Gentle Listers,
 
During the last few weeks, there have been numerous postings, responses and
comments about Windows 95.  When I placed the original posting in late
August, I wasn't quite sure what was going to become of it.  There have been
many interesting comments but at this point, I would like to offer the
following thoughts for considerations.
 
Again, let me restate that I think a Windows 95 thread is still very
pertinent in the HP3000 list.  Earlier I stated that Windows had done more
for the recrudesence of interest in the HP3000 with client/server than most
anything else, including MacIntoshes.
 
There is another reason which I will get to in a little bit, but right now I
want to answer a few questions which have been posed to me.
 
First, I do not have anything against Macs.  I do not consider them to be
serious machines.  Equating HP3000 to Macs and PCs to UNIX was incorrect when
someone made that allusion earlier and it is still incorrect.
 
One of the main reason that Macs have, up to now, enjoyed an advantage in GUI
and interface was that Apple does not really have to worry about backward
compatability from a hardware point of view, or even from a software point of
view. Any computer store that you enter has an overwhelming list of offerings
both in hardware and software for the PC.  Apple is lucky to get an aisle or
two in the corner of the store, and that's for software.  If you want
hardware it's even smaller and most of it is from Apple.
 
After installing Windows95, I downloadedtwo files from the Microsoft web
site.  One was the Hardware compatability list, the other the software
compatability list.  When expanded, these two files take up around 4
megabytes.  That is just a list of the hardware and software which are
compatible with Windows95 and it is incredibly long.
 
When I migrated to Windows95, it recognised a Mitsumi CD-Rom, a Western
Digital Disc drive, a Diamond Stealth Video accelerator, a Prestige disc
controller card, a 16 meg memory card, an Intel CPU chip, a Green mother
board, a Hunday monitor, 2 floppy disc drives and a Katron network card.
 This is all stuff I bought and installed in that PC over a period of years.
Windows95 recognised them all and configured everything correctly.  All my
software works.
 
When I migrated from MPE/V to MPE/XL almost 10 years ago, we had to go
through a similar migration, though far more complex and we only had HP
hardware!  MPE/XL did provide an excellent compatability mode environment and
the vast majority of sites encountered little or no problems migrating from
MPE/V to MPE/XL, now known as MPE/iX.  The same is true for Windows95 and the
migration problems from Windows 3.x to Windows95 which are encountered are
chiefly due to old or arcane hardware.  Most PCs in use today have been sold
in the last few years and they will migrate just fine.
 
During the last 2 weeks, I have installed Windows95 on over 200 computers and
connected them with the built-in TCP/IP stack and fired up the built-in post
office for messaging.  There have been no hiccups.
 
I have read an extensive amount of documentation and articles about Windows95
and also WindowsNT.  As I write this, I am at Unix Expo in New York City
where we are presenting our software which runs on MPE, UNIX and . . .
 
Which brings us to the second reason why this thread in germane to HP3000-L.
 
The bells are starting to swing in anticipation of the UNIX funeral and even
now we hear a more and more clangors.  A lot of current UNIX users are moving
from UNIX to  . . .  WindowsNT.  The migration has started and is in process
now.
 
So when I hear some of you scream at the world for foolishly going to UNIX
instead of MPE, and Windows instead of Macs, let me just say that you are
missing the point.  WindowsNT has been slow coming, but it is coming
inexorably. Windows95 is a major step on the road to NT.  Next year, we will
see Windows96 or something similar, along with Cairo for NT. Shortly the two
will merge and UNIX will fade away.  MPE will then face its greatest threath
to its very existance.  It must adapt now or it too, will be left behind.  I
for one, am not ready to abandon everything to follow MickeySoft, I want to
retain some independance (note that I am still using AOL and not MSN, also
Delrina and WRQ among others) but I hold no illusions.  Windows95 and
WindowsNT are the up and coming OS, the UNIX-killers so to speak.