From: 177wardell@gw.wmich.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: NT to be launched at Comdex/Spring,...
Date: 22 Jan 93 18:34:21 EST
Organization: Western Michigan University

In article <1993Jan22.171853.26726@ncsu.edu>, jmbeesle@eos.ncsu.edu (JAMES MICHAEL BEESLEY) writes:
> 
> What features of NT do I prefer to OS/2 2.x ?
> 
> 1-built in Networking APIs, not an optional mix added later.
> 2-Multiple input queues to prevent applications from hogging I/O.
> 3-UNICODE support.
> 4-Free XLIBs (granted they are not complete) to allow porting of 
>   X programs. (yes they do work-yes they are missing alot)
>   (but I have yet to see them for OS/2 at a reasonable price)
> 5-Common interface (DOS,OS/2, and NT command shell all in one)
>   (I get real tired of accidently running a DOS prog from an
>    OS/2 window and having it disappear before I can see it)
> 6-Better interface APIs. Yeah, I know, OS/2 is great nad better and
>   MS sux and... I like NTs APIs better, and it *IS* trivial to
>   port Windows-16 to Windows-32.
> 7-The Registry.
> 8-The Security system. User Management services under OS/2 is
>   terrible. Period.
> 
> If you want more, let me know and I'll give you more, this list is 
> just off the top of my head.
>                          
>                               -Jim.

	Okay, in response I will list the things I like about OS/2
better than NT (for the most part, using the specs of NT as it is
supposed to be when released)

  1 The user interface.  The workplace shell is (in my opinion) absolutely
	wonderful.  The best interface I have ever used (except for the
	damn finder)
  2 The DOS support.  I am not a big "video game" player but I don't have
	to boot to plain DOS to play Alone in the Dark or Civilization and
	this was qutie nice when I was downloading the 2.1 beta in the
	background (yes, modem took a LOONG time).
  3  Runs windows programs better than NT.  I have been told that with 
	XGA-2 you can run windows seamlessly about as well as Windows 3.1
	does normally.
  4  Customization of command prompts.  I can tinker with my DOs session in
	any way without loading a seperate program like the Pif Editor.
  5  Even though I have half a gig of disk space, I still like the fact
	that os/2 with swapfile only uses up 24 megs of space on my system.
  6  I have 16 megs of memory which means I can run Windows NT.  But with
	OS/2 this means I can make a 3 meg disk cache and still fly at
	full speed -- unlike Windows nt.
  7  Networking is (in my opinion) the future for all computers but I would
	much rather be able to just install OS/2 with no networking than
	be forced to have networking.  Yes, I know you don't have to
	select the networking options but the networking basics are still
	in the code using memory and disk space.
  8  I can by an OS/2 pm app and expect it to still work fine under OS/2 3.0
	unlike Microsoft, IBM does not have the long record of breaking
	non proprietary apps with each new version.
  9  IBM makes the OS and isn't into the applications market.  This means
	developers are free to compete on a more even ground.  If OS/2
	takes over eventually then companies won't blindly pick all the apps
	by one maker (such as MS) simply because they want compatibility.

	There are quite a few others but this is good enough for now...

						-Brad