From: dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: Help me correct OS/2 misinformation
Date: 16 Apr 92 13:09:28 GMT
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.

In article <17503.29ec2e97@ecs.umass.edu> daly@ecs.umass.edu (Bryon Daly, ECE dept, UMass, Amherst) writes:
>
>Anyway, he sent me the following piece of email, which details some
>misinformation he just got from a Microsoft rep.  Since you guys are the ones
>who actually know the facts the best, I thought you might be able to 
>help me straighten these facts out for him.
>
>--------------------
>
>I was just talking to a guy who has heard a few things about OS/2 2.0  He
>is kind of anti OS/2, but he still had some interesting info.

Beware these people - they tend to quote things about OS/2 1.x and
claim it also applies to 2.0...  As well as quoting MS press releases,
which range from exaggeration to outright lies.

>He said that is supposedly has a few major bugs, and that is why it
>is 2-6 weeks for delivery.

It's 2-6 weeks for delivery because it takes that long to process the
quantities being ordered.  When you order anything through the mail,
it's usually 2-6 weeks.  Why does IBM have to be above the
capabilities of their shippers?

>He also said that the DOS boxes boot up with 4.01, not 5.0.

Flat out lie.  OS/2 1.3 included DOS 4.01.  Version 2.0 uses an
emulated DOS 5.0.  If you want some other version, you can boot it
into a window.  Maybe he meant that you COULD use 4.01 if you wanted
to. 

>Supposedly a friend of his had an IBM rep busy for an entire day trying to get
>a beta version to install on a model 90, but it installed flawlessly on a 
>Gateway.

I'd find it hard to believe that any current IBM product wouldn't run
on a current-model IBM piece of hardware.  (That is, if it was meant
to, I wouldn't try inserting an OS/2 install disk into an ES-9000's
system console.....)

>He seemed pretty negative towards it, but he is a distributor for
>Microsoft, so I guess that is to be expected.

That is to be expected.  Treat him as a hostile witness...

>He also said performace was poor if you had less that 16MB and that
>it was a real hard disk pig.

Not at all.  Microsoft has stated that NT will need this quantity for
decent performance.  This is a case of "If I can't do it, nobody else
can either".  Microsoft enjoys accusing competing products of their
own shortcomings.  Remember, they also said that a Windows emulator
would be "impossible".  Obviously, they're trying to scare the public
into submission.  (Or they really are that dumb, I can't believe that
in a company of Microsoft's size)

>I think he is exaggerating about the 16MB.

He is.  4MB is minimum.  You'll get good performance with 6MB.  8MB
will make you very happy.

>The hard disk pig is to be expected.  I think peoples attitudes
>towards hard disk space must change.  A program like WordPerfect for
>Windows takes 6-8 MB of disk space.  FreeLance for Win takes over 10
>MB.  Its reasonable to expect an operating system as complex as NT or
>OS/2 to take up 20-30MB.  If you count DOS and Windows, you have to
>be up to around 12-15MB anyway.

Exactly.  DOS (which isn't more than a file system and a series of
interrupt handlers) now occupies about 3MB on disk.  Windows takes up
about 7MB.  There's 10MB right there.  I think an extra 20MB isn't
unreasonable given the size of Word 2.0 (15MB) and other similarly
huge programs.

Especially when you consider that a 200MB drive can be gotten today
for about the same price than an 80MB drive cost 3 years ago.

NT is expected to be much larger.  It'd have to be if it's going to
include Posix (Unix).  Unix occupies about 70MB of disk in typical
installations.  Even minimal functionality would have to occupy about
30MB just for ONE SUBSYSTEM.

Good software takes up space.  Not many ways around that.

How many of these complainers have installed any Origin systems video
games, with their 20+MB disk requirements?  I hear (rumor) that Ultima
8 will only be shipped on CD-ROM due to the storage requirements (and
live audio tracks...)

>Besides, the worse that can happen is you hate OS/2 and  you have
>wasted $49.  Big deal.

Exactly.  Something that cheap is almost worth the money just for the
quantity of HD disks it comes shipped on!



-- 
David Charlap                   Q:"Where do these stairs go?"
dic5340@hertz.njit.edu          A:"They go up"
----------------------------
Hi! I am a .signature virus. Copy me into your .signature to join in!