Members Respond to Year-in-Review Poll

Few are ready to buy a car through the Internet

Each year at its January meeting, the Software Entrepreneurs' Forum/UniForum Open Systems SIG asks a panel of industry experts to review the year in open systems. We asked UniForum members on our electronic mailing list to respond to the same questions the panelists would be asked. Typically, their responses are pithy, frank, and irreverent. Here's a sampling of what members thought about this year's questions:

1. Who was 1994's most successful open systems entrepreneur?

Our members, divided on whether to mention a person or a company, voted in equal numbers for:

2a. Who/what did the most for open systems in 1994?

X/Open Co. got the most votes, for its contributions to UNIX unification, shepherding Spec 1170, and taking on the UNIX trademark from Novell. Novell also got some credit for giving the UNIX name to X/Open, but also was criticized on that score.

Other top vote-getters:

2b. Who/what did the worst for open systems in 1994?

The runaway winner was Bill Gates and Microsoft, for trying to pretend that Windows NT is an open system. Novell came in a strong second for buying UNIX (in 1993), then not exploiting UnixWare and-our members thought-generally twiddling its thumbs in the open systems and UNIX arena.

Member Ed Niehaus, South San Francisco, CA, said Microsoft had earned the title "by defining 'open' as being controlled by one company but in an open process in which they ask people what they want and then do what Microsoft intended all along."

Also mentioned were:

3. What are your favorite two open systems products to have been released in 1994?

Our members came up with a long list, with no single product getting more than a few votes. Top vote-getter was NCSA Enhanced Mosaic, the World-Wide Web browser that has made the WWW the hottest Internet venue going.

Other products receiving more than one vote were:

4. What are the winning factors for selling high-end UNIX servers to replace legacy systems or do new applications?

Members thought price/performance was by far the most important factor. Ed Niehaus said he voted for "Price/performance and a level of reliability equal to that of the mainframe systems that are being phased out; also, compatibility with existing LANs and other systems."

Other factors getting multiple votes were:

5. Will massively parallel UNIX systems ever do order entry and payroll processing applications?

Most members said "yes" with qualifications, with about a 70 percent "yes" vote. Sample replies:

6. When will you be willing to pay for your next automobile by sending a supposedly encoded credit card number to your dealer's World-Wide Web page?

Our members almost unanimously considered this a poor question. It supposes two unlikely situations, they said: first that a buyer would normally pay for a car with a credit card, which hardly anyone does even in person due to high credit card interest rates and credit limits; second, that there would be any convenience to paying over the Internet for an item that the purchaser would normally want to test drive, and then pick up in person from the dealer.

Sample responses:

7. What opportunities stand out for UniForum members for software development-i.e., what products and services are missing from the current array?

Member opinions were spread across a wide range of products and services, with 33 separate categories mentioned. The top vote-getter was the category of systems management, integrated systems and network management, and enterprise administration products.

Others with multiple votes: