Re: XyWrite udner Linux [was:Partitioned drives, Win98 & otherOSes]

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:

> > An appealing notion, but we all remember IBM as the elephant that rolled
> > over in its sleep and crushed Signature.
>
> A very parochial view, IMO. They weren't asleep; they made a strategic change,
> that affected the entire corporation, top to bottom, to stem arterial bleeding.
> The people who supported Signature were not happy campers; but they operated at
> a relatively powerless, low level. XyWriters tend to think this happened
> specifically to screw XyWrite, which is ridiculous. (Although everyone here
> keeps gleefully repeating this nonsense.)

I never really thought that (Xy was never important enough to be a "target") . . .
although my headline treatment may have made it seem so. Accounts I have read over
the last couple years paint a picture of various divisions of the IBM behemoth --
divisions having quite unequal levels of power -- operating very much at
cross-purpose. From our purely parochial point of view, the "wrong guys" won the
day, but when it comes to the (ultimately decisive) bottom line, probably not.

> > Their record with OS/2 has been pretty spotty at best.
>
> I dunno. For a "dead system", it's amazing to me how much support IBM
> provides. Are you a Software Choice subscriber? ECS? I'm delighted with the
> support. New kernels every couple of days? New drivers galore (LVM, DVD, USB,
> support for 0f partition types, superb networking, a great peer, lean Mozilla,
> etc etc)? Fixpacks? Compare M$Windows! All they give you are incessant
> security fixes and bloatware.

Yeah, I do take your point . . . but IBM didn't do this *for You or Me*, they did
it for their large enterprise customers, and we benefited indirectly. I'm not on
SWC, but I am an early subscriber to eCS. The degree of support *is* impressive,
given the circumstances. I have only kudos for Serenity Systems. I suppose they
have been persuasive, but to me it feels like the support they have wangled from
IBM is more acquiesent than active. But who knows, I could be wrong.

Jordan