3DS R4 SIGGRAPH
04-Aug-94 14:00:11
Sb: #116076-3DS R4 SIGGRAPH
Fm: James Coulter[Mindscape] 73670,677
To: Judy Weller 72662,536
>> an OS/2 port or the PPC <<
As others have stated, it is likely that Autodesk will go with a
platform/os that is accessable to the masses. I fully support this
premise. Unfortunately, I suspect that NT will be the choice simply
because MS has the power to draw developers like flies.
I personally agree with you: The choice of OS/2 and PPC would be
ideal. OS/2 costs less than NT both in terms of price and system
requirements. These factors alone make OS/2 more accessable to the
masses. Furthermore, OS/2 has full DOS and Windows support which we
will sacrafice with NT. And the upcoming Symetric Multi Processing
(SMP) support of OS/2 will provide the power of multiple processors.
Put that together with PPC technology and you have a real winner.
OS/2 does lack some of the features of NT such as platform
independance. NTs portability makes it very attractive to
developers. Also, the fact that IBM is the maker of OS/2 causes
people to flinch — with good reason in some cases.
If Autodesk is not going to go with OS/2, I would personally prefer
they just go ahead and go to SGI or Sun. Why bother with the middle
of the road?