The battle between IBM and Microsoft over the future of OS/2 has taken a new twist with the launch of the Bill Gates Comdex/Fall crusade for a new document-based software system. Previewed in the New York Times, this crusade is firmly rooted in object-oriented technology. Basically, Gates envisages a time when users working on a document will be able to call in, say, a spreadsheet tool, a word-processing tool and a tool for drawing graphs for use within different parts of the document. This contrasts with today’s software system which is driven by applications rather than documents. The elements of this new strategy will appear over the next few years culminating a Windows 3-compatible OS/2 3.0, planned for release in 1992. However, this approach positions Microsoft against IBM which has co-responsibility for the development of OS/2 and has recently announced the formation of its Patriot Partners project with Metaphor Computer Systems Inc. This project is running parallel to that of Microsoft’s document software system in that it is developing object-oriented programming, multimedia support, end-user visual prog ramming and standard access to expert systems for OS/2. In short, it is developing an open, stand ards-based software environment for software and hardware vendors, but this environment will run under AIX and other major versions of Unix as well as OS/2 (CI No 1,529). Mean while, IBM and Microsoft have not managed to sort out their problems over the marketing of OS/2 version 2, which already resides forlornly at some customer sites in all its 32-bit splendour but is still unan nounced, and has no release date.
