Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: OS/2 bigot meets NT....
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 23:29:04 -0500

On Saturday, 12-25-92, Robert Suh wrote to All  
concerning "OS/2 bigot meets NT....:" 
RS> >run NT. Just trust me, NT doesn't offer ANYTHING to a user that OS/2
doesn't. 
RS>  
RS> Well, I can name lots of reasons... 
RS>  
RS> 1) C2 Security - I know lots of places that Security of data on the PC or 
 
Well, NT doesn't have this either.  NT hasn't been given C2 
certification and won't for at least a year after its release.  So, 
under NT you have local security, yes, but so does IBM's LAN Server. 
 
RS> 2) Cross Platform - Wouldn't it be nice to be able to sit in front of either

RS> a PC, MIPS, Alpha, or almost any other system (Thanks HAL ) and know that 
RS> Windows NT has the ability to run on it?  I know thats a BIG Plus for some
of 
RS> the larger mixed - environment workplaces. 
 
Yep, and what we're saying is on the INTEL platform, OS/2 will always 
outperform NT.  Because of that nice hardware abstraction, security and 
local client/server technology within the kernel you have with NT, 
there's layers of calls that have to be made before the OS returns from 
a service.  So its slow on Intel.  I don't know if MIPS or Alpha will be 
popular for then year or so, and by then IBM will have a competitive 
offering.  This is a stalemate. 
 
RS> 3) Win32s - What more to say? 
 
That its crap.  I develop Windows software (as well as OS/2 software). 
If I depend on 16 bit toolkits (DLLs), and almost EVERY vendor does, 
then I have to go through THREE layers of DLLs to access the Universal 
Thunk Layer that Win32s provides.  Its a serious pain the you-know-what. 
If I have an investment in 16bit OS/2 software development, then I can 
migrate to 32bit easily--the operating system provides automatic 
thunking between 32bit and 16bit.  How cool. 
 
Also, Microsoft's WOSA strategy is muddled at this time with Win32s. 
You can't do MAPI, you can't do ODBC, and you can't do named pipes if 
you use Win32s.  How nice. 
 
What's also really cool about Win32s is that there's NO DEBUGGER for the 
16 bit platform.  Unless you count the thing they're talking about for 
the future where you can remote debug an app from an NT machine to DOS. 
Real nice. 
 
RS> 4) Multiuser support - Albeit, not so great as some variants of UN*X, but
it's 
RS> a lot better than what OS/2 offers 'out of the box'. 
 
How so?  This is crap.  OS/2 has about as much as NT does with multiuser 
support.  None.  Unless you're talking about the built in LAN Man 
requester.  I personally find that an asset in every Novell shop I walk 
into, which is just about 80 percent of the PC market. 
 
RS> etc... 
 
Such as? 
 
RS> And YES, I've used OS/2 v2.0 on my Home PC (386/33mhz; 8megs) for awhile. 
RS> Liked the DOS support, but I use more Windows applications than DOS, so 
RS> nothing runs Windows Apps as well as Windows 3.1. :) 
 
So what? 
 
RS> find Windows perfectly acceptable. (BUT, If I ever have the need to  
RS> format floppies in the background, OS/2 2.0 would be my first choice. <g>) 
 
But try doing that with NT. 
 
       Kurt 
 
 * KWQ/2 1.0C * 

Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy