusting display of, um, whatever the hell that was.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit. at February 23, 2013 08:00 AM (+z4pE)
Posted by: Albie Damned at February 23, 2013 08:01 AM (448H4)
Posted by: BumperStickerist at February 23, 2013 08:02 AM (J8DGo)
Posted by: Jinx the Cat at February 23, 2013 08:03 AM (Pb5sS)
Posted by: Tobacco Road at February 23, 2013 08:04 AM (4Mv1T)
Posted by: Jinx the Cat at February 23, 2013 08:04 AM (Pb5sS)
Posted by: RWC at February 23, 2013 08:04 AM (sqp6o)
Daar is baie van die e's in dit.
Posted by: east of nowhere at February 23, 2013 08:04 AM (su7x1)
Posted by: eman at February 23, 2013 08:04 AM (sa3Fs)
There are black ppl here and everything
Shirley you jest. As everyone knows, the bitter clingers are all RAYCISSS!!!11! inbred knuckle-draggers who have been programmed by the evil Koch machines!
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit. at February 23, 2013 08:05 AM (+z4pE)
Posted by: Vic at February 23, 2013 08:05 AM (53z96)
Posted by: Miss Marple at February 23, 2013 08:06 AM (GoIUi)
Posted by: rickl at February 23, 2013 08:07 AM (sdi6R)
Posted by: notsothoreau at February 23, 2013 08:07 AM (Lqy/e)
Posted by: Burn the Witch at February 23, 2013 08:09 AM (yCvxi)
Fun!
Posted by: eman
Other than a temporary control of some drilling sites, I'm not sure what China would gain out of going to war with Japan.
Posted by: weft cut-loop [/i] [/b] at February 23, 2013 08:09 AM (Ipj15)
The first Amiga and the PS/2 were introduced at around the same time, 1987.
The Amiga had superior processing speed, graphics and sound capabilities and more importantly a multitasking operating windowing operating system before any of the big boys had.
What they did not have was IBM's marketing department.
Posted by: General Woundwort at February 23, 2013 08:11 AM (zOP5o)
That was a major bone of internal contention in Boca at the time. The Lee Reiswig faction thought Workplace shell was the key to OS/2 making it and that blinded them to the realities of market timing and installed base inertia that Win31 was going to develop if OS/2 2.0 were delayed.
I was in the "ship 2.0 with the simple 1.3 shell and hit the market first" camp along with Microsoft.
If Reiswig hadn't been so fucking stubborn, Windows95/98/ME would never have happened and MS would have thrown their efforts behind OS/2.
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 08:11 AM (/gHaE)
Internal fights at IBM did not help as the hardware people wanted the software to be locked into IBM hardware while the software people were divided into legacy big iron versus the relatively small PC division. Thus, IBM kept buying software companies such as Lotus, etc. for their code and then IBM corporate culture promptly strangled it. Via Voice was far superior to Dragon Dictate originally but IBM quit supporting it. Same with Symphony, etc.
Last but not least, IBM was prevented from playing as rough a game as Microsoft due to the Anti trust consent decree that gave birth to Microsoft in the first place.
BTW--Bill Gates was a good businessman but not so hot as a technology person. Best ideas including DOS--Windows, etc. came from others. His company just did better at selling it thanks ironically to IBM.
Posted by: wg at February 23, 2013 08:11 AM (AKk7H)
Posted by: BumperStickerist at February 23, 2013 08:12 AM (J8DGo)
Posted by: squid alien who rode in a on Russian SMOD at February 23, 2013 08:12 AM (KgD0C)
Other than a temporary control of some drilling sites, I'm not sure what China would gain out of going to war with Japan.
Influence abroad and prestige at home. A victory over a long hated enemy would give the Chinese leadership a lot of political capital, allow them to crack down heavily on dissident elements, and would put the rest of the East Asian and Southeast Asian nations that China is no longer content to let the US be the dominant power in the region.
Posted by: Colorado Alex at February 23, 2013 08:13 AM (PQgoW)
Posted by: Burn the Witch at February 23, 2013 08:13 AM (yCvxi)
I wasn't able to click away from that fast enough. The first image is seared--seared--in my memory.
It gets worse. I'm Serious You Guys. Dude is Fucked. Up.
Posted by: Lurking Canuck at February 23, 2013 08:13 AM (0WLla)
Posted by: RWC at February 23, 2013 08:14 AM (sqp6o)
They omitted the 68k's MMU too. That was a crippling move.
