Once Microsoft approved its Windows NT 4.0 operating system for
manufacturing, hardware vendors immediately began declaring support for the
upgrade. Although several server vendors were already preloading NT Server 3.51,
vendor support for NT Workstation has been limited. Hardware vendors expect NT
4.0 to be a much more popular desktop OS than previous versions. Finding desktop
models and even notebooks preloaded with NT Workstation will be no problem.
Table 1 lists vendors committed to NT 4.0 support. (For more information on
these vendors and their NT 4.0 products, see
www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/partners.htm#hardware.)
--Valda Hilley
NT 4.0 BackOffice
With NT 4.0's release will come new revisions of all the BackOffice
products. Microsoft has announced major revisions to its network and systems
management package Systems Management Server (SMS 1.3 is in beta now). Microsoft
will add the ability to plug in to SMS asset management, Help Desk, and
third-party software-management tools. Further additions include ActiveX
capability, which will allow Web access to SMS applications. The changes to SMS
will improve its viability as a systems management platform for NT Server
applications.
--Valda Hilley
Look Who's Talking NT: It's IBM
Seems like just yesterday that I saw one of those really cool IBM
commercials showing how Big Blue is making the world smaller. And I'm pretty
sure that they mentioned OS/2 prominently. Something's changed. Recently, one of
OS/2's staunchest supporters raised the white flag and surrendered to Windows.
William Zachmann, president of Canopus Research in Duxbury, Massachusetts, and
an icon in the OS/2 community, announced (on his CompuServe forum) his plans to
remove OS/2 from his systems and replace it with Windows 95 and Windows NT.
IBM began talking a different shade of blue in September 1995 when,
according to several industry publications, IBM insiders said the company had
told its software units to quickly develop NT versions of their products. IBM
has put NT on the same priority level as OS/2 and UNIX, and now we're seeing the
results. IBM's key software will be available on NT by the end of this year.
On the heels of NT 4.0's release, what can we anticipate from IBM? Besides
software offerings, expect fully optimized NT systems. IBM views NT 4.0 as an
alternative OS that supports robust 32-bit applications and that IBM can offer
to its corporate customers. Perhaps this step is part of IBM's unannounced (they
don't dare talk about it) exit strategy for OS/2. Or it may be part of IBM's
positioning as an open systems supplier, delivering the hardware and software
solutions customers want. Either way, customers win full hardware and software
compatibility as they migrate to NT 4.0.
--Valda Hilley