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Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
(From Communications Week, Feb 14, 1994)

"IBM Promises OS/2 Version 2.2 by June"
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by Patrick Dryden

  Dallas: The corporate users and consultants who gathered here for a
  briefing on IBM's operating system goals two weeks ago were pleased
  by the company's disclosures about OS/2 version 2.2 and its
  scheduled availability "by June at the latest".

  The upcoming release runs well on 4 megabytes instead of 16
  megabytes of memory, said Paul Giangarra, lead architect for OS/2
  and Workplace OS for IBM Personal Software Products, Austin, Texas.

  Some users were concerned about compromises that have been necessary
  to get OS/2 to run using less RAM.  But Giangarra said that by
  optimizing version 2.1 and making some features optional, IBM was
  able to shrink OS/2 to fit the 4-megabyte standard base memory
  configuration.

  "That wasn't possible with OS/2 2.0, but I was able to get 2.1
  stable on a 4-megabyte laptop, running slowly.  Now we can look
  forward to a really robust version," said Jim Stuyck, a consultant
  and officer of the Dallas-Fort Worth OS/2 Users Group.

  "If it's true, then we'll be able to spread OS/2 across more
  stations," said an information technology group leader from a local
  corporation.

  Support for C-2 level security and symmetric multiprocessing will be
  available optionally, IBM said.

  During the briefing, David Barnes, IBM's OS/2 evangelist, promised
  3-D effects and more color instead of "that neutral, soothing but
  dog-ugly interface."

  Attendees were impressed by demonstrations of OS/2's multithreaded,
  preemptive multitasking capabilities.

  "This is vital for clients.  OS/2 gives every DOS and (Microsoft
  Corp.) Windows application multiple threads so they won't get
  dropped when you extend them across the network."

  That was the case with a reporting system developed for Plano,
  Texas-based Frito-Lay Inc., according to Jerald Evans, vice
  president of Renaissance Information Technology Inc., Grapevine,
  Texas.  "We could juggle all the data retrieval only under OS/2."

  In the future, many users will be able to build their own
  applications by assembling objects that fetch data from any source
  in a transparent network, IBM's Giangarra said.  -- Phil Longstaff,
  Motorola Codex, Mississauga Ontario