And the Model M keyboard - they didn't have that. I'm still hoarding those. There is no substitute.
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 08:14 AM (/gHaE)
Posted by: eman at February 23, 2013 08:14 AM (sa3Fs)
BTW--Bill Gates was a good businessman but not so hot as a technology person. Best ideas including DOS--Windows, etc. came from others. His company just did better at selling it thanks ironically to IBM.
That's how most of history goes. The A students get run over by B and C students who aren't so in love with the ideas that they are inflexible.
Posted by: Colorado Alex at February 23, 2013 08:15 AM (PQgoW)
Posted by: BumperStickerist at February 23, 2013 08:16 AM (J8DGo)
Posted by: eman at February 23, 2013 08:20 AM (sa3Fs)
Posted by: The Altair 8800 at February 23, 2013 11:45 AM (Lxw+T)
I learned on CP/M 86. It was networked.
Programs worked fine on my CP/M card on the Franklin Ace 1200.
Posted by: jwb7605 (Let It Burn) at February 23, 2013 08:21 AM (Qxe/p)
Posted by: Ed Anger at February 23, 2013 08:21 AM (tOkJB)
Posted by: Albie Damned at February 23, 2013 08:22 AM (448H4)
Posted by: Colorado Alex
Or it could cause the entire region to form a tighter alliance, shutting down com and trade with China. China's economy is dependent on exports.
The US downturn 2008 was a huge problem for China, one that only massive deficit spending, more than the US spent in our 'stimuless', could ameliorate.
If China were to initiate a war and trade dropped significantly, they would have the recipe for civil war.
Posted by: weft cut-loop [/i] [/b] at February 23, 2013 08:23 AM (Ipj15)
http://tinyurl.com/bcuk9ub
"Vatican [Lombardi] blasts 'false' pre-conclave reporting"
Benedict too has made reference to the divisions in recent days, deploring in his final Mass as pope on Ash Wednesday how the church is often "defiled" by attacks and divisions from within. Last Sunday, he urged its members to overcome "pride and egoism."
On Saturday, in his final comments to the Curia, Benedict lamented the "evil, suffering and corruption" that have defaced God's creation. But he also thanked the Vatican bureaucrats for having helped him "bear the burden" of his ministry with their work, love and faith these past eight years.
The Vatican's attack on the media echoed its response to previous scandals, where it has tended not to address the underlying content of accusations, but has diverted attention away. During the 2010 explosion of sex abuse scandals, the Vatican accused the media of trying to attack the pope; during the 2012 leaks scandal, it accused the media of sensationalism without addressing the content of the leaked documents.
Feb. 23 '13
By Nicole Winfield (AP)
Winfield's critique applies to the political tactics of any organization or government. As Lincoln quoted "the house divided can not stand" reference from Jesus (James), division from within definitely weakens the structural integrity. A point well made was that in American (and Western Civilization) education, children are no longer being brought up respecting "The Golden Rule" which, if anything ever were multi-cultural in origination of source, the golden rule certainly does apply culturally/religiously across the globe (whether in positive or negative logos), and was the self identity that was "American" until WWII ended, when coincidentally every government scrambled to absorb as much from the Third Reich as quickly as possible, denying everything along the way. Winfield's conclusion makes the point that rather than face the record, governmental statements practice the "distraction" technique in order to never answer the question posed, and never attempt to solve the problem at hand. CYA
Not pope bashing. Just observing "the rules" as played against us, regardless of social organization, regardless of (or because of) "intent".
Posted by: panzernashorn at February 23, 2013 08:25 AM (MhA4j)
Posted by: DaveA at February 23, 2013 08:26 AM (6YLIm)
Posted by: RWC at February 23, 2013 08:26 AM (/1w0g)
This comment was written and posted using Firefox and eCS v.2.0.
Posted by: Mike O'Malley at February 23, 2013 08:27 AM (E3kEk)
Posted by: panzernashorn at February 23, 2013 08:28 AM (MhA4j)
Posted by: Albie Damned at February 23, 2013 08:29 AM (448H4)
Or it could cause the entire region to form a tighter alliance, shutting down com and trade with China. China's economy is dependent on exports.
The US downturn 2008 was a huge problem for China, one that only massive deficit spending, more than the US spent in our 'stimuless', could ameliorate.
If China were to initiate a war and trade dropped significantly, they would have the recipe for civil war.
