From: ata@hfsi.uucp (John Ata FSO)
Subject: Re: I am giving up on the Amiga
Organization: HFS, Inc. (FSO)
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 04:21:01 GMT

>In article <1992Jul23.212941.15921@ctr.columbia.edu> jerry@connection.prospect.com (Jerry Shekhel) writes:
>> ata@hfsi.UUCP (John Ata FSO) writes:
>> >
>> >What functionality/usefulness does OS/2 posess that AmigaDOS 2.04 does
>> >not?  I am talking about the operating system here, not what runs on top
>> >of it.  Also please stay clear of VM/non-VM issues as there are clearly
>> >tradeoffs as to which approach is desired.  The same can be said for
>> >memory protection as well.
>> >
>>
>> Sure, John, exclude OS/2's superior features from the discussion, and
>> AmigaDOS starts to look pretty powerful indeed!  Get serious -- there
>> are *no* OS features which don't involve tradeoffs, and the usefulness
>> of *all* of them can be debated away, including that of pre-emptive
>> multitasking and GUI's.  There are people who'll tell you that DOS is
>> the most useful OS because it allows their homebrew data acquisition card
>> and software to run at the highest rate possible on the machine, doesn't
>> allow nasty other processes to interrupt its operation, consumes less than
>> 40K RAM, and doesn't care where in extended memory the card maps its
>> hardware registers.  So I hope you don't mind me counting VM, MP, and
>> resource tracking in OS/2's favor.  After all, they are useful to me.
I'll grant you resource tracking, but as I said before that if the whole
argument that you're using about OS/2 being in a superior league over
Amiga OS 2.04 is that it has VM, then I'm not impressed.  Sorry.
>>
>
>> >Other than these issues, OS/2 has better
>> >capabilities and functionality than AmigaDOS 2.04 because:___________
>> >
>>
>> ... It has virtual memory. 
Not Impressed for reasons mentioned before
>> ... It has memory protection.
Useful, but doesn't really place a load on the OS.
>> ... It has resource tracking.
Good point.
>> ... It has device-independent graphics.
As part of the OS, or on top of it?
>> ... It has a real graphics library; one that supports splines, paths, etc.
OK
>> ... It has an object-oriented GUI which is more powerful than Workbench.
How so?
>> ... It has built-in support for DOS executables.
Yes but thats only possible because of the hardware platform it is based on.
But it's a useful feature, I grant you.
>> ... It has built-in support for Windows executables.
Wonderful.

>> ... It has a better file system (HPFS).
How so?  If your argument is that it is faster, please show that this is
a feature of the file system and not the hardware that it is running on.  If
your argument is that it is more functional, what extra functionality is 
present in the file system?
>>
>
Well, lets see.  Your claim that OS/2 takes up much more space
than Amiga OS 2.04 is justified because it does great and
wonderful things such as resource tracking, running DOS
Executables, Windows executables, RTG system, device-independent
graphics and a "real" graphics library.  Let me ask you this
question, do you really think that these features are what causes
OS/2 to be so large?  Do you really think that if they add
resource tracking, DIG, etc. to the Amiga that it will require the
same massive resources to run?
>> --
>> +-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
>> | Jerry J. Shekhel  | Molecular Simulations | Time just fades the pages      |
>> | Drummers do it... | Inc.  Waltham, MA USA | in my book of memories.        |
>> |    ... In rhythm! |     (617) 890-2888    |              -- Guns N' Roses  |
>> +-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
>> |           ...! [ princeton mit-eddie bu sunne ] !polygen!jerry             |
>> |                            jerry@polygen.com                               |
>> +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>
>--


-- 
John G. Ata - Technical Consultant | Internet:     hfsi!ata@UUNET.UU.NET
HFS, Inc.		  VA20     |     UUCP:     uunet.uu.net!hfsi!ata
7900 Westpark Drive	 MS:601	   |    Voice:	(703) 827-6810
McLean, VA  22102	           |      FAX:	(703) 827-3729
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy