From: rafetmad@cheshire.oxy.edu (David R. Giller)
Subject: Re: Pause before you consider OS/2 (was Re: Win 3.1 not THAT great.)
Organization: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041 USA.
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 21:35:06 GMT

This was crossposted to the comp.os.os2.misc.  I want to clear things up
WITHOUT posting any OS/2 evangelism, so don't worry about that.

In article <10APR199216033656@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov> scdorcy@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (JAMES DORCEY) writes:
>I found this in comp.windows.misc.  Since many of these are inconsistent 
>with the majority of the items I've seen here, maybe Tim or someone might 
>take a stab at commenting on what is alledgedly InfoWorld's comments:
>
>In article <DEMILLO.92Apr10140113@egeus.juliet.ll.mit.edu>, 
>demillo@juliet.ll.mit.edu ( Robert DeMillo ) writes...
>
>>Well...before you consider...
>> 
>>According to InfoWorld:
>> 
>>OS/2 2.0 will *not* be compatable with Windows 3.1

The first release supports only Windows 3.0, but at the roll-out meeting
at COMDEX on April 7 (yes, one day after 3.1 was released) IBM demonstrated
full Windows 3.1 support.  This will be available supposedly this summer
via CSDs (corrective services diskettes) which are IBMs way of providing
free periodic upgrades and bug fixes.  They are freely-distributable
(I think) patches that you apply to bring the software up to date.

In short, it WILL be, in a few months, and for free.

>>OS/2 2.0 will *not* support SVGA or XGA graphics modes. (The
>>	 above poster's comments about OS/2 supporting a 32-bit 
>>	 SVGA engine, notwithstanding.)

I am writing this on OS/2 2.0 with a TSENG ET4000 in 1024x768x4bit
screen, with NCSA Telnet in a window.  SVGA is supported.  What is
NOT supported is Windows in a window.  To do this, the manufacturer
of the video card must provide drivers for their particular card that
are updated for OS/2 2.0.   I am using drivers for OS/2 1.2.  Trident
already has some drivers that work with seamless windows, and Tseng says
they will have some in a few weeks.

>>OS/2 2.0 Windows emulation will support only one Windows application
>>         per Window, and they are several orders of magnitude slower
>>	 than just running in Windows. You can switch OS/2 2.0 to
>>	 full screen Windows mode, and your Windows performance
>>	 goes way up.

Well, literally, this is correct (except for the speed comparison).  But
it's just a mess-up in nomenclature.  What the 'one windows application per
window' means is that each Windows program appears on the desktop just
like it does under Windows.  If it creates another window, that is another
window on the desktop.  What it DOESN'T do is run the whole windows desktop
in a smaller window, but you wouldn't want that anyway.  Windows programs
look and work precisely as they do under Windows.

Windows are slower when they are running on the PM desktop.  But not
'several orders of magnitude', and it is only bad in certain areas.
Most people think it is quite useable.

>>OS/2 2.0 will not support full-blown pre-emptive multitasking for
>>         another 12-18 months. (Not sure what they meant by this,
>>	 but it didn't smell right.) At that time, Windows NT
>>	 will be on the scene.

This is flat-out wrong.  OS/2 has had truly preemptive multitasking
since 1987 (actually earlier, but that is when it was released in 1.0
form).  In fact, it uses a dynamic scheduling system that is more
sophistocated than most implimentations of UNIX, and allows almost-real-time
performance of many functions.  I really don't know how this rumor
got started.  The very point of OS/2, even back in the mid 80's, was to
have a pre-emptive PC OS.

>>Moral: If you are buying OS/2 for OS/2...great. Do it..multithreading
>>       is a good thing, and OS/2 has it. If you are buying OS/2 
>>       'cuz you want to run mostly Windows applications in OS/2's
>>       PM...you might want to rethink that.

To have multithreading, REAL multithreading, you HAVE to have true
multitasking.

One of the big advantages IBM claims for of OS/2 is that it runs nearly ALL 
software available for PCs.  Programs written for any version of DOS (even 1.0),
any version of OS/2, and any version of Windows from 2.0 up (soon this will
include 3.1) will run on it.  Plus, it provides an upgrade path for new
applications, with an extremely strong 32-bit API.  That, however, is another
topic, and if you are interested, I suggest you hop over to comp.os.os2.misc.

-Dave
-- 
David Giller, Box 134 | Q: How many Oregonians does it take to screw in a light
Occidental College    | bulb?  A: Three.  One to replace the bulb, and two to
1600 Campus Road      | fend off all the Californians trying to share the
Los Angeles, CA 90041 | experience. ---------------------------rafetmad@oxy.edu