Alec Saunders in OSDEBATE at FIDONET stated that "It takes about 3              
seconds to discredit that document based on the errors in it and the            
public information about Windows 95."  That document referred to                
the OS/2 Warp vs Windows 95 whitepaper that IBM released in September.          
There were no details provided just statements that this is wrong               
or false.  We think that it is weak just to say things are wrong or             
false without explaining why.  (eg. replace "this is wrong." with               
"This is wrong because...").  Let us clarify our position on the points         
that Alec chose.                                                                
                                                                                
The format of the reply is the Page number and Alec's point and the             
answer which is our reply.  Attached at the bottom is the original              
post from Alec.                                                                 
                                                                                
Page 6:  the entire discussion of broken links is false                         
Answer:  What did we say is wrong?  Let us quote from the Infoworld             
         article on October 17th.                                               
         "It is true that the shortcuts simply aren't as integrated             
         into the operating system as file objects are in OS/2.  Should         
         you move or rename the file a shortcut points to, the shortcut         
         will, in fact, lose track of the file."  It is true that               
         Chicago goes out and looks and tries to re-establish the               
         link but the link should NEVER break in the first place.  Let          
         us quote some more from Infoworld on their opinion of                  
         the relinking                                                          
         "This behavior is more of a parlor trick than object behavior          
         because it can be so easily subverted."                                
                                                                                
Page 6:  Claim that Windows 95 doesn't support drag and drop is false           
Answer:  Let us explain the level of drag and drop support that Warp            
         provides.  There is drag n' drop support for printing, shredding       
         faxing, business cards etc.  Let us demonstrate with an example.       
         Drag a business card from the address book on top of a document.       
         Then you drag the document to the fax machine, FaxWorks                
         retrieves the fax number from the business card,  and faxes            
         the document in the background.  This is the level of drag and         
         drop functionality we were talking about that can be achieved by       
         ISV's by conforming to the SOM/DSOM standards.  The three              
         applications; word processor, address book and                         
         the FaxWorks package were written by three different                   
         ISV's yet provide complete integration because they all                
         "inherited" their Drag and Drop capability from the Workplace          
         Shell SOM object.  IS the Windows 95 desktop an OLE 2.0 object?        
         Will applications "inherit" Drag and Drop functionality?               
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
Page 10:  The API claims and diagram are wrong                                  
Answer:  What is wrong?  Are you stating that there is only one API and         
         every call will work across, Windows 3.1, WFW, NT and Windows95?       
         Are there no API's to exploit the new shell in Windows95?              
         If there are will those API's work on NT 3.5? WFW? Win 3.x?            
                                                                                
Page 12: The 32 bit Graphic Subsystem claim is wrong                            
Answer:  Is there no 16 bit code in there?  What about the GDI calls and        
         the User layer.  Per our information as much as 50% of the             
         GDI calls are still 16 bit code?                                       
                                                                                
Page 13: The pre-emptive multitasking claim is wrong                            
Answer:  How is this claim wrong? Are you now stating that this is not          
         true?  In the MS document AMYTH.ZIP on the win-news server             
         MS says that this is true but not important.  Are you stating          
         that Windows95 will provide complete pre-emptive multitasking          
         for all running applications running to the different API              
         sets of Win16, Win32s, Win32c and Win32.                               
                                                                                
Page 13: Claim about Win16 device drivers is wrong                              
Answer:  On the posts from the Internet before the whitepaper was               
         released many posters have pointed out that some of the                
         device drivers just plain don't work.  That is where we                
         got this information from.                                             
                                                                                
Page 13: Claim about number of 32-bit applications is wrong                     
Answer: I walked into Egghead Software, CompUSA and Computer City               
        and saw no applications claiming support for Windows95.  In             
        each of the store I saw many OS/2 32 bit applications.  When            
        I asked for native 32 bit application to run on Windows95 they          
        said they did'nt have any available.  If you release a copy of          
        of Windows 95 to us we will be glad to help you verify                  
        this.                                                                   
                                                                                
Page 15: Comparison of IBM's launch pad to the Windows 95 taskbar               
        is specious is best                                                     
Answer: We agree with you.  IBM's launch pad is much more advanced              
        than the taskbar in Windows95.  The taskbar is nothing more             
        than a graphical representation of the active windows list.             
        The launch pad is much more with complete Drag and Drop support.        
                                                                                
Page 15: the drag and drop deletion claim is wrong                              
Answer:  It's about time you could drag to the waste basket.                    
         This is something we had not seen documented and since we              
         don't have a copy of the Beta code could not try the feature           
         ourself.                                                               
                                                                                
Page 15: Drag and drop execution path claim in wrong                            
Answer:  Same as the Page 6 answer dealing with Shadowed Objects.               
                                                                                
Page 15: the parent folder closing options claim is wrong                       
Answer:  We didn't know that Windows95 closes the parent folder                 
         when a subfolder, or an object in the folder is opened, and            
         an option from any child folder to open the parent folder.             
         Since we are not allowed to have a copy of the Beta and we have        
         not seen this feature documented we didn't know that it                
         exists.  Glad to see that Microsoft is announcing this feature         
         for Windows95 in an attempt to replicate Warp functionality.           
                                                                                
Page 16: the Image Viewer claim is wrong                                        
Answer:  The image viewer that ships in Warp allows you to view files           
         in the following formats                                               
                                                                                
         OS/2 BMP's                                                             
         MS BMP's                                                               
         GIFF                                                                   
         TIFF                                                                   
         TARGA                                                                  
         PCX                                                                    
         Kodak Photo CD                                                         
                                                                                
         In addition to these format you can also view the following            
         software motion files:                                                 
                                                                                
         Ultimotion AVI files                                                   
         Indio 3.2 AVI files                                                    
         MPEG files, if you have an MPEG card                                   
         FLC animation files                                                    
         FLI animation files                                                    
                                                                                
         Since we don't have the Beta we cannot try out all of these            
         format.  Does the Windows95 Image Viewer support all of these          
         formats?                                                               
                                                                                
Page 17: the Internet claims are wrong                                          
Answer:  Per your newsletter on 10/10 we now understand that you intend         
         to ship utilities for FTP and Telnet but no Gopher, Newsreader         
         or a World Wide Web Explorer.  Microsoft claims on what will           
         be in Windows95 for Internet support has definately waivered.          
         Let me quote from an article by Joseph Panettieri from                 
         Information Week on August 11th 1994.  "Officials at the               
         Redmond, Wash., company have admitted that Chicago will lack           
         an Internet interface, a feature that was in the original              
         plans."                                                                
                                                                                
Page 17: the word processor claim is wrong                                      
Answer:  Our document clearly states that a text processor is included          
         with Windows95.  The IBM Works word processor that ships with          
         Warp includes support for tables (both cell and freehand),             
         different text colors, ability to drag and drop objects,               
         (bitmaps, charts, business cards), synonyms, mail merge                
         Word Count, Header/Footers, Macros, drawing tools                      
         spell checker, import documents in nine different formats              
         like Wordperfect, Word and Amipro.  Is Writepad                        
         going to have all of this functionality included?  In our              
         opinion these are key for an application to be considered              
         a word processor not a simple text processor.                          
                                                                                
Page 17: The PIM Claim is wrong                                                 
Answer:  We have seen no public claims of what the Windows95 PIM will           
         be.  The PIM included in Warp contains an address book, To do's        
         a yearly planner, calendar, a notepad, contact lists                   
         appointments.                                                          
         All of these applications are SOM enabled with complete Drag           
         and drop support within applications.  If you drag a business          
         card onto a day on your calendar, it will automatically schedule       
         an appointment for that person on that day asking you to only          
         confirm the duration.                                                  
                                                                                
 ========================================================================       
 ----- OSDEBATE FIDONET appended at 07:51:48 on 94/10/18 GMT (by IBMNET a       
 TOROVM1)                                                                       
 Subject: Honest Debate                                                         
 Ref: none                                                                      
 NOTICE: This append originated outside of IBM. To reply to the original        
 author please include the following line in your append;                       
                                                                                
 ECHO TO: ALEC SAUNDERS                                                         
 *-------------------------------------------------                             
 *From: ALEC SAUNDERS  To: IVAN SCHAFFEL                                        
                                                                                
 IS>You now have IBM's OFFICIAL rebuttal to Chicago. Should be fruitful f       
 IS>for a long time. Fudsters can now retire and let honest debate begin.       
 Ivan -- I wouldn't put too much store inthe IBM doc.  It takes about 3         
 seconds to discredit that document based on the errors in it and the pub       
 information about Windows 95.  For instance, a quick glance through            
 reveals:                                                                       
                                                                                
 page 6 - the entire discussion of broken links is false                        
 page 6 - the claim that Windows 95 doesn't support drag and drop is fals       
 page 10 - the API claims and diagram are wrong                                 
 page 12 - the 32 bit graphics subsystem claim is wrong                         
 page 12 - who cares if Windows 95 doesn't have a non-locking input queue       
 it has multiple queues which get rid of that problem                           
 page 13 - the pre-emptive multitasking claim is wrong                          
 page 13 - the claim about Win16 device drivers is wrong                        
 page 13 - the claim about number of 32 bit applications is wrong               
 page 15 - the comparison of IBM's launch pad to the Windows 95 taskbar i       
 specious at best                                                               
 page 15 - the drag and drop deletion claim is wrong                            
 page 15 - the drag and drop execution paths claim is wrong                     
 page 15 - the object type templates claim is wrong                             
 page 15 - the parent folder closing options claim is wrong                     
 page 16 - the image viewer claim is wrong                                      
 page 17 - the internet claims are wrong                                        
 page 17 - the word processor claim is wrong                                    
                                                                                
 Alec.                                                                          
                                                                                
 Alec Saunders, Windows Marketing, Microsoft Corporation                        
 "These are my opinions, and may not reflect Microsoft policy"                  
 ---                                                                            
  * WR  # 313 * Windows 95 -- Power Windows on the InfoBahn ...                 
 --- Platinum Xpress/Wildcat! v0.3d                                             
  * Origin: Ballybran Station (1:343/105)                                       
                                                                                
                                                                                
**********************************************************************          
Ashish Gupta    AGUPTA@MSNVM1.VNET.IBM.COM                                      
IBM Personal Software Products                                                  
