Conference 7.286::digital

2519.0. "NT Update/implications for DEC" by SOFBAS::SHERMAN (empowerment requires truth) Fri May 28 1993 14:17

From:	LJOHUB::STOREY "Bill Storey, Windows NT Program Office  28-May-1993 
1116"   28-MAY-1993 11:28:51.42
To:	@NT_PROD_MGRS
CC:	@NT_PROD_MGRS_INTEREST,@NT_INTEREST
Subj:	I: NY Times article

    <forwards deleted>
    

MICROSOFT SOFT-PEDDLING ITS LATEST  by John Markoff (NYT 5/24 p. C1)

SAN FRANCISCO, MAY 23 -- A case of opening-night jitters pervades
the sprawling corporate headquarters in Redmond, Wash., which has
become the world's software capital.

On the verge of introducing its most ambitious software product
yet, Windows NT, the Microsoft Corporation has found itself in an
unusual position:  It is trying to ratchet back the expectations
of the computer industry and computer users, who have come to expect
blockbuster products with clockwork regularity from the world's
dominant software publisher.

NT stands for 'new technology' and its formal introduction at an
industry show in Atlanta on Monday has been anticipated for months
by the trade press and business publications, as well as by legions
of computer hardware and software makers that have designed entire
product lines to accommodate it.  Microsoft sent about 70,000 test
copies not only to those hardware and software people, but also to
potential customers.

But the company's top executives are worried that NT's ambitious
grab for network reach and features normally found on much bigger
corporate computers -- not to mention a price that starts at around
$500 for each version -- may lead the desktop computer industry to
spurn it.

No wonder Microsoft officials are eager to tell anyone who will
listen that Windows NT is not intended for a mass audience.

'I have to make sure that my mother doesn't go out and buy this
program,' says Dwayne Walker, Microsoft's product manager for NT,
as he busily outlines strategy on a conference-room whiteboard.

And although William H Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and chairman,
has supported NT wholeheartedly, Michael Maples, a Microsoft
executive vice president, voices another variation on the
low-expectations theme: 'If you don't know why you need NT, then
you don't need it.'

Until now Microsoft has shown an uncanny ability to introduce
remarkably successful programs as it consolidates its control over
the software that runs the world's desktop personal computers.
But growth in the desktop computer business is slowing and cutthroat
competition in software is eroding profit margins.  So Microsoft
is turning toward the remaining bastion of computing still dominated
by the makers of mainframe and minicomputers: corporate computing.

Windows NT is intended to support large networks of computers that
carry out such corporatewide tasks as running an airline's reservations
system or supporting an insurance company's processing of claims.
...

...  Windows NT is not being aimed at the nation's desktops.  It
is designed, instead, for new computing applications, and it
requires lots of computer memory, a fast processor chip and a big
hard disk to run.  So Microsoft is telling users of stand-alone
personal computers not to buy NT.

They must wait until next year, when the company introduces Chicago,
another operating system the company is designing for users of
personal computers that are based on the Intel Corporation's 386
and 486 series of chips.

Windows NT will be shipped at the end of June and Microsoft plans
to use the program to erase the last dividing line between the
personal computing market and the world of the more powerful
workstation and mainframe computers.  Because NT supports the
popular Windows software standard, more than 1,500 software developers
are now working on NT versions of their programs.

But as the usually cocksure software developer approached the formal
debut of NT it was obviously nervous that confusion in the industry
over the program's role might mean a disappointing reception.

Mr Maples expects only about a million copies of NT to be shipped
next year, about 5 percent of the total number of operating systems
the company plans to sell in 1994.  ...

'They're not dealing with the Windows desktop buyer now,' said
Scott McNealy, chairman of Sun Microsystems Inc., the company that
many analysts and industry executives believe has the most to lose
from NT's success.  'They're dealing with the MIS director. ...
[T]hat's entirely different.'  ...

'Microsoft still hasn't learned how to sell in the corporate
environment,' said Alan Loren, the president of Covia, the airlines
reservation system that is one of the nation's largest computer
users.'

