It turns my memory failed: I was wrong, the article about OS/2 Warp not
supporting long filenames, unlike windows 95, was not written in Byte,
it was written in a ZD publication, and by guess who? Mary Jo Foley!.

I thought that name was familiar already...

#: 535215 S10/News of the Week
    22-Nov-95  00:26:35
Sb: #535091-#Dave Barnes
Fm: Finn Oerstavik 100272,2100
To: Claude Biron 75330,2517 (X)

Claude,

(snip)

If you have read more than one article by this Foley, you know that she is
completely ignorant as for OS/2.

In the last piece I read by her, she implied OS/2 couldn't handle long
filenames. Either it was of ignorance, or she wanted to make OS/2 look
worse than it is.

#: 536561 S2/Vendor News
    23-Nov-95  19:01:23
Sb: #535651-#OS/2 '96 Prod Plans
Fm: Larry Bouthillier 71223,2221
To: Joe Barr 74000,3527 (X)

Joe,

 >> That's funny, he didn't mention anywhere in there that the UI is copied
 >> from Win95, but that is what Mary Jo Foley is telling everyone in the
 >> new PC Week.

Not that it matters, but I did write to the editors of PC Week correcting them
on that, and the notion that Merlin's support of Windows95 FAT will allow us
OS/2 users to finally have long filenames.  I respectfully suggested that
WRITERS ABOUT OSs SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST A FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT
THEY ARE WRITING ABOUT.  MJF may be a very nice person, but she's clearly not
qualified to be writing about these topics, and she's not thorough and
conscientious enough to check her facts when her knowledge is weak.  Perfect
writer to put on Page 1, huh?

Larry

#: 538020 S2/Vendor News
    25-Nov-95  08:11:38
Sb: #536561-OS/2 '96 Prod Plans
Fm: Angelo m Adduci 70214,1646
To: Larry Bouthillier 71223,2221

Foley is a token that PCWeek needs to show they give evey "kind" of person a
chance. I'm sure she wasn't teched-out....except for how quick can she do a
re-write of an MS press release.

But ZIFF Loves this kind of "writer".

The company's full of them.

#: 537587 S10/News of the Week
    24-Nov-95  19:34:33
Sb: #535045-#Dave Barnes
Fm: Mike Miller 72567,3425
To: Joe Barr 74000,3527 (X)

 >>  One thing that amazed me, Mary Jo Foley, who (mis)wrote the article,
 >> (mis)quotes the (mis)quote from the Peter Lewis backstabbing.

No surprise here.   She is also the one who wrote that Warp will finally get
long filename support next year.

PCWeek does seem to collect and groom some real winners.

#: 714759 S6/The OS Wars
    20-Aug-96  19:18:48
Sb: #714421-#Cyrix and NT 4.0
Fm: Joe Barr 74000,3527
To: Robert Berardino 102302,467 (X)

 > This doesn't add up.  Something else is going on.

Whatever it is, PC Week is a willing accomplice.  Instead of the issue
which arrived today covering the story, it blasted Cyrix on the front
page for alleged problems with overheating.  The headline read
"Overheated 6x86 chips put Cyrix on hot seat."

What evidence did the famed PC Week Labs produce to support this
allegation (story by Lisa DeCarlo)?  None.  None at all.  Zero.  Zilch.
Nada.  Nil. Cypher.  Null.  Nope, the labs didn't say a thing.  Maybe
they've never tested the Cyrix chips?  <snicker>

Instead, resorting to Mary Jo Foley style journalism, the claims were
bouyed by statements from "independent microprocessor testers."  Who
are these testers? Well, there is "an analyst who requested anonymity"
and "analysts said" and "the analyst quipped" and "another analyst who
also requested anonymity."

IBM's chips (made at the same plant by IBM) don't suffer from this
problem. According to (the increasingly rare, hard to find, not wanted
in Ziffdom) a named source, Linley Gwennap, editor of The
Microprocessor Report, said "independent tests on the Cyrix chips at
The Microprocessor Report did not uncover overheating problems."
This on page 101, however, instead of on page 1.

Cyrix flatly denied the story.  "There are no heat issues.  It's the
most ridiculous thing I'ver ever heard," said Steve Tobak (Cyrix VP).
This too, on page 101.  Then more negative ink on Cyrix's financial
situation.

This is a hatchet job in the very worst tradition of Ziff-Davis.  Bad
press on the front page of an industry weekly with zero substantiation,
and two refutations of the story from named sources buried deep within.

Subject:      Re: Mary Jo Foley - Strike 2
From:         pcgu...@helppc.com
Date:         1995/11/22

Joe,

MaryJo is not stupid, ignorant, nor unable to read. Unable to _WRITE_
is another question!

I'm from Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley where MaryJo used to be on the
staff of the San Jose Mercury newspaper. While with the SJM, MaryJo
made all of the same kinds of "blunders, mis-statements, & mis-quotes".
I for one, do not beleive any of it was by accident or out of ignorance.

This women carries a hatchet day and night, just in case she runs into
anybody or thing from IBM. She believes computers were invented in 1982
and that &diety lives in Redmond. She is almost, but not quite, as
qualified to write about computers as I would be to write about
hellicopters! At least I would do some research...

Phil "Guido" Cava

#: 537938 S10/News of the Week
    25-Nov-95  04:47:46
Sb: #537675-Dave Barnes
Fm: Jeff Shultz 74741,1326
To: Claude Biron 75330,2517 (X)

 > but could she have meant "long filenames under FAT"?
 Undoubtably that is what she meant - but it isn't what she said. Her
credibility level is kinda low.

 Jeff Shultz, Augsburg, Deutschland

#: 542002 S6/The OS Wars
    29-nov-95  21:29:47
Sb: #541997-#OS/2 Warp Lives!
Fm: John A. Soyring [IBM] 76711,412
To: John A. Soyring [IBM] 76711,412 (X)
 > do you know of any specific response being prepared to the Mary Jo
 > Foley "sapper" actions of the last three weeks?
Joshua,
I know that when Mary Jo spoke with Joe Stunkard of our media relations
staff, Joe denied that we dropping products as Mary Jo's article claims.
John

From:         Larry Bouthillier <71223.2...@compuserve.com>
Date:         1995/11/22

Here is the text of a letter I've emailed to the editor(s) of PCWeek:

I've just read Mary Jo Foley's latest article on the cover of PC Week,
and I'm appalled that such a thing could appear in a reputable magazine
such as yours. Let me elaborate a bit...

The piece is about Warp Merlin and Warp for PPC.  In it, she shows an
amazing lack of knowledge of Warp and its relative features versus
Windows95.

Rather than being an article on what's new about Warp Merlin that sets
it even further above its competition from a technoloy standpoint, it
talks about how Warp's interface is playing catch-up with Win95.

She goes on to say "The Merlin interface - which resembles Windows95...
lets users tailor their desktops." HUH?!?

Anyone with even the most basic knowledge of OS/2 would understand that
Warp's desktop, regardless of whether one thinks it's pretty or not, is
the most "tailorable", customizable, and powerful desktop in the PC
arena.

Furthermore, she talks about how Warp will include support for
Microsoft's VFAT, which will "let Warp users work with long filenames."

Again, anyone with even a passing familiarity with OS/2 would know that
OS/2 has, and has had for years, long filenames.

Ziff has often been accused of a Microsoft bias, and a habit of ignoring
and belittling that which is not Microsoft.  In this case, all I see is a
reporter being allowed to report on something that she knows nothing
about, and therefore reporting inaccurately and incompetently.

I'd respectfully suggest that Mary Jo Foley is clearly not qualified to
be writing about operating systems, and clearly did not do her homework
before writing this article.

I'd like to see more good, objective, knowledgable reporting in PC Week.

Sincerely,

Larry Bouthillier
71223.2...@compuserve.com

----------------------------------------------------------------
PC Week (October 2, 1995), by Mary Jo Foley

 OPERATING SYSTEMS Slick features, but setup woes burden testers

 "ONE MONTH INTO beta testing, Warp Server users are finding
 the product to be feature-rich and well-integrated, but
 plagued by installation problems."
----------------------------------------------------------------

#: 588839 S6/The OS Wars  01-feb-96  20:19:57
Sb: #588750-Gartner & OS/2
Fm: MSF/NY-Jaime Cruz, Jr. 72267,1372
To: David L. Richard 74734,1202

Nicholas Petreley (Infoworld) predicted that OS/2 would die six times
this year (he doesn't want to be outdone by the other reporters in the
trade press).  Does that count?  ;-)

From:         bob.mal...@chauvet.com (Bob Malone)
Date:         1996/09/30
Newsgroups:   comp.os.os2.apps

-> >>This [Sept. 23] week's Computer Reseller News featured an article
-> >>by  Mary Jo Foley titled "IBM Insiders: Merlin To Be Last Hurrah...

Mary Jo Foley has hated IBM and OS/2 since 1993 and she works very
hard to get assigned to write OS/2 magazine articles so she can vent
her hatred and venom against IBM and OS/2.  No matter what she writes
she will always place it in the most negative light possible, she never
fails to ensure a blurb about the superiority of Microsoft and it's
products and always ends her articles with a sentence to belittle or
make fun of OS/2.  It never fails.  Go back and take a look at all
the articles she's ever written about OS/2.
**************** END OF ARCHIVES QUOTING******************************

(That without mentioning last year's '97 edition of ZDNet's annual
"OS/2 is dead" story, by, guess who, Mary Jo).