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Conference tallis::ws_pc_solutions

Title:SoftWindows/SoftPC
Notice:SoftWindows V2.0 SSB kit location see 1665.28
Moderator:TALLIS::SHERRY
Created:Thu Sep 21 1989
Last Modified:Tue May 13 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1837
Total number of notes:8065

1834.0. "softwindows 95 when?" by BUSY::LEON () Tue Mar 18 1997 08:55

    Hello,
      DOes anyone know of a schedule for softwindows 95 on digital
    unix.  I see it is available for mac and sgi?  
    
    Thanks
    Leon
    
    [email protected]
    
    
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
1834.1SoftWindows 95 on Digital UNIXWTRSKR::cardosDave CardosThu Mar 20 1997 08:512
It will also be available on SUN, HP, and IBM shortly, BUT
Insignia has no plans to put the SoftWindows 95 product on Digital UNIX.
1834.2heard the same no portBUSY::LEONFri Mar 21 1997 09:416
    
    yes I got mail from insignia saying the same thing...
    
    thanks
    -leon
    
1834.3frustration at our lack of successCHEFS::KERRISON_GLet the skunk drink the Martini!Tue Mar 25 1997 07:1423
    
    Oh deep joy!
    
    again Digital UNIX gets the good deal (NOT!)
    
    it seems that either we get things late OR we just don't get them!
    
    absolutely brilliant. Who do we congratulate for working closely
    with Insignia and developing the relationship and convincing them
    just how superb Digital UNIX is?
    
    "cost and market considerations lead us to dissolve the plans for 
    an upgrade"
    
    so THEY obviously believe Gartner!! pah! 
    
    
    yours disgustedly
    
    Gary
    
    
    
1834.4NPSS::NEWTONThomas NewtonFri Apr 04 1997 00:0721
>   Oh deep joy!
> 
>   again Digital UNIX gets the good deal (NOT!)
>   
>   it seems that either we get things late OR we just don't get them!

Two modest suggestions:

 1. Hold your nose, and pay Insignia to do the port.

 2. Merge Digital Unix technology/features into Rhapsody, so the product
    we call "Digital Unix" becomes just Rhapsody for Alpha or a superset.
    Push the 21164PC for future Macs as well as for NT boxes, signing up
    Apple (desktops), Motorola (desktops, chips), and others.

    Then any program that is written for Apple's Rhapsody/Alpha desktops
    would run on our Digital Unix/Alpha workstations and servers, making
    our customers' lives, and our sales, a lot easier.

    Wouldn't it be nice if Sun, HP, etc. were wondering "why we got the
    good deal (NOT!)"?
1834.5Merging with vapor on vapor ?KAMPUS::NEIDECKEREUROMEDIA: Distributed Multimedia ArchivesFri Apr 04 1997 02:376
    Re. .4:
    
    	"any program that is written for Apple's Rhapsody/Alpha desktops"
    
    
    Did I sleep ? Did you fall for an April's fool joke ?
1834.6NPSS::NEWTONThomas NewtonSat Apr 05 1997 06:1127
    Re: .5:

    >  Did I sleep ? Did you fall for an April's fool joke ?

    No, you just quoted that phrase out of context.  It presumed some sort
    of business deal that would result in Apple making said desktops.

    >  Merging with vapor on vapor ?

    Neither MacOS or NeXTstep (the two operating systems on which Rhapsody
    will be based) are vapor.  And I hope you're not referring to Alpha as
    vapor!

    There is every reason to believe that the Yellow Box environment which
    will run "new" Macintosh programs can be ported to Alpha, if Apple can
    be convinced that it is in their best interest to do so.  They already
    plan to provide this environment for Intel and PowerPC.

    Even the Blue Box could probably be made to run on Alpha (with PowerPC
    emulation) if there was the corporate will to make it happen.

    But we keep putting down anything that was NIH (other than Windows NT).
    Frankly, I think Apple can afford to ignore the Alpha more than we can
    afford to miss an opportunity to attract mass-market sales (or to give
    our workstation/server customers a way to run mass-market software).

    Not that I think Digital will take my suggestion.  But one can dream.
1834.7FocusKAMPUS::NEIDECKEREUROMEDIA: Distributed Multimedia ArchivesMon Apr 07 1997 05:2312
    Ok, I misunderstood that you were supposing a business deal.
    
    Vapor: I meant Rhapsody. Just because the parts exist doesn't imply
    the whole thing can be pulled off working together in time.
    
    And sure, stuff could be ported. But do you think adding yet another
    operating system would help us ? We are spreading thin as it is.
    Better get the one-dozen applications that you need to crack
    the high-end of the Mac market native to Alpha-NT (4-5 from Adobe,
    2 from Quark and a few singletons from the rest) and you have the
    same effect. 
    
1834.8NPSS::NEWTONThomas NewtonMon Apr 07 1997 18:5826
>   But do you think adding yet another operating system would help us ?
>   We are spreading thin as it is.

    I'm not talking about adding another one.  The final Digital Unix on
    Rhapsody product would replace today's Digital Unix.

>   Better get the one-dozen applications that you need to crack
>   the high-end of the Mac market native to Alpha-NT (4-5 from Adobe,
>   2 from Quark and a few singletons from the rest) and you have the
>   same effect. 

    This thread started with the difficulty of attracting applications -
    such as SoftWindows95 - to Digital Unix.  Paying the vendors to port
    a dozen Macintosh applications will make only 12 programs available,
    and most of these will probably soon fall behind the Mac and Windows
    counterparts due to the low volume of the Digital Unix platform.

    Making the platform compatible with future Macintoshes may be harder
    but is a much bigger win - a successful mass-market platform such as
    Windows95 or MacOS will attract thousands of shrink-wrapped programs
    without the platform vendor having to pay the software vendors.

    If we don't think this way about Windows, why did we spend on Alpha-
    NT and FX!32, instead of just paying to port 12 Windows applications
    to OpenVMS and Digital Unix?
1834.9Digital Unix ? OpenVMS ? Desktop Volume ?KAMPUS::NEIDECKEREUROMEDIA: Distributed Multimedia ArchivesTue Apr 08 1997 03:3537
    > The final Digital Unix on
    >    Rhapsody product would replace today's Digital Unix.
    
    Uh-oh. I have a hard time to see that a desktop, small-system
    centric design (Rhapsody) would do well with the kind of server
    sizes that we are shooting for (like Wildfire).
    
    > instead of just paying to port 12 Windows applications
    >    to OpenVMS and Digital Unix
    
    You misunderstood me. I was saying that to wipe Apple out we need
    to get about a dozen Apple-core-applications native onto Alpha/NT.
    That, combined with a hopefully successfully executed strategy of
    Alpha/NT boxes at a good price and performance would achieve the
    same volume effect for Alpha.
    
    > This thread started with the difficulty of attracting applications -
    >    such as SoftWindows95to Digital Unix
    
    I don't think of Softwindows as an application. Digital Unix on the
    desktop as a mass market OS was never really an option and we've done
    everything in the past few years to make sure that it never happened.
    It never will (believe me, I'm one of the reviewers of the corporate
    tech-strategy) and Apple also isn't interested in even getting a
    clean, robust RISC-Mach-kernel from us (we asked people in their
    engineering organization after the Copland disaster). They felt it
    would kill them and most likely it will.
    
    Apple is facing to get all of it's ISV's to write to new interfaces
    (for optimal performance). A lot of these ISV's will think twice at
    that point whether they shouldn't also offer their stuff on NT at that
    point (partial rewrite required anyway). Capturing them at that point
    should be much easier for us than first developing an unknown new
    operating system/API (Rhapsody) and then still be binary incompatible
    with the mainstream base platform of that OS (PowerPC). Thank you,
    we've been in that situation long enough relative to Intel/NT.
    
1834.10This says it allNPSS::NEWTONThomas NewtonTue Apr 08 1997 15:288
>   I don't think of Softwindows as an application. Digital Unix on the
>   desktop as a mass market OS was never really an option and we've done
>                                                              ----------
>   everything in the past few years to make sure that it never happened.
>   ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>   It never will (believe me, I'm one of the reviewers of the corporate
>   tech-strategy)