Computer Users Seek Choice From Microsoft

Users ask Microsoft to level the playing field to help all consumers

Huntsville – 30 July, 1998 -- Computer users and professionals from all around the world have joined together to ask Microsoft to provide consumers a choice in the computer industry.

In 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT on the Intel, MIPS, and Alpha platforms. Since then, CPU platforms have come and gone on the supported list, but two have remained consistent and true to the original precept that NT was an open and portable computing environment -- the Intel x86 and Alpha families of microprocessors.

Microsoft has done an admirable job in ensuring that the components for NT Server, especially the BackOffice components, have been simultaneously released on the various computing platforms supported by Windows NT. But things have changed since NT was first introduced -- the Alpha platform is now the only alternative for consumers running Windows NT. It is in the unique position of offering a competitive advantage for users with consistently higher performance, 64 bit processing capabilities today, and competitive pricing. It is finding that the original niche it occupied in a server role has expanded into the high-end workstation market, and now is moving into the commodity workstation segment.

"Commoditizing" Alpha

While Compaq, Samsung, and Alpha Processor, Inc. move Alpha into the mainstream, and many software companies have fully embraced the Alpha platform, Microsoft to date has concentrated almost exclusively on the high-end server market with their products. The members of the AlphaNT mail list, an Internet resource devoted to the technical issues regarding Windows NT running on the Alpha platform, joined together to create an Open Letter To Microsoft. In this letter, the signatories ask Microsoft to remember its long-term goal to make Windows NT a truly platform independent environment, thereby furthering consumer choice and fostering competition. The group identifies 6 particular areas where they feel that Microsoft can improve their products:

1. Develop and implement a plan to port all possible Microsoft applications (from Access to FrontPage and even Monster Truck Madness) to the Alpha platform.
2. Include Alpha binaries on the same media as x86 software distributions, just as Microsoft currently does for all BackOffice applications.
3. Release all new software and updates simultaneously on both platforms.
4. Include Alpha compatibility and system requirements on all product descriptions on the Microsoft website and other literature where hardware requirements are listed. If a product is not yet released for a specific platform, indicate an expected release date.
5. On all website downloads, provide and clearly indicate separate Alpha and x86 downloads.
6. Revise the "Made for Windows NT" logo requirements to accentuate NT's cross-platform compatibility in order to ease the buyers' burden when purchasing software: if an application is not available on all platforms, the vendor should be required to explicitly identify their diminished functionality. Vendors who support both platforms should be accordingly rewarded.

"This is not an adversarial role that we are taking with Microsoft," says Aaron Sakovich, founder and publisher of The AlphaNT Source (http://www.alphant.com/), an independent website devoted to the combination of Windows NT running on Alpha processors, and host site of the Open Letter To Microsoft. "We feel that we’ve found a way that Microsoft can improve their products while simultaneously offering consumers more choice than they’ve ever had before." He adds, "It also helps to foster competition in the microprocessor industry, which is good for all computer users, regardless of operating system or CPU platform." Along those lines, he points out that many users have questioned whether 350 and 400 MHz Intel chips would be available today if it wasn’t for the 667 and 767 MHz Alphas processors, even though the higher speed Alphas have traditionally been marketed into very narrow niches.

The Open Letter To Microsoft

The full contents of the letter can be found on The AlphaNT Source at http://www.alphant.com/, along with the list of signatures of those computer users and professionals who have already put their names on the letter. This letter will stay on the site, and the list of signatures collected will be made available to Microsoft.

The AlphaNT Source

The AlphaNT Source is the global, independent resource for all things relating to the combination of the open and vendor independent, high performance, 64 bit Alpha microprocessor and Microsoft's operating system, Windows NT. On that website, you'll find links to news, articles, FAQ's, mail lists, file archives, and other Web sites related to this topic. The intent of the content is to ensure that users of Alpha based system, or even prospective owners, get the full capabilities out of the world's fastest computer and the most popular operating system. The AlphaNT Source is accessible at http://www.alphant.com/.

Contact information

Aaron Sakovich, sakovich@hsv.sungardtrust.com
Chefren Hagens, chefren@pi.net

The AlphaNT Source, http://www.alphant.com/

Information regarding the AlphaNT mail list can also be obtained on The AlphaNT Source.

Note: Direct links to the letter are discouraged as the site is changing locations and URL’s. The site link to www.alphant.com will be guaranteed to work now and into the future; a reference to the letter will remain prominent at the top of the main page on that site. Information on The AlphaNT Source is copylefted per the GNU General Public License unless otherwise specified.