While that is a possibility, it's minimal as long as the Chinese can win a quick victory. Additionally, if the US stays out of any conflict, then other nations will be less likely to stand up to China, rightly viewing it as the new big boy on the block.
Posted by: Colorado Alex at February 23, 2013 08:29 AM (PQgoW)
By any measure, the most advanced hardware/software systems was the commodore Amiga.
I had a multitasking operating system.
It had a superior graphics and sound capabilities.
It's video output was NTSC compliant.
It's main problem was the company was run worse than Mitt Romeny's presidential campaign!
Posted by: General Woundwort at February 23, 2013 11:42 AM (zOP5o)
I remember! I had an Amiga 2000. Remember all the motherboard components had names like Rock Lobster etc.
Of course, RAM was $400 a MB back then, so that sucked.
Posted by: t9 at February 23, 2013 08:31 AM (x3YFz)
Posted by: Ed Anger at February 23, 2013 08:31 AM (tOkJB)
Posted by: Red Spine at February 23, 2013 08:32 AM (WM+rJ)
I really love Netflix some times.
"Based on your interest in Naked Nuns With Big Guns, and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Netflix recommends, One For The Money, starring Katherine Heigl."
Seriously?
Posted by: Colorado Alex at February 23, 2013 08:33 AM (PQgoW)
I have no idea why they didn't just keep them and use'em with the new Dell/Gateway junk they were buying and throw those crap keyboards away.
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 08:33 AM (/gHaE)
Posted by: Ed Anger at February 23, 2013 08:33 AM (tOkJB)
Posted by: RWC at February 23, 2013 08:36 AM (/1w0g)
A point well made was that in American (and Western Civilization) education, children are no longer being brought up respecting "The Golden Rule" which, if anything ever were multi-cultural in origination of source, ...
That's a good point. IMO, we're being ruled by adolescents who never matured out of their rebellious phase. As a result, we're seeing a willful destruction of the idea of Respect, which is a natural result of the Golden Rule. Like most teenagers, they are convinced that they're right despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary.
If they had a mature awareness of their actions upon others, they would be ashamed, if such a thing as shame still existed, that is.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit. at February 23, 2013 08:37 AM (+z4pE)
Posted by: moviegique at February 23, 2013 08:38 AM (wir87)
http://tinyurl.com/ajs9fuc
The lack of LED's is the tipoff that its for the XT. You'd need a late model XT for the BIOS to work OK with it though, early BIOS didn't have the 101 support.
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 08:38 AM (/gHaE)
Posted by: Ed Anger at February 23, 2013 08:39 AM (tOkJB)
But the Workplace Shell is still the best desktop around (it's ~1995 technology!) and it blows away the horrid mess that is Win 8 (Metro, aaarrrrggghhhh!!!)
Posted by: MichiCanuck at February 23, 2013 11:48 AM (UMX2T)"
I agree, that's one of the reasons I stay with eCS-OS/2. Whether its Mac, Windows or Linux, none in my experience has a shell that matches the versatility and beauty of the Workplace Shell. Its too bad the code for Workplace Shell can't be open sourced and ported to Linux.
Posted by: Mike O'Malley at February 23, 2013 08:40 AM (E3kEk)
Posted by: Marcel Marceau at February 23, 2013 08:40 AM (jucos)
Posted by: Maurice Ravel at February 23, 2013 08:40 AM (irFb8)
Posted by: Albie Damned at February 23, 2013 08:41 AM (448H4)
------------------------------------------------------
Le CodePosted by: Maurice CHevalier at February 23, 2013 08:42 AM (jucos)
Posted by: MLB Home Plate Umpire at February 23, 2013 08:43 AM (0pcT0)
Posted by: the rev. dr. teej, formerly 龐天明 in another life at February 23, 2013 08:47 AM (cuhkP)
Posted by: Albie Damned at February 23, 2013 08:47 AM (448H4)
Posted by: Guiseppe Zanotti at February 23, 2013 08:48 AM (jucos)
The sad thing is Barkto'ish comments were to some degree accurate -- OS/2 2.0 shipped too soon and WAS prone to eating the baby.
The IBM management produced quality "models" for 2.0 predicted it would have ~300 support calls/day.
I had predicted that figure would be more like 4,000/day based on pulling number out of my ass and a lot of experience in shipping OS's. It was obviously not a popular opinion at the time in Boca...
Support calls for OS/2 2.0 peaked at 3,900/day after GA. My SWAG was a lot more accurate than all the bullshit metrics.
The panic that ensued was horrendous. The support call center (in Boca) didn't have the telco switch hardware or staff to deal with that debacle. People were being shanghaied out of the hardware lab to answer calls, secretaries were answering calls, managers were answering calls, developers/testers and even the fucking janitors were answering calls it was so bad.
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 08:49 AM (/gHaE)
Nationwide race at 1:15 on ESPN.
Oh, and Are U Faster Than a Redneck was kinda funny last night. Not that it bothers me in the fucking least, but I noticed they cussed a lot on that show. They also had some nice old hot rods.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit. at February 23, 2013 08:50 AM (+z4pE)
Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at February 23, 2013 08:51 AM (piMMO)
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 08:52 AM (/gHaE)
Posted by: Sticky Wicket at February 23, 2013 08:52 AM (eyJh9)
Posted by: The Political Hat at February 23, 2013 08:53 AM (Vk2pI)
Posted by: moviegique at February 23, 2013 08:54 AM (wir87)
Posted by: Comrade Arthur at February 23, 2013 09:00 AM (AbHls)
Posted by: The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth at February 23, 2013 09:00 AM (Hsgnv)
Posted by: hack at February 23, 2013 09:01 AM (Gek4/)
--
While that is a possibility, it's minimal as long as the Chinese can win a quick victory.
--
Watching PBS Japan Economic News in English the other day, the wealthy Chinese are no longer spending money, but getting tightwad. When the poor quit spending, that doesn't prevent the rich from tightening their purse strings. But when the rich quit buying, "minimal" doesn't describe the overall affect on the working "class".
And if there's an argument to be made on behalf of the economic 1% v 99% then North Korea makes that case obvious, as do too many places in the world. China's mega-massive population "made" revolution for communism, and will again from Mao nostalgia through another incarnation. The same new incarnation argument holds within Russian nationalism, where the massive population of serfs were whipped into revolution with the promises of communist utopia. Russians may well be projecting Putin as an amalgam of a Czar with Stalin, as if embodying the "best" of Russian public expectations from a national hero bearing the balm to fulfill Russian public ignorant expectations. Obama was fabricated to sell as such in America as "Hope" in a political messiah to "rule" government from on high with the power of god, self invested like Napoleon or Caesar to be self made god of the world.
Evidently, China has its own very real recession happening, as does Japan and Asia -- though that is not to say our US taxes aren't being spent/squandered developing Asia (Burma/etc) on behalf of global corporations' further profiteering and our American citizenry greater depth of economic despair stateside.
Jerry Doyle was airing the problems of Chinese piracy and internet warfare this week.
When Bush was pushing TARP and McCain willingly suspended logic (if ever he had any), in the blog discussions about our national debt to China, rather than allowing our worst enemy (aka most favored trade nation) to abscond with American property/collateral, I wrote that I'd rather the USA forfeit all debt, write the US a clean bill of health, apply the economic "jubilee" globally, and get on with life.
It isn't as if China doesn't have its own debts that would be wiped clean.
And were global war to result from celebrating a global jubilee, then such war was already in the works, regardless of debt or monetary this/that, merely an expansion of the perpetual war of global profiteering. As if the initial propaganda "over there so it isn't over here" ever made sense. Recognize the abuses of authoritarianism from Washington. No organization has the monopoly on corruption.
Posted by: panzernashorn at February 23, 2013 09:03 AM (MhA4j)
Any of this sounding familiar?
Posted by: moviegique at February 23, 2013 12:38 PM (wir87)
Until Slick's DOJ decided to go after them for antitrust violations (in that extremely ill defined definition) and then Gates temporarily became the worst person in the world.
The funny thing about Big Blew is that with all the strategic fuckups they've made through the years, some but not all of which have been mentioned in this thread, they still make money hand over fist. They were that fucking big.
Posted by: Captain Hate at February 23, 2013 09:04 AM (1tS+I)
Posted by: Maurice Ravel at February 23, 2013 09:08 AM (irFb8)
Posted by: rickl at February 23, 2013 09:08 AM (sdi6R)
Posted by: DaveA at February 23, 2013 09:11 AM (6YLIm)
Posted by: Ed Anger at February 23, 2013 09:15 AM (tOkJB)
Posted by: JonathanG at February 23, 2013 09:15 AM (ODIOT)
By the time OS/2 2.0 had rolled around, the management philosophy had changed, and the product shipped with dozens of known crash and data corruption bugs.
