o f In form a tion Sy ste ms M a na g ement
`The Newspaper
`May 13. 1996, Vol. 30, No. 20, 142 Pages
`$6/Cop y , $48/Year
`
`COMPUTERWORLD
`Applerecall sousours Mixed messaging
`p rem1 um pr icece p Ian Digit al fl oods user s with mail opti ons; vi sion unclear
`
`By Tim OuOuellette
`
`Cyberdog, Apple's
`Internet suite of
`OpenDocapplets,
`ships this week.
`See page 16
`
`The affected models include the
`Power Macintosh 5200LC and
`5300LC. several models in the Per(cid:173)
`forma 6200 and 6300 lines and the
`PowerBook5300s and 190s, Each oJ
`these models crashes randomlyand
`often, and freezes up inlermiUeoUy
`(see chart, page 16).Dealers willtry
`lo repair the PowerMacintoshesand
`Performas, but the PowerBooks
`will have to be sent to a central
`Apple recall, page 16
`
`By LisaPicarille
`
`The timing couldn't be worse.
`Macintosh users and analysts
`agree that AApple Computer, Inc. will
`have a hard time charging a premi-
`um price (or its products in light of
`last week's announcement that as
`l million Macintoshes
`many as
`could be seriouslyflawed.
`The Cupertino Calif., company
`plans to reimburse its authorized
`dealers lo repair or refurbish defec(cid:173)
`tive machines at no cost to users,
`
`WHAT'S
`
`INSIDE
`
`■ Netscape plans N
`
`software for
`processing
`credit-card
`transactions
`over the Inter•
`net See story.page 66, by Mitch
`Wagner.
`
`Digital Equipment Corp. this week will gallop into
`the Internet E-mailrace with AltaVistaMail, hop(cid:173)
`ing to lasso new users for the firm's messag
`products.
`But users of Digital's existing
`electronic-mailproducts, MailWorks
`and All-In-I. have yet to see a clear
`vision of the futurefor their systems,
`And the message has been further
`clouded by Digital'ssupport of Mi-
`crosoft Corp.'s EExchange for Win(cid:173)
`dows NT and reports that Digital
`may provide NT-based OfficeServer
`as analternativeto Exchange,
`"Digitalsees its own products as
`answers lor the enterprise" and
`mixed environments, wilh Exchange
`targeted more at the Windows NT
`workgroup level for now, said Mark
`Levitt, an an alyst al In-
`ternational Data Corp,
`in Framingham, MMass.
`AltaVista Mail 1,0 is
`
`History lesson
`
`Digital's All-in-1has
`changed a lot since
`1982 Version 3.2now
`runsonDigital'sAlpha
`platform and11.s
`discarded the
`proprietaryinterfaces
`10 keepup withcurrent
`standards.
`
`a Windows NT-based Internet E-mail server that
`works with any of !he inexpensivePost Office Pro(cid:173)
`tocol-3E-mail clients oo the market II targets
`companieswith several remote offices or smaller
`departmentsthat need Internet mailaccess - not
`Digital's traditionalaudience.
`For example, network manager
`Paul Demediuk at Washington Unt•
`versity's School of Medicine,turned
`to Alta Vista Mail to manage student
`E-mail accounts. the St.Louisuni-
`versity has never been auser of Digi-
`tal's products; it ran a basic Unix.(cid:173)
`based E-mail systeminstead,
`"I was constantlyadding and tak-
`ing people nff lhe Unix system,"De(cid:173)
`mediuksaid. "AltaVista Mail is a lot
`easier Ito use] lo administer tran-
`sient accounts, and the users can do
`some basic administration them(cid:173)
`selves from their Web browser."
`Simple administration is one feature luring
`many current MailWorks and All-In-1users who
`run Unix andOpenVMS to took at Windows NT.
`Mixed messaging. page 16
`16
`
`Novell battles on
`NT, Internet fronts
`
`ByLaura DiDio
`
`Afterthree years ofstrategic mis-
`steps and
`costly acquisitions,
`a
`newly svelte Novell, the us mak-
`ingmany of the rightmoves
`Havingexited the desktopap-
`plication market by unloading
`WordPerfect
`and its UnixWare
`offeringsat astaggering loss, the
`Orem Utahbased networking
`it rm will use the Internet to be-
`come a network services compa-
`ny President Robertrt Franken-
`berg saidlast week.
`Thislateststrategictwist will
`find Novell caught between a
`rock and a hard place - Micro-
`soft Corp.'sWindows NT Server,
`and the perception that Novell
`won't be able10 matchits success
`with NetWarein the LAN market
`wlth a similardominanceol the
`Internet arena,
`The industry's prognosis forfor
`
`Novell's long-term success
`is
`guarded optimism babased on iN<
`biggest asasset: a mostly loyal in
`stalled base (see chart below)
`and thehe company's newfound
`Novell. page113
`
`Will the rise
`of Internet
`Web servers
`makeNetWo
`obsolete?
`
`No. 80%
`
`I •
`
`Don't know
`
`10 %
`
`■ A llny digital audio company
`in Hollywood, Fla., has filed
`lawsuils against Microsoft,
`Netscape, America Online and
`two dozen other onllne and
`voice-mail vendors. alleging
`patent violatfons for audio
`technology, See story. page 6,
`by Kim S. Nosh.
`
`■ Traveling man
`Dan Coolidge
`shares his expe-
`riences in his
`new bookSurviv(cid:173)
`al Guide for
`Rood Warriors.
`See story, page
`8, by Mindy
`8/odgetl
`
`Tandem's Roel Pieper (left)and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer
`theywillbring clustering
`reliabilityto Windows NNT servers
`
`Tandem to enable
`fault-tolerant NT
`
`By Michael Goldberg
`
`MicrosoftCorp. last weeksought lo allay any concerns about
`Windows NT's reliability for mission-criticalapplications by
`strikinga deal with fault-tolerantsystems leader Tandem Com(cid:173)
`puters,Inc.
`The pact meansthat in return for apayment of more than $30
`million from Microsoft
`Tandem will make
`WindowsNT versions
`of its proprietary fault(cid:173)
`tolerant middleware.
`including its Nonstop
`SQLdatabasesystem,
`Users and analysts
`the deal
`said
`lends
`Tandem, page15
`
`• SAP AG announces totools to
`simplify and ease the cost
`burden oof R/3implementations.
`See story, page 12, by Jul/a
`King.
`
`.. e
`
`p ap swez
`
`
`
`EX 1033 Page 1
`
`

`

`Viewpoint
`
`Editorial
`
`1
`
`Letters
`
`to the editor
`
`I don't usually devote this column to
`anew product, but there's one on my
`desktop I think is important enough
`to challenge our assumptions about
`Internet information delivery.
`It's PointCasl, an Internet-enabled screen saver lhat
`draws a continuous stream of news, weather, sports,
`business and lifestyle information from a server on the
`'net. This free client software from PointCasl, Inc. in
`Cupertino, Calif., (http://www.pointcastcom) is the
`most useful application of agent technology I've seen,
`and it may spark a fundamental change in the way we
`think about Internet interfaces.
`Poi.ntCasl lives on your Win(cid:173)
`dows PC and quietly downloads
`categories of news that you spec(cid:173)
`ify over a background Internet
`connection. You can read the in(cid:173)
`formation onlioe or let Point•
`Cast's screen saver utility pop up
`and display lhe headlines, stock
`quotes and, yes, advertisement
`on your screen. If you have a continuous Internet con(cid:173)
`nection, your datais never more than about an hour old.
`What impresses me about PointCast isn't so much
`lhe technology-although
`that's pretty slick-but
`the way it challenges the Web browser metaphor . Fre(cid:173)
`quent surfers know that one of lhe most maddening
`things about the World Wide Web is that it's a passive
`medium: You have to go looking forstufL That's a waste
`of time for the user and a problem for businesses that
`spend time and money drawing users to their sites.
`PointCast brings you the information you want with(cid:173)
`out your having to ask. The screen saver is a small
`stroke of genius because it makes the application ao
`active presenc e on your desktop. PointCast will keep
`lhe se rvice free by selling on-screen ads. Company of(cid:173)
`ficials say it's already the second -most-visited Web site.
`Now PointCast is extending the technology to the in(cid:173)
`tranet through a$995 package that gives an internal
`web the same capabilities as the PointCast server. So,
`instead of Cubs scores scrolling across your screen,
`you can see the names or new hires in your business
`unJt. lt'sasmart way to use all those MIPS that are be(cid:173)
`ing burn ed running "Dilbert" screen savers.
`I expect the PointCast idea to be adopted in a Jot of
`other products. As aninformation provider. I'm a little
`spooked by the competition. But asan avid 'oet surfer,
`I'm intrigued by the creativity of the concept. I wish I'd
`thought ofiL
`
`Remember 0S/2
`
`I was amused and annoyed to
`see Bob Francis' article
`"Desktops hit disk barrier"
`(CW, April 15]. Oh, my. Nooe
`of the major operating
`sys
`tems -
`"MS-DOS,Windows
`3.1 aod Windows 95" -
`cao
`handle drives more than 2G
`bytes, so you'll have to switch
`to NT. Especially amusing is
`that on the jump page the box
`in the upper right corner is
`"Nightmare oo NT street"
`Ever heard of 0S/2?
`High-performance file sys(cid:173)
`tem supports drives up to
`512G bytes, yet there is nary a
`mention of it in Francis' arti•
`cle. Of course, at 12 million us(cid:173)
`ers (as of last December),
`OS/2 iso't a major operating
`system. Perhaps the name of
`your publication should be
`RedmondWorld,so that your
`masthead reflects the same
`orienlation as your staff.
`Mark Loveless
`SystemDesigns,Inc.
`LittleRock, Ark.
`mslsdi@ibm.net
`
`Richard Finkelstein's Viewpoint col-
`umn ("Separating the cybcrgems
`from the cyberjunk." CW, April 29]
`is a great recipe for getting to know a
`headhunter. It's good eoough advice
`Paul Gillin, Editor
`for the 80% of the applications that
`Internet paul_gillin@cw.com are used less than 20% or the time,
`http://www.ultranet.com?~pgillin
`but it's disastrous advice for your
`(O MPUTERWOR LD MAY 13, 1996 (http://www.computerworld.com)
`
`lams as
`sociates analyst) Tony
`claiming that Windows NT is more
`open than Unix environments. Does
`lams really expect us to believe that
`an operating system that lives in the
`public domain is less open than one
`owned and controlled by a single
`company? The next time you get
`quot e3 from an expert, make sure he
`knows somelhing about what he's
`talking about.
`
`Kirk Pepperdine
`Miami
`kirk_pepperdine@email.fpl.com
`
`bread-and-butter applications. The
`"high deployment, maintenance and
`upgrade costs .. . or today's client/
`server applications" don't even ap-
`proach the user's cost of lost produc(cid:173)
`tivity due lo a browser-based applica-
`tion's poor response time for any
`remotely mission-critical application.
`Finkelstein clearly doesn't under(cid:173)
`stand the nature of lhe hardware
`business if he thinks be can avoid
`renovating thousands of pieces. of
`desktop hardware every two years.
`Manufacturers will ensure that this
`year's model has some whizbang
`feature not in last year's. Any IS man•
`ager who tells users their obsolete
`models are still "good enough" will
`soon be looking for a job.
`GordonMcMillan
`Concord,Calif.
`gmcm@ccnet.com
`
`Microsoft will win
`
`Tech doesn't filter
`down from tyrants
`
`I care about social issues. I'd
`rather not read about them in Com-
`puterworld !hough, thank you, espe(cid:173)
`cially the specious social drivel es(cid:173)
`poused by Joe Maglitta ("Dying to
`make technology work for all" CW,
`MayG].
`People do help one another. Tech(cid:173)
`nology docs filter down, except in
`places such as Cuba. Making the
`world a better place is one thing -
`and what most of us are trying to do
`at our jobs. Making lhe world safe
`for repressive government edicts
`and tyrants is another. I wonder if
`Maglitta knows the difference.
`Michael Mayo
`LosAngeles
`70473.3024@compuserve.com
`
`In a technological sense, civilization
`advances as people learn to use new
`inventions ["Will Microsoft catch
`Netscape?" CW, April 29]. Over
`time. complexity is learned or hid-
`den, and new ideas become common
`knowledge. This same force will
`tame the lnterneL and network ac-
`cess will be simplified. 1 predict dom(cid:173)
`inance by Microsoft. It is a market-
`ing master of the commonplace.
`JerryNorton
`Bradenton,Fla.
`102132.3244@compuserve.com
`■ Computerwortd welcomes comments
`from its readers. Letters should not exceed
`200 words and shoukl be addressed
`to Paul Gillin, Editor, Computerwor1d, PO
`Box 9171, 5500Old Connecticut Path, Fra(cid:173)
`mingham, Mass. 01701. Faxnumber:(so8}
`875•8931:
`Internet:
`letters@cw.com,
`Please include an address and phone
`number for verification
`
`An 'open' question
`on Windows NT
`
`In "DEC's Win NT gang grabs for
`Unix turf" (CW, May 6), Jaikumar
`Vijayan quotes (D. H. Brown and As-
`
`Some great advice
`for losing one's job
`
`EX 1033 Page 2
`
`