For today's process geometries, it isn't. One can easily have on-board flash that contains the OS, and then have the sensor's baseband work off that

I agree. And today, if one looks back at history, what changed Intel's fortunes from running the slowest CPU in the market to the fastest was the fact that Windows NT was SMP, and the de facto kernel of the only Windows version - once Microsoft merged the 2 Windows paths into Windows 2000 and then XP. Until then, Intel's single CPUs were way slower than everything else - from the DEC Alpha and HP PA right down to Sun's SPARCs. But once Intel put 2/4/8 cores on a single chip, thanks to being generations ahead of the competition, they obliterated the difference. Their (SMP) CPUs were now as fast as Alphas, while being both cheaper and less power draining, and to top it all, they could run native Wintel code, instead of having to do things like FX!32 or code morphing or any of those tricks.

At the time in question - which the GP seemed to be discussing - SMP was NOT a major thing. Even amongst the UNIXes, the only x86 UNIX was Sequent's Dynix. SMP didn't become major until Intel's core architecture was out, and that too was due to Windows NT - Intel realized that since Windows 2000 was the only Windows in the market, they could make all their CPUs multicore, and the OS would handle it - since it was no longer based on the Windows 95 platform.

But as I mention above, I agree - IBM was unequal to the task.

Not just that, in addition to all of those, NT was designed to be portable across microprocessor architectures. It was originally developed on an Intel i860, then a DECstation 3000 - which was how the MIPS port was the first to be developed. That way, a lot of the x86 dependencies were gone, although some were brought back in the x86 version.

That may not have mattered had OS/2 done a good rapid development kit, and also done a good job getting OEMs (there were hundreds at the time, in contrast to single figures today - aside from Dell, HP, IBM (now Lenovo) and Acer, there were Gateway 2000, Micron, Zeos, MidWest Micro, Tagram, and hundreds of other PC vendors.

I think OS/2 could have been a success had it been in the hands of someone other than IBM at that stage - a smaller company whose very success depended on OS/2 - as opposed to IBM, for whom it was just another small piece of a puzzle lost somewhere in the store. Such a company could have capitalized on the anti-Microsoft sentiment amongst ISVs, a number of whom found themselves competing against Microsoft despite making products that helped in the success of Windows. Companies like Borland, WordPerfect, Lotus (before IBM gobbled it), Symantec, and a good number of others. Such an approach could have ended up first in viable tools for OS/2 (from Borland, Symantec, Watcom et al) followed by viable apps, like Lotus SmartSuite, WordPerfect Office Suite and others. Given viable apps at the time, a good number of vendors would have offered the choice of OS/2 to customers, along w/ Windows. In fact, during the long delay in launching Windows 95, OS/2 could well have filled up the vacuum - just like Linux filled up the vacuum while the UNIX wars were going on.

The other great mistake that IBM did was pulling the plug on OS/2 for PPC. By the time it happened, it was obvious that OS/2 for Intel was going nowhere, so a good strategy would have been to port OS/2 to the PPC, and make it available as an alternative to MacOS for Mac clonemakers, when Apple, w/ a newly returned Jobs, pulled the plug on them.

I recall Turbo C, or at least Borland C++ being available for OS/2. That, and Watcom. Main issue was probably that there were no standardized libraries for OS/2, the way there was MFC in Windows.

Just like few x.0 versions of Windows were big hits, the same was true about this one. It was Windows 3.1/WfW 3.11 that hit it big: the long delay of what eventually became Windows 95 contributed to this in no small way

In this case, the States' Rights crowd will be hard pressed to prove how devolution of power is valid in this case

Why, is Google incapable of lobbying the folks @ Raleigh?

In Atlanta, I have Charter, and aside from that, a choice of AT&T UVerse and Comcast

Why not just say JEB - as in John Edward Bush?

This is correct. As a former NC resident, I don't agree w/ NC trying to block municipal broadband, but regardless of that, I don't support the feds getting in and telling them that they can't block it. It's the Tenth Amendment. If NC residents don't like this decision, they should replace the government they have in the next election they get, participating actively in the primaries as well to ensure that neither the GOP nor Dem nominees are people backed by TWC or AT&T (Comcast is not a player in that state)

And these billions are ill-gotten why, exactly? 'Cos Microsoft charged hundreds of $$$ for every copy of Windows, Office, et al instead of giving it away for free, like the Linux guys do? Well, even RMS is okay with people selling software - he just wants copyleft rights to be a part of the package.

Sez one AC to another.....

Given how specialized and difficult recruiting is these days, I wonder how long will recruiting be a low skill job? I have seen plenty of people from other disciplines get into recruiting. Far from being an HR drone job, it's now a very high stress job, given that recruiters have targets to fill, and they'd tend to lose their jobs if those ain't met. Also, given how specialized the searches are, recruitment is becoming as segmented an industry as engineering or other high skilled disciplines.