Re:Windows Server 2016: End of One Era, Start of Another
by raesene6 on Thursday September 29, 2016 @10:39AM
(#12605574)
I think if you're pinpointing a move from File & Print to app servers and tying it to the move from Netware to Windows it would more be a combination of Netware's difficulties in stably running multiple apps (it was a rock-solid platform for file and print but less stable as an app. server) combined with Microsoft's "aggressive" moves during that period to supplant Novell and Lotus in the office server marketplace.
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Re:Windows Server 2016: End of One Era, Start of Another
by jasode on Thursday September 29, 2016 @10:50AM
(#12605691)
>Netware's difficulties in stably running multiple apps (it was a rock-solid platform for file and print but less stable as an app. server)
Thank you for that reminder. The NLM platform was a fragile architecture.[1] In contrast, both IBM OS/2 and Windows NT of that time period had superior architecture (memory protection, separation of kernel-vs-user address space) for complex applications.
And to add to the other commenter about ease of dev tools -- it definitely was easier to use Visual Basic 3.0 and deploy the app on NT rather than use Netware's NLM SDK that required the C programming language. Even though VB was marketed as a tool for desktop apps, it didn't stop Microsoft shops from deploying VB apps on the server side.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetWare_Loadable_Module#Progra...