Operating-System Trends

A reprint from the October, 1992 issue of BYTE magazine.


December 01, 2006
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/windows/operating-system-trends/196701928

A few years ago, all it took for an operating system to gain acceptance was an inexpensive hardware platform and a good application base. Now more complex factors come to bear: How easy it is to use and to develop applications for? How stable is its technology base? Driving this change is the trend among businesses to downsize. These companies are abandoning their minicomputers and mainframes for networked desktop systems. The personal computer is proving itself capable of handling mission-critical tasks, but the corporate customer wants more.

The sophisticated operating systems of mainframes and minicomputers (e.g., DEC's VMS or IBM's MVS) support multitasking, virtual memory, security, robust file systems, and efficient system administration. All these features are incorporated into each of the desktop-based operating systems discussed in this State of the Art section. These operating systems -- Microsoft's Windows NT, IBM's OS/2 2.0, Apple's System 7.0, Univel's UnixWare, Next's NextStep, and SunSoft's Solaris -- combine the best of the mainframe/minicomputer world with the best of the desktop world. The result is a relatively bulletproof system designed to be implemented on a large scale and able to run familiar desktop applications with a familiar user interface.

In competing for the corporate customer, hardware has become a commodity, and the operating system has become the vehicle for the competition. The latest manifestation of how the operating system is the focus of the competition for the corporate customer is found in Microsoft's Windows.

The Server Is the Key

Windows covers a wide range of systems, from notebooks and pen-based computers to the desktop. Originally, Windows was intended to make it easier for people to use the PC, but recently, it has expanded its mission: to form the foundation for a better server in client/server computing through NT. Mike Nash, NT marketing manager for Intel, describes the operating systemas "kind of a best-of package. If you name all the things you would want out of Unix, VMS, OS/2, DOS, and Windows, you will find they're all in NT." If it sounds like it's being developed as an ideal operating system for the server, that's because it is. All the serious operating-system contenders are vying to succeed in the corporate market by capturing the server.

The server is a key to operating-system marketing strategies because corporate networks are typically made up of a mix of clients: Accounting might use PCs while the marketing staff has Macs and the engineering department uses Unixbased workstations. That mix is slow to change because existing equipment and their applications tend to be preserved whenever possible. So, the developer has a better chance supplying operating systems on servers and letting the operating system's performance speak for its usefulness on new client machines. Witness the multiplatform support adopted by operating-system developers.

Don't Forget the Developer

Another strategic target in the operating-system competition is the applications developers in large corporations. These developers are the focus of two conflicting pressures: downsizing (and the scattering of corporate information system resources) and the increasing need to develop applications faster. The beleaguered developer presents a critical support issue and a strategic opportunity to operating-system vendors. The operating system that best supports internal developers has a real edge in getting their company's business.

"One of the biggest problems you have in corporate America is getting an application developed," observes Mike Colleary, IBM's marketing manager for OS/2. "Corporations need applications that give them a competitive advantage, something that everybody and his brother can't buy off the shelf." According to Colleary, up to 2 million people worldwide are developing unique applications within companies. Naturally, he sees OS/2's strength as a development platform.

Support Is Critical

Once an operating-system vendor has set its sights on mission-critical applications and corporate information systems, it must address a number of complex issues - issues that historically have had little to do with technology. This implies a higher level of support for the customer than simply delivering a shrink-wrapped software package. The catch is that while corporate customers may demand premium levels of support, they also demand low prices. The challenge for the operating-system developer is to define a collection of capabilities that can reduce the cost of support without overburdening the operating system.

IBM's Colleary claims that that profile of the user is the model on which to build a support infrastructure. He says the operating system should be as transparent to the user as possible and offer accessible help functions.

This is a new paradigm. Corporate customers are accustomed to having fast, effective, and comprehensive service and support from mainframe and minicomputer vendors. When something goes wrong with mission-critical applications, they expect a fast solution.

Arun Taneja, vice president of marketing for Univel, predicts that "the guy who is going to provide that cradle-to-grave service is the one that is going to win in terms of satisfying the MIS community and satisfying the Fortune 1000 community." Univel is targeting the systems integrators and system hardware OEMs as well. Taneja says that all the largest systems integrators are working with NetWare and are familiar with Unix, a situation that greatly improves Univel's chances of acceptance for its desktop operating system, UnixWare.

Corporate Change

Most corporate customers are no longer dazzled by the technology of desktop systems. They've traveled the path of the PC evolution . These customers are no longer looking for raw technology; they want efficient tools. Corporate customers expect their tools to work consistently and at the least possible cost in time, effort, and money.

The current wave of what is variously referred to as reengineering, rightsizing, or downsizing has one immediate goal: to reduce the cost of doing business. Downsizing directly affects the development of operating systems by the changes it makes in both the information systems infrastructure and the expectations of the people who own and use those systems. The other key motive behind corporate downsizing, heard most often from those users who prefer the term reengineering, is the flexibility that it offers.

The infrastructure of corporate information systems, at least for the purposes of this article, can be viewed from three perspectives -- what it does, who supports it, and who pays for it. The move in recent years from mainframebased information systems to those based on minicomputers and microcomputers was a user revolution driven by cost (primarily of the computing hardware), freedom (of information access and exchange), and focus (the mainframe-based information system focused on corporate-level problems, often ignoring department-level problems).

It's Gotta Be Multiplatform

Changes in information systems have driven corporate users to clamor for technical solutions to their problems. When there's less money and fewer people to throw at problems, what's left but technology? One of the technical solutions that corporate users are now asking operating-system developers to provide is the multiplatform operating system.

Operating-system developers can no longer afford to support just one hardware platform. A successful sale of personal computers to a large installation represents big revenues to the operating-system developertoo big to be tied to the fate of any one hardware platform.

Network-Dependent Applications

As you migrate from a simple PC on a desktop running only personal productivity applications to enterprise-wide systems, each level adds user benefits. From a technology viewpoint, the transitions between these levels can be achieved through incremental additions. But from the corporate customer's perspective, each level adds other issues that a mission-critical system must address.

For an application in a networked environment to be robust, all the network's resources must be managed. It becomes a more difficult and costly implementation process. For advanced operating systems, the key question that network-dependent applications raise is, How much of that network management responsibility should the operating system assume? The operating system forms the foundation of the networked environment, and the system management functions (e.g., configuration, installation, and administration) become applications that lie on top of the operating system. But the operating system must be tailored to support network-dependent applications.

Information systems professionals are accustomed to having the access and controls that are provided by large host environments. What they are looking for is a stable operating system on the server and a stable, multifunctional operating system on the client. They want applications built on top of an operating system so that they can manage the networked resources easily.

For example, Colleary points to OS/2's Crash Protection feature, which protects the networked system from massive failure in response to an application crashing on a client. If an application running on a client pulls down your entire system, "you're not talking about a person being unable to work, you're talking about the entire organization or department not being able to function," Colleary says.

The SDK Comes First

Intel's Windows NT goes to the beta-test stage this fall, but the Software Development Kit is shipping before that because Microsoft is trying to make it possible for developers to create 32-bit applications early. That approach is different from the old practice of shipping a new operating system and its development kit simultaneously. With the current approach, developers will have been able to test the API and create solid applications for the new operating system much sooner.

IBM is also paying attention to the need for early information in support of a new operating system. For OS/2 2.0, it conducted an early development program that included 30,000 sites worldwide. Each site gained experience with the operating system and fed back its requirements to IBM for transition into OS/2 code.

Future Directions

Virtually all the operating-system developers are pursuing new technologies, such as support for multimedia applications. Delivery of some of these capabilities will require changes in hardware platforms or in customers' information systems. Some of the emerging technologies will be resourceintensive, perhaps requiring changes in the operating system to efficiently handle new tasks simultaneously.

If the convergence of the worlds of computing, telecommunications, and TV occurs as expected, the huge sales volumes of the consumer markets will become a dominating influence in the directions taken in operating-system development. But until the buying power of the consumer has been tapped, the needs of the corporate customer will set the course for operating-system evolution.

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