Omnis — the only client-server tool that worked across everything
This is Jonathan Hare's account, with its provenance shown. The person or organization named has not yet claimed or corrected it.
Jonathan Hare was at Blyth Software in the early nineties, on Omnis — which was, by his account, the only client-server application tool that ran across both Macintosh and Windows and connected to all the major relational databases: Oracle, Sybase SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2 and DEC's Rdb.
That is a cross-platform, cross-database coordination problem — the same shape as TGV's networking problem one layer up, and the same shape as the coordination layer Hare would name at Microsoft and spend thirty years building.
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DEC was among the largest customers, paying millions of dollars to develop and maintain a connector for Rdb, its relational database competing with Oracle, Sybase and DB2. Hare's familiarity with VAX and VMS from Berkeley is what made that account legible to him.
Walt Smiley, a board member, was formerly founder and chief executive of Systematix. John Mann was senior vice president of strategic alliances, and went on to run worldwide sales at Scientific Atlanta.
Hare's own name for the change of direction at Blyth in the autumn of 1992, his first job after the GSB. Garth Saloner — who had co-taught the Grove course the previous year — joined afterwards as an adviser or board member.
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VAX, VMS, PDP — and the machines Hare learned on
Open →the same problem, one layer down“Two Guys and a VAX” — the class project, and the door into Microsoft
Open →the coordination layer this pointed towardNamed at Microsoft in 1991. Still the claim.
Open →where the layer was namedBuilding 1, 1991 — the nucleus, and where the coordination problem was named
Open →joined as adviser or board memberCo-taught the Grove class, then joined Blyth's board
Open →Everything above is a distillation. The primary source is published in full, so that any claim on this page can be walked back to what was actually said — and where the two differ, the source governs.
The account this page was distilled from, preserved as dictated.
Read the source →Primary source · S-022The account this page was distilled from, preserved as dictated.
Read the source →Primary source · S-154The account this page was distilled from, preserved as dictated.
Read the source →Primary source · S-155The account this page was distilled from, preserved as dictated.
Read the source →This entry is deliberately incomplete. The gaps below are the things only certain people can settle — and settling one is a contribution like any other: recorded, timestamped and attributed to whoever made it.
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