CompuServe Messages

I don't have an "informed opinion" (as you stated in your post), but that doesn't stop me from butting in anyway… 🙂 To quickly sum up for others, today newspapers have an article from AP stating "Former enemies Apple Computer and IBM joined forces Wednesday in a broad pact to swap prized technologies, develop new machines and seize control of the industry's splintered direction." Part of the agreement includes "developing operating system software through a new company to be jointly owned and independently managed", implying a single operating system for IBM and Apple computers that would run on Macintosh, IBM PC & P/S-2, and IBM RS-6000 copmuters. (Start soapbox) In an industry that comes up with so many meaningless alliances (such as the one where a bunch of computer makers were going to take the memory market back from the Japanese, I think called U.S. Semiconductor) and near-meaningless alliances (the "Gang of Nine" which resulted in the unimportant EISA standard), this one has to be taken seriously by the computer industry if only because of its players. Together, IBM and Apple comprise about 40 percent of computer sales. If, by some miracle, they ARE able to co-operate and put out an operating system that both platforms could use, it would present a serious challenge to Microsoft, who comes across to the industry as a company that is too arrogant. Where does Commodore fit into the picture? It doesn't at this time. The Amiga is not considered a major player by too many industry analysts, principally because it would mean learning about an entirely new platform, which would take up too much of their time. If the IBM/Apple alliance produces a real operating system, the big loser would be Microsoft, whose users would drop Windows in a New York minute (with DOS 5.0 out, they may already have). Commodore's share of the Amiga market should not be impacted much either way, as they don't have much of the market now, they probably won't have much in the future, unless someone there ever learns [ MORE ]