Hortense Howell-Barber, a computer manager at Merrill Lynch, is
similarly skeptical.  'Microsoft has a great track record,' she
said.  'However, NT is new and they're doing stuff they have no
experience in.'

Although many industry gurus are not willing to bet against NT,
even Microsoft executives are aware of the potential pitfalls that
await software developers trying to move customers from one technology
to another.

Six years ago, together with IBM, Microsoft tried to persuade the
personal computer industry to adopt a new operating system called
OS/2, only to be greeted with a collective yawn from users and
software developers.

'Do you think there is anyone at Microsoft who doesn't remember
OS/2?' asks Jonathan Lazurus, a Microsoft's [sic] vice president.

In an effort not to repeat that past, the company has gone to great
lengths to build features into NT to make it more palatable to
corporate users and to try matching the performance of the Unix
software, offered by various companies, that will be NT's closest
competitor.  Having found that maintenance and operations could be
as much as 90 percent of the true cost of business computing, for
example, Microsoft bought special administration software and added
it to NT.

Moreover, Microsoft never stops stressing that it has a still-growing
lion's share of new software applications -- programs like spreadsheets
and word processing and other special-use packages designed to work
with a given operating system.  Microsoft's popularity with
applications software developers has been underscored recently by
the decision of some software developers to stop their work on
programs designed for use with IBM's OS/2 operating system, basically
because OS/2 has not gained enough of a market share, but also in
anticipation of NT.

The sheer scale of that software advantage clearly has Microsoft's
opponents on the defensive.

Mr McNealy, for one, concedes that NT may become an increasing
thorn for Sun.  'There is fear that two years out,' he said,
Microsoft 'might get their act together.'

Fear among the Unix vendors has finally created a series of
alliances where in the past there was little more than intramural
bickering.  But in the face of the Microsoft juggernaut such
coalitions may be too late.

Windows NT 'has everyone scared to death,' said Maureen O'Gara,
publisher of Unigram X, a newsletter, based in Glen Head, LI, for
Unix insiders.  'If Bill Gates gets his way we won't even know the
word Unix a few years from now.'

Ms O'Gara, for one, isn't taking chances.  As the introduction of
NT loomed, she was preparing a defensive move of her own -- a new
newsletter aimed at Windows NT users.

Re:    <<< Note 2519.0 by SOFBAS::SHERMAN "empowerment requires truth" >>>

>NT stands for 'new technology' 

Yet another attempt at acronym generation...

-  David

    NT == Not Today ...  ;^)
    
    (Actually, I already have Windows NT on CD.  But, I don't plan on forking over
    $500 anytime soon for the "real" Windows NT ...)
    
    Steve

    
    
    	IBM has ads that allude NT stands for Nice Try. The ads are
    for IBM's OS/2.
    
    	fred deady	

    But what does this mean for DEC, which I thought was the topic of this
    note.
    
    I believe that since Windows NT came from the same folks that helped
    create VMS, it will be a natural extension to VMS in a multi-vendor
    computing environment.  It could be a good entry point from the PC
    world to a VAX environment.  The headaches and learning curve could be
    lessened.  This is an opportunity to succeed in the PC enviroment and
    also increase our total systems approach to solutions.
    
    The partnership between Digital and Microsoft is a good one.
    
    Phyllis
    

Re: .5

>    I believe that since Windows NT came from the same folks that helped
>    create VMS, 

It's no wonder you believe this, as a lot of the press reports talk about
Dave Cutler as "the father of VMS", but the reality is that of the NT
development team, only Cutler worked on VMS originally and he did so
only until 1979.  Even then, most of what made VMS successful was the design
and work of others.  Where Cutler succeeded was in driving his team to get
the product out on time, no small accomplishment. 

Cutler showed through the following years that he had a lot of good ideas,
(most of which he turned into mediocre products), and I have a lot of hope
for NT.  But if you want to liken NT to VMS due to Cutler's involvment,
compare it to VAX/VMS V1.0 of 1978, not the VMS of today whose major
features (clusters, networks, common language environment, multi-vendor
support) Cutler had nothing to do with (and, to some extent, fought against.)

