Linda Mooney referred to the 'stolen servers' IBM ad, and the lack of
follow-up. Years ago, IBM did an ad which showed what looked like a
UAL jet taking off. The caption was "How to get to Chicago one year
earlier - OS/2 Warp". If you don't remember, "Chicago" was the code
name for Windows 93, oops Windows 94, oops Windows 95. The ad wasn't
quite right as the time was more than a year. This was a very
inventive ad, and as an OS/2 fanatic, I was really disappointed that
there was no follow-up. However, there was in IBM-internal rumor
(which may have been an urban legend) that the ad campaign was killed
by an IBM exec when he was shown the material. Noting that the
proposal included ads in "Dr. Dobb's Journal", he laid down the dictum
that "We don't advertise in medical journals.".
It still mystifies me how inferior products win out in the
marketplace, especially when the losers are the products I prefer
(lame attempt at humor). I used OS/2 for years, and I could count the
number of unscheduled reboots on my fingers (without my toes), which
is a whole lot better than with my wife's Windoze machines, and even
better than my current Mac machine. I only stopped using Warp when it
became impossible to get a new printer with Warp support, and my old
EPSON laser EPL6600 finally died after quite a few years of
unblemished service.
Dale Miller
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