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By Richard Morochove
First published September 9, 1999
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NORTH CAROLINA - I'm happy to announce that IBM and Microsoft are back together again. Ironically what drew the estranged former partners together is the same thing that split them apart, Microsoft's Windows operating system.
IBM and Microsoft have traveled a long and troubled road. In the early 1980s, IBM selected Microsoft to develop the DOS operating system for a small desktop computer called the IBM PC. IBM didn't develop the operating system in-house, as it did for most of its other computers, because it needed the software within a few short months.
At that time DOS wasn't considered especially critical to IBM's overall needs. The computer maker expected it would sell just 250,000 of the inexpensive PCs over the estimated five-year product lifetime, earning mere pocket change for Big Blue.
After a slow first year, sales of the IBM PC surged as it became the darling of the corporate set. IBM and Microsoft entered into a software development partnership, designed to enhance the features of the operating system and ensure compatibility with IBM's hardware.
In the late 1980s, the partners reached a critical turning point. IBM wanted a new, industrial-strength operating system called OS/2 that would eventually run on a wide range of computers, from desktop PCs to more powerful hardware. Microsoft sensed that computer users liked MS Windows and didn't want to change to a new operating system.
Microsoft and IBM split up over this issue. Microsoft stopped all development work on OS/2, while IBM continued. Microsoft concentrated its efforts on improving Windows.
When IBM's OS/2 finally arrived on the scene, it was clearly more powerful than Microsoft's Windows. Yet IBM failed to capitalize on its edge.
Why didn't OS/2 triumph over Windows? Was Microsoft right in its belief that computer users preferred the look and feel of Windows? Or was IBM, a master of marketing song and dance for computer hardware, a klutz with two left feet when it came to marketing software?
In any case, OS/2 is now of only marginal significance in the computing world. IBM halted development of new versions of the desktop operating system, although it is still supporting the server version, for now.
Meanwhile, Microsoft continued to enhance Windows. In particular, Microsoft wants to improve the reliability of its operating system. Its new Windows 2000 version, slated for launch later this year, is an industrial-strength operating system that will run on a wide range of computers, from desktop PCs to more powerful hardware.
If that sounds familiar, it should. Windows 2000 is designed to fulfill the same needs as IBM's initial plan for OS/2.
And what's IBM's reaction? Once again, Big Blue is in love with Microsoft. The computer maker is smitten with Windows 2000.
The new IBM-Microsoft relationship isn't the same as it once was. Years after the corporate divorce, IBM can appreciate both the beauty and the flaws of its former partner.
At a two-day briefing held here it was clear that IBM regards Windows 2000 with a mixture of awe and fear. Awe at the ambitious scope of the software development project and fear at the potential for flaws that could mar its release.
Windows 2000 is an enormous software project. Windows NT 4.0 has about 15 million lines of software code. Windows 2000 will contain between 35 and 40 million lines of code. This will make it the world's largest software package, according to an IBM spokesperson. IBM frets that Microsoft is using the same development methodology as for NT 4.0, which raises concerns about possible bugs in the new operating system.
IBM is fully committed to making Windows 2000 a success for users of its hardware. The goal: IBM knows Windows 2000 better than anybody except Microsoft.
The hardware maker has been at it since Nov. 1997 and set up a Windows 2000 project office to co-ordinate efforts throughout many divisions of the company. Over 250 IBM PC models have been tested and are on the Windows 2000 compatibility list, more than for any other hardware manufacturer. Some 200 help center staff in the Personal Systems Group are now trained in Windows 2000 and will be joined by 300-400 more by year-end.
The erstwhile development partners are co-operating more intimately than they have for years. Some 125 engineers are working at the IBM Center for Microsoft Technologies, located at Kirkland, WA, a couple of miles from Microsoft's Redmond campus. Partially funded by Microsoft, the engineers at the IBM Center have access to Windows 2000 software source code and meet frequently with the nearby Microsoft techies.
The relationship isn't all kisses and champagne. There is still some friction, where their corporate interests diverge. IBM is miffed that Microsoft wasn't interested in helping resolve certain problems that Java applications had running under Windows 2000. Microsoft feels Java represents a credible alternative to certain Windows functions and is a possible threat to the operating system.
But what relationship doesn't take a few stumbles now and then? I'm happy to see IBM and Microsoft billing and cooing again after years of giving each other the cold shoulder. Their increased co-operation makes it more likely that the Windows 2000 systems we buy will work as advertised. CW
Richard Morochove, FCA, is a Toronto-based computer consultant.
Copyright ©1999 by Morochove & Associates Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be copied or distributed by any means without our prior written permission.
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