				Steve

    The internal hype on Windows NT recalls the internal hype that we saw
    with:
    
    OSF/1
    OSF/Motif
    OSF/DCE
    ACE
    
    In each case, Digital was full of self-congratulations at the time of
    the initial press release.
    
    A few years later, OSF/1 was abandoned by HP and IBM, Motif was
    co-opted by Hewlett Packard, DCE was co-opted by IBM and HP, and ACE is
    a running joke in the trade press to demonstrate the inability of
    Digital to implement a strategy.

    My fear is that Digital grossly overestimated the importance that
    Microsoft had placed on NT.
    
    It's nice to have a simple chain of assumptions:
    
    1)  DOS and Windows are dominant today;
    2)  DOS is out of steam and is crippling Windows;
    3)  NT offers Windows with a powerful OS beneath is;
    4)  NT will run on the popular Intel machines and on AXP;
    5)  NT is upwards-compatible from DOS so it supports lotsa applcations;
    6)  Users who need more than DOS will migrate to NT;
    7)  NT will make Alpha into a PC powerhouse.
    
    But the chain is broken.  Points 1 through 4 are correct.  But 5 is
    weak because existing applications require true binary compatibility,
    not Unix-style source familiness.  NT AXP won't be as compatible with
    DOS as NT Intel.  Point 6 is weaker yet, because Microsoft (no
    strategic partners, only strategic victims) has another card up its
    sleeve, Chicago, to replace DOS as the desktop OS of choice.  Chicago
    is lighter, cheaper and less portable than NT, so it'll easily drop in
    where DOS-Windows does today.  NT is relegated to the high end.  Now we
    have a hard time getting to 7, since NT AXP becomes a semi-compatible
    niche OS.
    
    This is not insurmountable for a marketing powerhouse.  But a company
    who proudly announces a radical new architecture (for the PC world)
    under the name "DECpc 150/AXP" obviously hasn't got a clue.

� But a company who proudly announces a radical new architecture (for the PC
� world) under the name "DECpc 150/AXP" obviously hasn't got a clue.

Given the time it seems to take us to find new names for products, I think it
was better to get the Jensen out the door.  Besides, everyone will call it
"Jensen" or "Alpha PC"

BTW, it's "DECpc 150 AXP" (without the slash).  Isn't that better?

Paul

    More importantly, I read in an article just yesterday in the trade
    press here in France, that the initial standard distribution of WNT will
    include the Intel and MIPS versions only. No AXP.
    
    Why, and does it matter?
    
    Salut,
    Edward

    
    Have you been reading the Wall St. Journal series on the making
    of NT?  Reads a lot like Kidder's book (Soul of a New Machine),
    including the blatant exploitation of engineers.  People lose
    marriages, their health (physical and mental), relationships with
    their kids, etc.  In the meantime, Cutler sets up an environment
    that encourages young engineers (kids, themselves, really) to 
    give cute names to burnout, like "Waltheimer's". And for this, he 
    is lionized in the press.
    
    Glenn

    re .10
    
    It's my understanding that Microsoft does the Intel and MIPS versions,
    Digital the AXP port.  What does this tell you?  Maybe what W. Gates
    wanted from the alliance with Digital was the scripts for the old VMS
    presentations - his phrasing, "...mission critical applications...",
    "...2 GB programming space, 2 GB system space...".  It's like a ten
    year time warp.  (But I still have the wrinkles and fat!)
    
    

    re .11
    
    Agreed!!

"A personality containing aspects of Captains Ahab and Bligh."

From the WSJ article on the making of NT, describing Cutler.

>> "A personality containing aspects of Captains Ahab and Bligh."

>> From the WSJ article on the making of NT, describing Cutler.
    
    
    Or, as the Spin Doctors in Corp. Communications would put it:
    
    "A man who leads by example ... sets lofty goals for self and
    subordinates ...  not afraid to pursue the largest projects ... 
    on the 'cutting edge' of his profession ... treats all subordinates
    equally ... a 'hands on' manager ... has an industry-wide reputation
    ... goal-oriented ... single-minded in his approach to problems ...
    a true leader for the 90s ..."