From: reisert@mast.enet.dec.com (Jim -- MLO3-6/B9 -- DTN 223-5747)
Subject: RE: Impressions of Windows NT
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 09:53:51 PDT
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A co-worker (and user) thought he'd share his opinions on NT:

In article <1992Jul28.152304.28642@chpc.utexas.edu>, apas611@chpc.utexas.edu (David Boles) writes:
>
>The presentation told us about the structure of NT and how user processes
>relate to it.  If you look at it in light of NT having started life as
>OS/2 3.0, things make a lot of sense.  There is a, IMHO, cleaner overall
>system architecture.  However, after describing a system that is capable
>of being an upgrade of OS/2 2.0 we were told that Msoft intends to market
>this system for high-end x86 PC's (486-33 and up), RISC workstations, and
>uni- and multi-processor servers.

Well, in a year's time 486 PC's will cost less than 386 PC's do today.
486 machines will effectively become the low to mid end of the market.
Basically, you will run MS-DOS/Windows on the smallest machines, and
NT on anything from an ancient 486 on up.  I don't see what is wrong
with this strategy.

>We were then told that the system is _not_ (yes that is a negative) multi-user.
>The response from the audience was rolling laughter and jeers.

This statement is flatly wrong.

>So what we are going to be offered sometime in 1993, is an OS that is 
>partly targeted at things like a Silicon Graphics 4-8 R4000 processor 
>compute/file server that will only allow one person on at a time.

Wrong.

>Further, since NT is 32-bit, users won't be able to address all of their
>memory (physical + disk swap, the R4000 is a 64 bit chip because 32-bits
>isn't enough address space).

Wrong.  The R4000 is a 32-bit chip.  NT is 32 bits now, and has hooks
for 64-bit support.

>With existing software, this machine can act as a file and compute server
>for 30-40 people.

True.

>Start clicking, however, and you quickly realize that things
>are _very_ shallow (i.e., fancy looking and sounding icons have nothing
>but simple text display windows that pop up when activated, the help system
>wasn't working in the examples I tried, etc.).

I am using NT 6--12 hours a day. It is very robust. Some of the tools don't
have all the icons hooked up.  His point about the help system not being
hooked up in the SDK is correct. Some of the tools definitely don't have
everything turned on. However, it is a preliminary SDK release. It isn't
even the final SDK, which itself would be before the external full field
test. Hooking up tool icons is a very minor thing to fix.

.............................................................................

My views do not necessarily represent those of my company.  And vice versa.

John DeRosa,  ZSO             Internet: derosa@decwet.enet.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corp.       UUCP:     ...decwrl!decwet.enet.dec.com!derosa
14475 NE 24th Street
Bellevue, WA 98007  USA       "Whose side are you on?"
                                              "That would be telling."
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc