From: cj00+@andrew.cmu.edu (Carl B Jabido)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: OS/2, not the dream OS?
Date: 25 Jan 93 18:54:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.UfNAENm00VqJM_Ntpa
Organization: Sophomore, H&SS general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.comp.sys.mac.advocacy: 24-Jan-93 OS/2, not the
dream OS? by Jess M Holle@gn.ecn.purd 
> On 386's here, there have been a couple of observations about OS/2:
>  
> 1)  It takes MINUTES to load Word and Excel.

First, do you have enough memory?  Unless you're stupid, you won't have
less than 6; 8 is the lowest I'd go.  Next, I suppose you're running
straight 2.0GA right?  That implies only Win 3.0 which was slow even in
its MS form.  Unfortunately, there is no official 3.1 support yet,
unless you have the beta, which I don't think would be installed in
campus computer clusters.

As to my setup, I have the beta (2.1) and Word starts up seamlessly at
1024x768x256 in 30 seconds or so.  Excel is a bit faster.

Even so, it didn't take MINUTES to load when I had straight 2.0GA.

> 2)  There is no nice little watch cursor or any other feedback that
>     things are actually being loaded.

That's because the system can still be used when things are actually
being loaded.  I do get a little clock cursor when loading LaMail though.
I also get one when loading a Windows session seamlessly.  Other than
that, my system is usable when other programs are being loaded.

> 3)  There is no easy way to see what programs are all running (at least not
>     an obvious one).

How about the Window List, which is shown when you push both mouse
buttons while on the desktop.
Yes, it's hidden, not like in Macs, but it's convenient once you do know
about it.  It's not something you'll forget anyway.

> 4)  It is very easy to confuse iconicizing with quitting and thereby
>     inflict marvelous thrashing upon the disk until the swap space is
>     full.  The Mac has been accused of this problem, but the worst that
>     happens there is leaving one copy of each program running (which the
>     Finder will let you quit at the click of OK when memory runs low).
>     New users often leave 5 copies of Word running.

Iconizing: push the little box in the upper right.  Icon shows up on
desktop (with a border to distinguish it from objects on desktop) or in
the Minimized Windows window (which shows all minimized windows, duh.) 
Implementation depends on how you configure your system.  Default action
is to hide the window; ie, remove it from view, just like Mac's "Hide
others."  In all cases, the original icon is hashed out so if it's
already open, it's easy to tell.  Just like how the Mac grey's out the
icon, but in OS/2 the icon is still distinguishable.

Quit: double click the upper left control button.

I don't get it, what's hard to distinguish between quitting and minimizing?

  
> These are the observations of novices, professors, etc.  Perhaps they
> will suddenly love the machines and all confusion will cease in the
> near future.  In the mean time, OS/2 is SO easy to use?????  It doesn't
> seem so.

I don't understand your problems.  Except for the hiding of the Window
list, I don't have problems like those.  Maybe filling up a swap file
every now and then, but that's cause I'm fully networked.  ie, I'm an
NFS server and Lan Server.  I have TCP/IP running 24 hours a day, an X
Server, sendmail, etc.  On top of that, I develop on the system, so
Workframe is usually on all the time too.

Too bad about your bad experiences with OS/2.

Carl Jabido
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy