This transition in leadership caused me to think back upon the various cast of characters involved with OS/2 over the years. I recently caught up with a few of them and have herein penned this "Where are they Now?" column. Others, like Wally Casey, John W. Thompson, Paul Giangarra, and John Soyring, are still in hiding and didn't return my messages. Those that I was able to contact are still very upbeat and look back upon their association with OS/2 with fondness.   Samuel J. Palmisano Photo courtesy of IBM

David L. Barnes

DAVID L. BARNES - David was the most visible spokesman for OS/2 and was more of a product evangelist as opposed to his official title of Senior Project Manager. David rose to notoriety in the legendary 1993 OS/2 vs. Windows-NT "Shootout" hosted by the Houston Area League of PC Users (HAL-PC). Following this, he traveled the world promoting the product, appearing in commercials for IBM, and even demonstrated OS/2 on ABC's "Good Morning America."  He was also IBM's point man on my "Connect the World with Merlin" project where OS/2 users from around the world plugged into the Internet in a global launch of OS/2 Warp 4 (October 19, 1996).

Today, Barnes is still in the evangelist business; if fact, he now holds the title of "Lead Evangelist, IBM Pervasive Computing," which as David puts it, he gets "to learn about the coolest new technology, and then go show it to people. (I still love my job.)"  No matter where he goes today, people still ask, "didn't you used to work on OS/2?" Consequently, he sort of feels like George Costanza from Sienfeld and cannot get beyond the association.

David still thinks back fondly on the spirit of the OS/2 community; "People really got into it for all the right reasons. It wasn't about greed, or taking over the world. It was honest." Asked to consider how things should have gone differently for OS/2, Barnes balked at pointing any fingers but said, "What I learned was the importance of creating a strong community of application developers committed to your environment."  As to his final thoughts for those people still using OS/2; "I have a lot of OS/2 friends that are now working on Linux, so I would like to say, if you're going to switch to another OS, Linux would be a great choice."

Vicci Conway

VICCI CONWAY - During her days with OS/2, Vicci held the official title of "Senior Electronic Marketing Communications Specialist" , but her unofficial title was "Team OS/2 Co-Coordinator"  (with Janet Gobeille). She was affectionately referred to as "Team Mom"  and could be found at just about any computer conference, large or small, helping "Teamers" get ready to demonstrate and promote OS/2. While in the Personal Software Products (PSP) division, she was on the team that put up the first OS/2 website; this being just prior to an official IBM website.

Her involvement with OS/2 moved from a hobby to a career; one she is extremely happy with. "I got started on OS/2 because I wanted an operating system that would let me do Genealogy, Word Processing and Quicken at the same time. I just couldn't wait for OS/2 with multiple DOS windows to come out. I then got so involved, that I spent a LOT of time and money on CompuServe talking about it to anyone that would listen. This led to my being offered a job to do that full-time, not only with the other OS/2 folks, but with the press. That gig moved me into doing the Internet and being there from the beginning. I wouldn't have changed a thing."

Today, Vicci holds the title of Program Manager/Internet Architect. "When I first left the Personal Software Products Division,"  she says, "I went to work for the Application Development part of the Software Group. I was brought on board to build up the Club OpenDoc and other Application Development websites. I now work for SWG HQ and focus on how Software Support ( www.ibm.com/software/support/) is done on the Internet, coordinating our effects with the Corporate Support website. I still own websites and am heavily involved in new technologies for the web."

Like Barnes, Vicci has nothing but fond memories of OS/2 users, "The very best thing about working with OS/2 was the 'team' aspect. Everyone was working on a common goal and everyone helped each other. Going to conferences and other events, and meeting the people who worked so hard for OS/2 was the most rewarding. I miss the camaraderie. Nothing has been like that since and isn't likely to ever be again in IBM. It was a very unique time and set of circumstances."

Asked how things could have been different with the rollout of OS/2, Vicci said, "It's very funny now to see some of what IBM is doing, in that during our time with OS/2, we tried so hard to get other executives to believe in OS/2 or to put on our TV advertising during shows like Star Trek to get to the proper target audience. And now of course they do that all of the time. It's unfortunate that others weren't yet ready for many of the things we were doing at that time. Now they've caught up, but OS/2, nor its supporters are there to give OS/2 its place. It's still, hands down, the best operating system. So, I guess, to answer your question, it would be to have pushed a little harder or tried to find more internal support."

Vicci concluded her comments by saying, "I wish I could say I myself was still using OS/2, but the tools to do my job, just aren't there for the platform. We made great strides with a lot of tool vendors, but so many are now gone. I wish I could still be using it. And I envy those that are."

Jeff Dean

JEFF DEAN - Jeff is perhaps best known as the Product Manager of OS/2 Warp 4 (Merlin) in the mid-1990's. This was a particularly ambitious release for the operating system in that it offered embedded Java support, speech recognition/VoiceType dictation, universal network client support, and support for TrueType, OpenGL, OpenDoc, Open32 and Plug and Play; not to mention the BonusPak accompanying the product. As Jeff looked back on that period he commented on the intensity of the development team,

"We had a maniacal focus on our target. While tiring, the long hours and intense meetings to try to make the product the best we could were often exhilarating. Plus, as we went on our roadshows to show off OS/2, I met some of the most interesting people. We were (and still are) proud of OS/2's capabilities, stability, and quality."

Asked, knowing what he does now, what, if anything, he would have done differently, Jeff replied, "I'm not sure different is the right term, but I'd probably spend more time making OS/2 an even more friendly developer's platform, i.e., ISVs and corporate developers. I started the Developer Connection and was quite proud of it, but we probably could have done even more. Also, I would have completed our work on Win32 support. We got distracted a little with our PPC work. And had the timing of Java's critical mass been a little earlier, we would have majored on that - plus I can envision a strong Linux tie. Finally, I would have invested more on a middleware "layer"...something that would have isolated the OS APIs from the average custom application - thus setting up portability better."

Today, Jeff is the Program Director for Small and Medium Business Solutions Offerings and is working on IBM Software Group's "Start Now Solutions for e-business"   program. This is a channel-partner program that assists IBM partners (many from the old BestTeam) in marketing, selling, proposing, and deploying SMB-focused solutions using IBM middleware. You can check it out at: PARTNERS or CUSTOMERS.

How did working on OS/2 effect Jeff in his later assignments with IBM? "Probably the most important effect was my perception that anything was/is possible. We faced so many challenges in OS/2, from making Win 3.1 applications work, to packing so many features, improvements, device support, etc. into each release -- all with the IBM-requisite quality -- in obscenely-short development schedules. It was OS/2 that essentially showed the rest of IBM how to develop software on highly aggressive schedules in plain view of the end-user community. While we had Early Experience Programs in IBM, OS/2 was the first real "beta-tested" product. Of course, this is now routinely boring. I also learned how important group-think is in large projects. Getting large groups of people (300-500) to have a common vision can work incredible miracles."

Jeff still believes OS/2 customers were wise in their use of their product, "My biggest thought is, 'How incredibly smart they were!' We have servers running OS/2 in the lab (and even in some of my friends' homes as plain old file servers on older hardware) that haven't been rebooted in over a year!!! Yeah, the latest Windows eye-candy features aren't there and the device support is, well, a little behind, but when you need reliability, there isn't a comparison. Oh, how about a few thoughts for the IBMers and IT staffs still supporting it? They are just incredible. I know they'll have to move to something else sooner than later (Linux and Java!!), but it is a testament to the vision that OS/2 embodied: workstation-based, enterprise, and mission-critical operating system for the future."

Timothy Sipples

TIMOTHY SIPPLES - One of the youngest people to gain notoriety with OS/2 was Timothy Sipples who worked in the PSP Division during the mid-to-late 90's. Tim joined IBM in 1994 and is the co-author of the IDG/IBM Press book "IBM's Official OS/2 Warp Frequently Asked Questions."  During the late 1990's, Tim became the de-facto voice of OS/2 by feeding us IBM press releases regarding the product and answering technical questions over the Internet. He was also a supporter of Warpstock and gave a presentation on "OS/2 Warp for Road Warriors,"   where he discussed how to select and properly configure a laptop for OS/2. Tim is also an instrument rated private pilot who enjoys flying small airplanes around the country (see photo).

Tim has a high regard for the quality of support for OS/2 via the Internet, "There were (and still are) many, many helpful people. IBM definitely took notice, since there were many years when Internet volunteers provided better service than the fee-based IBM offerings. I served for some years as an unofficial moderator for those newsgroups, and I really enjoyed it."

Today, Tim is a Consulting I/T Specialist for IBM WebSphere Software. He still works on OS/2 from time-to-time (and still actively uses it). Tim provides pre-sales technical assistance mainly for the following IBM software products: WebSphere Host Integration Solution (Host On-Demand, Host Publisher, Communications Server), WebSphere Transcoding Publisher, and WebSphere Edge Server. "I am also actively involved in a new IBM college internship and recruiting program,"   he said.

He is still positive and upbeat about OS/2 and regrets nothing.

I have had the privilege of knowing these four OS/2 veterans, either personally or over the Internet. They are charming people who are dedicated to their work and their integrity is without question. As should be obvious, they are still upbeat about OS/2. Sure, things should have gone differently for it, but there is no doubt in their minds that OS/2 was, and still remains, the superior operating system for desktop computing.

Keep the Faith!