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SCOUG OS/2 For You - March 1998Lou Gerstner on OS/2In late January, Jim La Lone sent Lou Gerstner a concerned message about IBM's marketing of OS/2. The next day he got this response. Reprinted with permissions. "Dear Mr. La Lone: "Lou Gerstner has asked me to respond to your recent e-mail. "We made the decision last year to focus on the enterprise customers for OS/2. We left the OS/2 vs. Windows "debate" behind and moved forward to reposition OS/2 into the network computing world. One of the criticisms of OS/2 has been the lack of applications. Rather than ask our customer and ISV partners to continue dependency on Windows API's, we incorporated Java. We believe this environment will yield many new applications, will offer developers additional opportunity, and provide customers more freedom in selecting applications. "We are committed to making functional enhancements to OS/2 that we believe are essential in network computing environments, and just as importantly, making these enhancements easily and readily available to our customers. We will offer enhanced support for Java and Java programming tools (including technology that merges OpenDoc and Java), and increased functionality for Intranet/Internet environments. "IBM remains firmly dedicated to the future of OS/2 and the millions of customers around the world who have made it their platform of choice. This commitment is evidenced by the number of major enhancements we have made to OS/2 on both client and server. We have fervent company-wide support for our initiatives, beginning in Lou Gerstner's office, because IBM is aggressively moving into network computing. The OS/2 platform fits into this overall direction and will help bring our customers into the next phase of computing. "It is clear from your letter that you are an active supporter of our products and services and genuinely want to see us do a better job of marketing our products and services. Your input is welcome and we hope that we can use your suggestions to improve the way we position OS/2 Warp in future executions. "Thank for your support of OS/2 and your interest in the IBM company. We appreciate you taking the time to write to us and look forward to serving you in the future. "Sincerely,
P.O. Box 26904 Santa Ana, CA 92799-6904, USA Copyright 1998 the Southern California OS/2 User Group. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
SCOUG is a trademark of the Southern California OS/2 User Group.
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