What has consistently let IBM Corp’s OS/2 operating system down? Lack of application support. You simply don’t see applications vendors lining up in droves to stand behind the OS/2 banner because they’re already too busy pledging allegiance to the Microsoft Corp flag – be it Windows95 or NT. So what’s Big Blue to do? At last week’s launch of the latest iteration of OS/2 Warp in San Francisco we found out. The answer, very simply, is Java. In fact you could’ve been forgiven for thinking that the whole event, ostensibly celebrating the release of IBM’s 32-bit client operating system OS/2 Warp 4.0 – formerly codenamed Merlin – was really a Java jamboree. Certainly the J-word was on everyone’s lips much more than OS/2 – a fact lamented by se veral of IBM’s software development partners present at the event. But the IBM line was typified by John Thompson, general manager of IBM’s personal software products when he said, Java is clearly where we want to be. We want to make Java the cornerstone of our true open computing approach. Application support for OS/2 has always been an issue for IBM.
Java virtual machine
Moving to Java creates relief for us. As supporting evidence, he quoted analyst figures predicting that the Java applications market will be worth more than $4,000m by 2000. OS/2 is the latest IBM operating system to embed the Java Virtual Machine . AIX was the first this summer, OS/390, the old MVS did it last week as well, and OS/400 is due to appear Java-ised by the year-end. Thompson revealed that IBM opted for Java support over native support for Windows95. We could’ve done the latter b y building Windows95 binaries into OS/2, but it would’ve taken a long time. We’d rather invest in open Java than in creating binary compatibilities that will be defunct by 1998. He insisted that supporting Java isn’t inconsistent with the company’s existing OpenDoc technology. Java is a language, OpenDoc is an architecture, he argues. If Java has traction within the marketplace and we’re trying to leverage our component technology, rather than try and push OpenDoc, it makes sense to put the two together. IBM’s Lotus has been quite vocal of late about not being over-keen to support OpenDoc, preferring ActiveX. Jeff Dean, the worldwide product manager for OS/2 Warp isn’t phased by this contradiction. Lotus supports IBM’s componentization strategy. We’ll see the convergence of ActiveX and OpenDoc in JavaSoft Inc’s JavaBeans application programming interfaces. OpenDoc is clearly not as mature as Object Linking & Embedding, but its architectural foundations are much stronger, he said. We then asked Dean about the idea of using OS/2 as a possible future operating system for IBM’s NetStation network computers. His answer was guarded. We did think about it for OS/2 Warp 4.0. Warp is very tailorable and you can make it very small – for example, by replacing the Workplace shell with a very thin shell. One area that IBM was keen to clarify was its continued commitment to OS/2 and that with more than 15m users the operating system is far from dead. I’m not daunted by what people think they believe in, says Thompson defiantly, referring to the funeral bell many analysts have already tolled for OS/2. More customers are embracing the server product in higher percentage volumes than ever before. It ain’t over yet.