There's one thing the OS/2 2.0 debacle taught me -- if you think you can slip shit by people in the field, YOU CAN'T. Your "worst case" test scenario is nothing compared to what that code is going to encounter when unleashed.
All test scenarios are optimistic.
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 09:17 AM (/gHaE)
Posted by: rickl at February 23, 2013 01:08 PM (sdi6R)
Gates was definitely in the right place at the right time when the dumbasses at Big Blew made the brilliant decision that the BIG MONEY was to be made in hardware and developing operating systems was for small-time losers; which leads us to the fuckup that the thread title is all about after they went WTF. Still the spiteful cocksuckers who rag on Gates as if they could've done things better have their own trails of clusterfuckery; except for the Unix/Linux people who mainly keep to themselves and just keep developing more awesome kernels.
Posted by: Captain Hate at February 23, 2013 09:21 AM (1tS+I)
Posted by: Captain Hate at February 23, 2013 09:25 AM (1tS+I)
Yep. Epic struggles they were. The hardware lab wanted software as a captive entity, and the software wanted to reach into broader markets. There were even struggles within the hardware universe -- Austin coveted the Boca lab's business, and always did ever since the inception of the 5-slot PC. Austin won that battle when Boca was shutdown and operations moved to Austin.
The software guys were ultimately the winners years later...when the PC hardware business was sold off to Lenovo. They'd won a great internal struggle and wound up with a handful of ashes.
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 09:26 AM (/gHaE)
Posted by: MLB Home Plate Umpire at February 23, 2013 09:26 AM (0pcT0)
I just read that my local teachers' union is going to go on HHIIRREEEYYAAA!! if their contract isn't --
damn it!
Posted by: MLB Home Plate Umpire at February 23, 2013 01:26 PM (0pcT0)
Is HHIIRREEEYYAAA!! good or bad?
Posted by: Red Shirt at February 23, 2013 09:28 AM (FIDMq)
Posted by: moviegique at February 23, 2013 09:29 AM (wir87)
Posted by: JonathanG at February 23, 2013 09:32 AM (ODIOT)
I endured half of Alas Shrugged as a teenager only to throw the book in the trash as unreadable. Since then I 've concluded that Ayn Rand peddle kitsch Nietzsche. Rand's protagonists were none other than cartoonish versions of Nietzsche's Ubermenschen, amoral sociopathic "supermen". If one dares one can contemplate the real life versions of Rand's Nietzschean heroes in the persons of the young Nazi commanders and SS officers of the invasion of the Soviet Union.
Posted by: Mike O'Malley at February 23, 2013 09:35 AM (E3kEk)
Posted by: rickl at February 23, 2013 09:46 AM (sdi6R)
IBM was convinced Intel had hit an architectural "performance wall" with the 486 and the only way forward was with something else.
Its true there was a wall going to be hit eventually, but it was a thermal wall, not architectural. The P60/66 were real heaters. Process changed that with the 75/90/100/120/150/etc.
Now the wall is thermal again, hence the Core 2/4 stuff. Multi-cores wasn't done for performance reasons, it was so the shit could be cooled and not meltdown. An equivalently fast uni-core could be built, and some test units were, but they couldn't be cooled reliably.
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 09:52 AM (/gHaE)
Posted by: BeckoningChasm at February 23, 2013 10:14 AM (xjpRj)
Rand was born in Czarist Russia and lived through the Bolshevik Revolution. She wanted no part of collectivism and fled to the United States as soon as she could.
Posted by: rickl at February 23, 2013 01:46 PM (sdi6R)
.
Libelous? Why because Rand fled the Communists? Because one might be disquieted by the reality of Nietzsche's influence on Rand? Ayn Rand devoted considerable effort to studying Nietzsche's philosophical works at Petrograd State University in the early 1920s, roughly at the same time many young German anti-Marxist proto-Nazi's were studying Nietzsche in post-war Germany. Scholars have found evidence of Nietzsche's influence in Rand's journals, in passages of We the Living, and in her overall writing style.
Posted by: Mike O'Malley at February 23, 2013 10:16 AM (E3kEk)
Consumer software...although their DOS sales were always handled competently (and were what bankrolled the OS/2 work)
A lot of the internet runs on IBM big iron Linux systems that are tweaked up to optimize virtual web servers.
The TCO when power consumption is considered is superior with those big iron virtualized web servers.
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 10:29 AM (/gHaE)
Connor seems to think the problem with OS/2 was IBM's business model wherein it derived most of its cash flow back then from mainframes and database management. PCs and therefore OS/2 was a threat to the IBM's aging golden-geese. So OS/2 was starved by the guys with the green eye-shades.
Posted by: Mike O'Malley at February 23, 2013 11:40 AM (E3kEk)
There was plenty of money flowing, its just that some incredibly bad decisions were made. I spent 10 years in Boca. Money was never a problem, competent executive leadership at the lab director and Armonk level was.
In the early 1990's there were some good 1st and 2nd line managers, the 3rd line and up were atrocious and vastly more interested in promoting their careers rather than making the product actually work.
The OS/2 2.0 3rd line was Bob Bulkley, essentially an IPR (in plant retiree) refugee from an IBM division that did a lot of govt work looking to punch the clock for a couple of years until he could retire. His style reflected that and his lack of technical expertise allowed 1st and 2nd line managers to run all over him with rosy bullshit.
You never saw him wandering around the lab at night talking to the lab rats to get the real picture. He never actually tried installing the product on his own office machine -- some serf did that for him, and only accepted information in distilled "chart" form. You never see him perusing a defect database.
The contrast between Bulkley and Ted Bream (who was the 3rd line through the OS/2 1.0/1.1/1.2 era) was stark. Bream brooked no shit, was tech savvy, and cruised the lab at night, and read the defect database himself to get the real story about what was going on. I would have crawled over broken glass in in the fires of hell for Bream...Bulkley not so much.
Not surprisingly, Bream went on to a stellar career, became an IBM lab director, and now has his own outfit.
http://www.coreagenda.com/about-us.html
Posted by: @PurpAv at February 23, 2013 12:34 PM (/gHaE)
Thanks for your perspective Purp(le) Av(enger). The first of Dom Connor's essays can be found here:
http://www.os2world.com/past-news/81-press/86-why-os-2-failed-part-1
Posted by: Mike O'Malley at February 24, 2013 03:21 AM (E3kEk)
Microsoft went on to push Windows 3.1 which essentially took over everything. That was also about the time I finally pulled the plug on DOS.
OS/2 ran on clone hardware just fine - there is a no name clone OS/2 Warp system sitting right in front of me as I type this, and yes - it still runs.
I was an OS/2 developer, and I didn't have to pay a fortune to get the development tools - the Microsoft development tools were more expensive. Warp ran all of the Windows 3.1 programs without issues as far as I could tell.
What killed OS/2 was Windows 95. More specifically it was Microsoft's marketing of Windows 95 that killed OS/2; they generated the impression that 95 was the way to go and that is where the market went.
There is a quote from the head of Microsoft marketing on the subject: "If you had asked anyone at Microsoft if OS/2 was a better operating system than Windows 95 they would have said yes. Our job in marketing was to make sure nobody outside of Microsoft knew that."
What the Windows 95 marketing victory proved is that given enough marketing funds you can sell absolute crap to people; Obama and the Democrats learned that lesson well.
Posted by: An Observation at February 24, 2013 07:26 AM (ylhEn)
Unless you are Microsoft selling Windows 95 - which had inherent structural design flaws that guaranteed it could never work properly no matter how much patching was done. OS/2 2.0 was solid as a rock compared to the Windows 9X source code tree.
With Windows 95 Microsoft invented something that was pretty much thought to be impossible; the entire concept of intermittent software.
Posted by: An Observation at February 24, 2013 08:14 AM (ylhEn)
Gates was a superb coder - he and Paul Allen wrote what became Microsoft Basic - the language that made CP/M take off - in 8080 assembly language - while not even having access to an 8080. They had to write a cross assembler and an 8080 simulator for the PDP-11 IIRC to do that. All of those were monumental tasks. Anyone today who thinks they are hot shot coders ought to try developing a floating point package in 8080 assembly. That alone is a Master's thesis level project.
When Microsoft had about 10,000 programmers they had an anonymous programming contest where the judges didn't know who wrote what code - Bill Gates won the contest.
When an acquaintance of mine created the concept of cloud computing back in the 90's Gates flew him up to Microsoft to explain the concept to him personally - so that the company wouldn't get caught in the starting gate. He asked him a lot of tough questions about how they were doing things technically. Bill Gates is a Geek's Geek.
Posted by: An Observation at February 24, 2013 08:44 AM (ylhEn)
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Posted by: RWC at February 23, 2013 07:24 AM (sqp6o)