From: brian%jaguar.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Brian Sturgill)
Subject: Re: I've seen NT......and I'll take OS/2 2.0 thanks!
Date: 14 Aug 92 00:24:59 MDT
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept

In article <SXMRP.12.0@orca.alaska.edu> SXMRP@orca.alaska.edu (Michael R. Platzke) writes:
>In article <1992Aug13.073141.16594@actrix.gen.nz> Steve.Withers@bbs.actrix.gen.nz writes:
...
>Microsoft has announced that the minimum requirements for the final release
>of NT will be a 386-33 with 8 megs of memory.  The OS should require around
>50 megs of HD space, and that includes a required 20 meg swap file.
>(I don't have my copy of the press release lying around so please feel free
>to correct any inaccuracies).  The Developers pre-beta release requires a
>386-33 with 12 megs of memory (16 recommended) and 100 megs of disk space.
>Reports have it running on 8 meg machines with less disk space tho.
Quote from the Release Notes that come with the pre-release SDK, section 1.2:

	This Preliminary Release of the Win32 SDK will run on an Intel
	80386 system or higher with at least 12MB of RAM (16MB recommended)
	or an ARC-compatible R4000 system withe (sic) 16MB RAM. Disk
	requirements are roughly 70MB for Windows NT and the SDK tools,
	and 20MB for the paging file. The Win32 Preliminary SDK is only
	available on CD-ROM, and requires that you have access to a
	CD-ROM drive to install it. For a list of computer systems, CD-ROM
	drives, SCSI adapters and other peripherals on which preliminary
	testing has been done, see _the Hardware Compatibility List_.

	The retail release of Windows NT will require an Intel 386 or better
	with 8MB of memory, or a MIPS R4000 with 16MB of memory.

>
>> 
>>The presenter *stressed* it was NOT a desktop system. It is NOT a replacement
>>for Windows 3.x. (that much was obvious!).
> 
>Yeah, Microsoft has stated that NT is not a desktop system.  However, when
...
Microsoft says NT is for servers and "high-end" workstations.
Clearly they mean that systems currently available for <$2,000 are
"high-end" workstations.

>
>>OS/2 will do for you on your 386SX/20MHz with 6Megs what NT needs a 486/50
>>with 16 megs to do.
>
>Well, without starting a flame war, I would point out that NT has
>built in networking (limited LANMAN and full TCP/IP), symmetrical (sp?)
>multiprocessing(okay, not much good on a single cpu 486, but still cool),
>multiple APIs (Win-16,Win-32,OS/2 1.3,POSIX), built in security (which forms
>the basis for multiple users), and other goodies.  Yeah, I've heard that
>the mythical :-) OS/2 2.1 is supposed to have much of this stuff, but when?
>In regards to that, would someone from an IBM site care to comment on the
>"offical" feature list of the next OS/2 release (not CSD).  If non-ibm sites
>wish to chip in, please list source of info (not "well some guy on the net
>said that ...").
As you say Windows NT comes with TCP/IP and other networking, it also
comes with Multimedia support.  Cost... they've only said < $500 for
certain and that "competive upgrade offers" will be given, especially
to OS/2 2.0 users.

OS/2 -- List price I believe is $159.95, though it may still officially
be $199. Multimedia add-on: $149, TCP/IP to the level of being
able to do peer-to-peer file and printer sharing: >$200.
Oh, and if you're running all that stuff under OS/2, you'd better have
at least 8megs, 16 recommended.

Oh... security is important to home users too, if you share your computer
with someone as it allows you to have seperate configurations
(screen colors, desktops, etc).

>
>>BTW, the MS presenter also said that Presentation Manager support will be
>>incorporated in NT in 1993. Is this recognition that OS/2 V2 is a viable
>>market presence?
>> 
>Again, just my opinion, but the OS/2 support is only for version 1.3 and I
>think that MS included it so that they can claim that they did not drop
>support for those OS/2 users who bought ver 1.3, they merely upgraded them
>to NT.
They made it clear at the conference that any forthcoming PM support
would be 1.3 only.

Brian
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc