From: brian%jaguar.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Brian Sturgill)
Subject: Re: superVGA  (and misc top-blowing)
Date: 20 Aug 92 13:46:09 MDT
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept

In article <1992Aug20.143405.5035@gw.wmich.edu> x90wardell@gw.wmich.edu writes:
...
>	Well, I don't know about you but on my 486-33 and 386sx-25 both with
>8 megs os/2 runs fine.  Windows 3.1 is peppier at running Windows programs than
>OS/2 is and the workplace shell under os/2 is too slow but IBM is aware of that
>and says it will be rectified this fall. 
>	But I don't even bother to run DOS programs from windows.  DOS programs
>run noticably slower and the NT beta SDK I saw running (486 with 12 megs ram)
>ran DOS like a dog.  In Windows 3.1, you can at least leave windows to play
>your favorite game or use your favorite dos program that windows runs too
>slowly.  What are you going to do when Windows NT comes  along and runs DOs
>just a poorly?  OS/2 allows me to use ALL my dos programs (except for the game
>ultima 7) at equal if not better speed as under plain DOS.
>	From the NT beta testers I have talked with, NT is a disaster.
You can't have talked to any beta testers, NT isn't in beta yet. :-)
(Just how many did you talk to anyway?  I'm not seeing complaints
on USENET or Compuseve, except for a couple of people with wild hairs
about the use of CD-ROMS.)
This release is for developers, and if you'll read the release notes,
you'd know that the DOS and 16-bit Windows subsystems aren't ready
yet.  I'm sure that Micrsoft is real upset that NT doesn't yet
run your games, and will get to work on that immediately. :-)

In some sense you're right, NT probably will not support DOS as well
as OS/2 does... me -- I'll just boot DOS off a floppy when I want
to play that game.  It's well worth it, _IF_ NT otherwise has everything
else working.  Personally, while I like my DOS games, I'd rather
see the stuff of the future work better than the stuff of the past.
(I don't mean to imply that NT could leave things as they stand in
the compatibility area... obviously they won't).
For example, I would rather the WPS shell under OS/2 be more stable...
the DOS support is great, but I want the "real" system to work too.
Those Drive folders are still way too slow.

As to complaints about Windows 3.1 DOS box. I suspect there are 2 reasons
why it isn't perfect. 1) You can always exit back to DOS, and 2) I suspect
that a large portion of the best people at Microsoft are working on
NT... that project started 3 years ago, and may well explain why
Windows 3.1 was as late as it was.
Further, quality of people aside (it's unfair I'm sure to say that
only or even mostly dregs are working on Windows 3.X); Windows 3.1 is
likely understaffed relative to the effort put into NT.
Despite what's said in this group, it's clear that Microsoft
see's NT as it's future -- to the point of more or less betting the whole
company on it.  Can you say even close to the same about IBM and OS/2?

I think you miss the point of the niceness of the SDK... ignore
for the moment the slowness of the DOS and 16-bit windows apps -- assume
they can get that up to an acceptable level.  Look at how snappy
the 32-bit stuff is... it's already faster than OS/2.
I don't know if you were in the EEP for OS/2, but I promise the LA and
6.304 betas were MUCH slower than the GA.  NT is already beating
OS/2 performance-wise and NT is on FAT with unoptimized code and drivers
AND ITS NOT EVEN IN BETA YET.
I imagine OS/2's problem is largely due to the lack of the 32-bit graphics,
hopefully IBM will get that out this year (it was promised for March).

BTW, I'm running NT on a 33Mhz 386DX with 20 megs of memory (and before
you say yeah sure, 20 megs no wonder... that's exactly the same size system
I do OS/2 development on at work.)  Currently I dual boot 3.1 as the
16-bit support under NT is still slow... about the level of the
OS/2 LA release, though at least it is already seemless.  (LA, and for
people with decent graphics cards, GA[the current version of OS/2]!!!;
did/does not have seemless 16-bit Windows support.)

Brian
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy