MISC: OS/2 Info: TeamOS/2 Germany spoke with John Soyring
Hendrik H. Fulda
Reply-to: h...@teamos2.de (Hendrik H. Fulda)
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Version 1.1 as of 26. March 1997
TeamOS/2 Germany spoke with John Soyring
Everyone who was with TeamOS/2 at the CeBIT computer trade show in Hannover,
Germany, in March this year already knows: Thomas Christinck and I spoke with
John Soyring.
John Soyring, who has the official title "director of the business unit
Network Computing Project", but is maybe better known as the boss of Paul
Giangarra, (leading OS/2 developer), visited CeBIT.
I used his presence at the IBM booth in Hall II to verify the words of an
attendee of the meeting of the Australian OS/2 usergroup. The attendee
reported that John Soyring said that Lou Gerstner had told an US bank OS/2
will be supported by IBM for the next ten years.
I asked him if the report from the meeting was correct. He replied that, while
attending the meeting with Lou Gerstner at the US Bank, Lou Gerstner and he
said, "OS/2 will be supported and developed by IBM for the foreseeable future,
at least ten years from now". - So its not "ten years", but "at least ten
years".
I said to John Soyring I have the impression there are many people _inside_
IBM who doubt the future of OS/2 and he answered that he is aware of this
problem. He said tremendous errors have been made in the past and used the
phrase "the OS/2 kernel is frozen" as an example. He said that he was right
here at CeBIT to tell IBMers and IBM customers that OS/2 is not dead and has a
bright future.
One of the problems is, he said, that most of the people are informed by the
press. IBM will from now on, start to deliver new technology or enhancements
for OS/2 "every Web year" - every 90 days - and to inform press, "to keep the
OS/2 platform visible and vital".
John Soyring said that IBM has put about USD 150 Million into OS/2 development
and research last year. This amount will not be changed in the next years.
I said that IBM did put more money into OS/2 in 1995 than that and he replied
that IBM has moved the OS/2 Client and OS/2 Server development to the same
place: Out f 900 OS/2 developers in Boca Raton, 720 were moved to the LAN
developers in Austin, Texas, into a new building. All developers now meet at
the coffee machine and for lunch. It's six minutes from one developer to any
other developer "including the elevator queue". John Soyring said that "spirit
is up, productivity is up and quality is up". And still IBM has saved money.
"In the first nine months of 1996, we've produced more new code for OS/2 Warp
4 than we've had in any of the previous 10 years of development, we're going
to continue our investment at a very high rate because the operating system is
used extensively for mission critical applications among the world's 10,000
largest enterprises."
Additionally, John Soyring told us the "Hong Kong Chinese Bank", a Bank with
about 34.000 (thirty four thousand) subsidiaries and about a million employees
has signed with IBM and will move from Windows to OS/2 for all client PCs. The
Hong Kong Chinese Bank is so large that one of the bigger banks in England,
the Midland Bank, UK, is just a subsidiary.
With his assistant becoming more nervous every minute, John Soyring now had to
leave for the next appointment.
But two minutes later he came back and said that also Lee Reiswig, before
leaving the company, has said in public that OS/2 will be here to stay at
least until the year 2005. And with this he left finally.
Written by Hendrik Fulda, h...@teamos2.de
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Version 1.1 vom 26. Maerz 1997
TeamOS/2 Deutschland sprach mit John Soyring.
Die, die auf der CeBIT waren, wissen es schon: Thomas Christinck und ich haben
mit John Soyring gesprochen. Hier der Ablauf.
John Soyring, dessen Titel offiziell "Director of the business unit Network
Computing Project" lautet, den die meisten aber besser einordnen koennen, wenn
man ihn als "Chef von Paul Giangarra", Chefentwickler von OS/2, bezeichnen
wuerde, war auch auf der CeBIT.
Sein Erscheinen auf dem IBM Stand in Halle II nutzte ich, um die Aussage eines
Teilnehmers beim Treffen der australischen OS/2 Usergroup zu verifizieren.
John Soyring soll dort gesagt haben, dass Lou Gerstner einer amerikanischen
Bank versichert hat, OS/2 werde noch zehn Jahre weiterentwickelt werden.
Ich fragte ihn also, ob dies stimmen wuerde und er antwortete, dass die
Aussage, die er, John Soyring, zusammen mit Lou Gerstner in Person gegenueber
der Bank gemacht haette, wie folgt lautet: OS/2 wird von IBM "for the
forseeable future, at least ten years from now" weiterentwickelt. Also nicht
"zehn Jahre", sondern "mindestens zehn Jahre".
Auf meine Entgegnung, dass es _in_ der IBM aus meiner Sicht viele Menschen
gibt, die nicht mehr an die Zukunft von OS/2 glauben, antwortete John Soyring,
dass er sich dessen bewusst sei. Er sagte, dass in der Vergangenheit schwere
Fehler gemacht worden seien und nannte die Aussage "the OS/2 Kernel is frozen"
als Beispiel dafuer. Er, John Soyring, waere auf der CeBIT um IBMern und IBM
Kunden zu versichern, dass OS/2 nicht tot ist und Zukunft habe.
Ein Problem sei, dass die meisten Menschen nur ueber die Computerpresse
informiert werden. IBM werde ab jetzt alle neunzig Tage ("every Web-Year")
eine neue Technologie in OS/2 integrieren und dies auch der Presse mitteilen -
"to keep the OS/2 plattform visible and vital", um OS/2 sichtbar und gesund zu
halten.
Er sagte, IBM habe im letzten Jahr 150 Millionen Dollar in Entwicklung und
Forschung fuer OS/2 gesteckt. Dieser Betrag wuerde auch in den folgenden
Jahren gehalten werden.
Auf meine Entgegnung, dass IBM doch in 1995 wesentlich mehr Geld in OS/2
gesteckt hatte, antwortete John Soyring, dass IBM zum Beispiel die Entwicklung
des OS/2 Client und OS/2 Server zusammengelegt haette. Von den 900 OS/2
Entwicklern in Boca Raton seien 720 OS/2 Entwickler zu den LAN Entwicklern
nach Austin, Texas verschoben worden. Dort haetten sie ein neues Gebaeude
bezogen. Alle Entwickler wuerden sich jetzt in der Kantine und beim
Kaffeeautomaten treffen. Jeder Entwickler haette einen Weg von sechs Minuten
zu jedem anderen Entwickler "including the elevator queue" - inclusive der
Fahrstuhlfahrt. Er sagte, die Stimmung sei besser, die Produktivitaet sei
besser und die Qualitaet sei besser. Und trotzdem habe IBM eine Menge Geld
gespart.
"In the first nine months of 1996, we've produced more new code for OS/2 Warp
4 than we've had in any of the previous 10 years of development, we're going
to continue our investment at a very high rate because the operating system is
used extensively for mission critical applications among the world's 10,000
largest enterprises."
Weiterhin sagte uns John Soyring, dass die "Hong Kong Chinese Bank", eine Bank
mit 34.000 (vierunddreissigtausend) Fillialen und ueber einer Million
Angestellten gerade mit IBM einen Vertrag abgeschlossen habe und alle
Arbeitsplaetze (von Windows) auf OS/2 umstellen wuerde. Die Hong Kong Chinese
Bank ist so gross, dass eine der groesseren Banken in England, die Midland
Bank (UK), nur eine Filiale von ihr ist.
Nachdem nun sein Assistent _wirklich_ ungeduldig wurde und John Soyring zum
naechsten Termin musste, haben wir uns verabschiedet.
Zwei Minuten spaeter kam jedoch John Soyring noch einmal zurueck und sagte
uns, dass schon Lee Reiswig, bevor er ausgeschieden sei, oeffentlich und
schriftlich erklaert habe, dass OS/2 noch mindestens bis zum Jahre 2005
weiterentwickelt werde. Damit verabschiedete er sich dann entgueltig.
Geschrieben von Hendrik Fulda, h...@teamos2.de
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KF...@gov.calgary.ab.ca
In <o$2ann$4044$a9703...@BIX.com>, h...@teamos2.de (Hendrik H. Fulda) writes:
>Additionally, John Soyring told us the "Hong Kong Chinese Bank", a Bank with
>about 34.000 (thirty four thousand) subsidiaries and about a million employees
>has signed with IBM and will move from Windows to OS/2 for all client PCs. The
>Hong Kong Chinese Bank is so large that one of the bigger banks in England,
>the Midland Bank, UK, is just a subsidiary.
>
Bank, not the Hong Kong Chinese Bank. There is a Bank of China (the
central bank of the People's republic) in Hong Kong, but it does not
own the Midland Bank, UK, the HKSB does. HKSB has subsidiaries in
Canada, US, Australia, the Caribeans, Europe, and is one of the
more profitable and larger banks in the world. I remember using
their computerized multibranch banking services in 1965. I wish
banks elsewhere can now catch up to what they were offering
32 years ago.
John Naismith
In message <5hor6g$1h...@gserv3.lis.dpsd.gov.calgary.ab.ca> -
KF...@gov.calgary.ab.ca writes:
>I think John Soyring got this one wrong - it is the Hong Kong and Shanghai
>Bank, not the Hong Kong Chinese Bank.
Try again. It's actually the HSBC - Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking
Corporation.
In the UK it owns Midland Bank (which in turn owns First Direct - I bank
with them), and The Royal Bank of Scotland (which is actually a good bit
larger than Midland Bank).
They also appear "interested" in acquiring various insurance companies....
David Shepherd
Hendrik H. Fulda <h...@teamos2.de> wrote:
: Additionally, John Soyring told us the "Hong Kong Chinese Bank", a Bank with
: about 34.000 (thirty four thousand) subsidiaries and about a million employees
: has signed with IBM and will move from Windows to OS/2 for all client PCs. The
: Hong Kong Chinese Bank is so large that one of the bigger banks in England,
: the Midland Bank, UK, is just a subsidiary.
I'm pretty certain that should be "Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank" (HSBC).
Midland are a subsidiary of it (and have just "rebadged" themselves to take
on the HSBC logo - HSBC "rescued" Midland a few years ago after Midland
had got into big trouble by buying Wells Fargo in an attempt to become
an international bank. I suspect that because of this HSBC may well control
Wells Fargo in the US. BTW, my impression of Wells Fargo computing
technology is pretty low when while in the US last year I spent 30 minutes
trying to cash some travellers cheques because they'd "changed the
computer system" and couldn't find the menu with the cash travellers cheques
for non-customer option on it - as they had done this on a Saturday there
weren't many people answering there tech-support line so after the cashier
had been on hold for 25 mins I said I wanted my cheques back and I'd go
to a bank that worked and miraculously the requirement that the transaction
had to be logged in the computer before they could hand over money
suddenly disappeared!)
As for HSBC having 34,000 subsidiaries - I can believe that. Certainly Midland
bank is split into loads of "independent business units" so that once when
I questioned an excessive bank charge for a foreign currency cheque I was
just told by the branch "I'm afraid that's nothing to do with us - the
charges are set by Midland Internation Currency Ltd and we just have to pass
them on to you".
--
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david shepherd
SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics Ltd, 1000 aztec west, bristol bs12 4sq, u.k.
tel/fax: +44 1454 611522/617910 email: d...@bristol.st.com
"whatever you don't want, you don't want negative advertising"