From: mmunson@animal.es.com (Mark Munson)
Subject: Re: 7.1 vs. OS/2 and Windows NT
Reply-To: mmunson@animal.es.com (Mark Munson)
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp., Salt Lake City, UT
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 21:05:56 GMT

In article: <Eep8o6G00YUoEciK0u@andrew.cmu.edu> Carl B Jabido writes:


> > Yes, but the PC doesn't have device-independent graphics. Instead,
> > you change a video card and find your networking software will no
> > longer run.  (Happened to me.)
  
> You've got to be an idiot then.  I've never seen that problem and I've
> gone through three video setup's.  My networking has never been
> affected.  
> PC's do have device-independent graphics.  OS/2 will run if you have
> XGA, Trident Svga, Tseng labs SVGA, VGA, IBM VGA, 8514, ATI 8514.

You've been very fortunate if you havn't run into any problems when
switching video cards on a PC.  Try installing a Future Domain SCSI
card, then switch from standard VGA to Super-VGA.  The SCSI devices
won't work.  I've talked to over 85 customers (experienced PCers)
who found that their hardware wouldn't work.  The problems were so
bad that we included documentation with our software products that
listed all of the configurations that wouldn't work with certain
interface and video cards.  There are dozens of adapter cards that
conflict, and video boards are the most likely to cause problems,
since they generally eat up most of the I/O memory space.

Adding in the first few adapter cards is 'easy.'  As you get more,
you have to get creative in you assignment of memory and IRQ
addresses.  Getting that last adapter into a PC might require you
to reconfigure (change jumper settings) on several other cards to
prevent conflicts.  In some cases, software has to be reinstalled
to reflect the new hardware configurations.

On a Mac, adapter configuration is almost unheard of.  On a PC it's
the rule.


> > >Multiple monitors is theoretically possible if hardware exists.
> >  
> > I've seen people kludge "multiple monitors" onto a PC.  But when
> > you look at the monitors, you see the same image on both monitors
> > (perhaps at a different size and bit depth).  The multiple monitors
> > do not give you any additional space to work with.

> Ah, but then you haven't seen one video card which does let you use 4
> VGA monitors at once, each with a different display.  The display is
> just like having one big monitor: basically 1280x960!

It's been said before, but I'll say it again.  If you wanted one big
monitor, you could get it.  That's not what were talking about here.
Try getting a 14" color monitor w/24 bit video, and then add on a
monochome portrait display.  Place them side-by-side (either way, it
doesn't matter), and get all of your sofware to work with it.  You
can do this stuff very easily with a Mac (a PC? - good luck!). 

Now that you've got your Mac set up with multiple monitors (or with
just a single monitor), you can dynamicly switch between bit depths.
If you have a Pivot monitor, you can even switch the orientation
(from landscape <-> portrait); without turning off the power or the
applications that you are running.  Truly amazing.  But it's all 
standard fare for Mac users.

[MGM]

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy