Hello David,
> This from a recent article in network computing, by Art Wittmann.
{stuff deleted ...}
> "Microsoft has promised support for I2O in its next major NT
> release, and Novell is excited about the standard as well."
From some discussions with I2O members ...
"Microsoft has only sent a token [member] to the standards meetings. This past Spring, Microsoft issued a challenge to the IHVs to provide HDMs (device hardware drivers) that were for Ship-able products at the Sept. Plugfest, and they would provide support for NT Server 4.0. At the Plugfest in NH, this past Sept., they not only didn't show up with the product as promised, they didn't show up either. Other companies (Intel being one) have supplied to Microsoft the OSM (interface between the OS and I2O) for LAN and Storage. The LAN interface is not sufficient for Microsoft to acknowledge it exists. (see the press release you mentioned.) The Storage OSM (written by Intel, updated by MS) is being done for NT5.0, but publicly they have only promised NT Server support."
Note that this means *maybe* I2O Storage support ... again to fix their broken file system. As for LAN ... who knows?
Other I2O member comments ...
"At the NH mtg, Novell provided CDs and Support modules for ALL the attendees to be able to demo real shipping products at Comdex THIS year. Novell is one of the leaders in the I2O arena. Novell employees are the chairman of the LAN, SAN, and Compliance Working group. Also, Novell holds a permanent seat on the Steering committee, along with 4 seats in the Core Architecture team, 2 seats in the Peer-to-Peer Working group, and a seat on the Mass Storage, Hot Plug and Fibre Channel working groups. Microsoft sent 2 different individuals to the initial I2O meetings, and have 2 other folks that show up once in a while at the general meetings to make grand boasts and promises that they so far haven't kept. Note that if you plan on relying on MS for the I2O Support, you will be in for a sour grapes for Win95, Win98 and WinNT4.0 clients and/or possibly even NT5.0 clients."
> Hmmm, the media again has said MSFT has made a committment to this
> wonderful technology, but NOVL hasn't. Is this STILL true?
Well ... it's true that Microsoft promises a lot! (I think about the protected memory OS they promised with NT every time my machine 'blue screens' ... ;-)
I'd love to hear what you define as meeting the criteria of "promised support" from Microsoft ... they "support" many things as check boxes on a marketing brochure, but they seldom seem to truely maximize and "support" the technology and provide the "bang for the buck" that our customers look for.
As for Novell not committing, I'm not sure how this author has his doubts ... as long as I have been back at Novell (over a year now) we have been *very* much on top of, and involved in contributing to the future of I2O ...
> Art Wittmann can be reached at awittman@nwc.com
I'll forward his address to the various marketing people involved in our I2O support ...
> David
Scott C. Lemon |
