From: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples)
Subject: OS/2 2.1 Observations
Followup-To: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Reply-To: sip1@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Dept. of Econ., Univ. of Chicago
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 17:29:35 GMT

This report is coming a bit late, since I'm on the road.  However, I
thought it worth posting now (late though it is).

Incidentally, I do have some benchmarks on this new code, but there
are a couple reasons why I can't post them.  The first is that the
Ziff-Davis license agreement says you can't disseminate the results of
WinBench (strange though that may sound), and the second is that I
have a slight disagreement with the methodology that I want to correct
first.  Also, we couldn't get NT to install on the same machine.

----------

On Friday, December 18, I had the opportunity to take a look at the latest
OS/2 2.1 beta at IBM in Chicago.

Yes, it looks like it will be Version 2.1, which tends to suggest that
there will be some sort of upgrade charge.  The expectation is that it will
be a modest one.

The beta version identifies itself as 6.479, 12/9/92, OS/2 2.1 (the so-
called "Borg" release).  It was tested on an IBM PS/2 Model 57 with
486SLC double clock processor, 320 MB SCSI hard drive, and VGA display.

The installation procedure has changed a bit.  There are now twenty-nine
3.5 inch diskettes.  However, two of those contain Multimedia Presentation
Manager/2 (which is apparently going to be part of the base product),
two are display drivers, and five or six are printer drivers.

The installation was quite similar to OS/2 2.0.  However, there are a couple
notable changes.  First, there are more devices supported.  Among them,
the DPT SCSI adapter, several new printers (including Citizen PN48,
Compaq Pagemarq, LaserJet IV, DeskJets, a rewritten PainJet driver from
Micrographx, and several new IBM models), advanced power management
support (I could not determine which notebooks this feature supports),
PCMCIA support (for add-in "credit card" sized accessories), and more
SuperVGA support.  (Since the beta was tested on a PS/2 with VGA, I could
not determine the extent of this new SuperVGA support.)

The installation program now has a single, unified screen for installing
device support.  All in all, installation has improved, but there's still
a bit of work that could be done.

Here are some of the notable improvements:

(1) EXIT_VDM now comes with OS/2.  This small utility can be used from the
command line to exit specific DOS sessions.

(2) "Update Windows desktop when Win-OS/2 desktop is modified."  This
checkbox is provided at install time, and, if you have a Dual Boot or
Boot Manager system (with Microsoft Windows 3.1), the desktops are, in
effect, unified.  If you change your Program Manager groups while under
Win-OS/2, your groups under Windows 3.1 are also changed.  It seems that
few people will find this feature necessary (since Win-OS/2 is so vastly
improved, as far as I can tell), but if you are a software developer who
must test under Microsoft Windows, this little feature can be quite useful.

(3) FAX/PM.  A new applet has been provided, a small version of Microfor-
matic's FAX/PM.  It includes an OS/2 printer driver, so you can fax simply
by printing from any OS/2, DOS, or Windows application.  (Under Win-OS/2,
the fax driver is listed if you opt to install FAX/PM.)  However, don't
cancel those orders for SofNet's Faxworks.  While FAX/PM looks full
featured, it is restricted to one page faxes.  Not a bad choice for an
applet, though, since background communications is one of OS/2's strong
points.

(4) Win-OS/2 3.1.  In the beta copy, the Windows 3.0 mode and real mode
are no longer present.  I do not know whether that will be the case in
the released version.  Win-OS/2 3.1 now apparently supports enhanced mode,
although I was unable to determine the extent of this support.  DOS
sessions can be started from Win-OS/2 3.1.  When they are, they are listed
in the OS/2 Window List, thus maintaining a unified task control.
The multimedia extensions and most of the Windows applets are now
provided.  In testing, the Win-OS/2 multimedia extensions worked just fine.
(Tests were conducted with an IBM M-Audio Adapter.)  We could play WAV
files, and playback continued without interruption so long as there was
no disk or other CPU-draining activity.  (In other words, the multimedia
features work just as well as they do under real Windows.  Note that MMPM/2
does not have this restriction -- WAV files keep playing in the background
no matter what the foreground activity.))

There has been an awful lot of work put into the Windows compatibility,
it seems.  One of the finishing touches, for example: we could install
the Windows M-Audio driver using the facilities within Win-OS/2.  At the
conclusion of the driver install, Win-OS/2 (and Windows) prompts to
restart itself.  Under real Windows, the screen will blank and the desktop
will come back up.  Under Win-OS/2, same thing.  For some reason I didn't
expect it to work -- I expected to be dropped back to the Workplace Shell.
No such luck -- it worked just as it should.

(5) Pen enabled.  Not tested.

(6) Support for OS/2 as an AS/400 client with PC Support.  It wasn't clear
what this meant, and it was not tested.

(7) In the DOS Settings, the default DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT is now 4 MB,
which should help keep the latest DOS and Windows applications comfor-
table.

(8) MMPM/2 ships with SoundBlaster support -- no need to go hunting
for the driver.  System events (e.g. dragging icon to the Shredder and
expecting toilet flush sound effect :-)) are not yet integrated with
MMPM/2.  Also, there are not (yet) audio adapter virtual drivers
(so that sound output from Win-OS/2 and MMPM/2 can be arbitrated).  At
present you get messages saying that the sound hardware is in use, and
OS/2 will refuse to run Win-OS/2 (for example) if its sound output is
enabled while MMPM/2 is playing a WAV file.

(9) Data files now pick up the icons of their parent programs if the
association exists.  For example, if you have set up your system so that
all DOC files are associated with WordPerfect (so that if you double
click on a DOC file up comes WordPerfect with the file loaded), all
the DOC files will pick up the WordPerfect program icon.  It makes things
a bit friendlier.

(10) EPM is now Version 5.51.

(11) Disk space requirements for a full install have gone up, naturally.
As always, use Selective Install to keep things under control -- the
vast majority of people aren't going to need everything that can be
installed.  The increase seems to be modest, however.

(12) Subjectively speaking, performance seemed yet again better.

-- 
Timothy F. Sipples      | Read the OS/2 FAQ List 2.0h, available from
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of Chicago, 60637       | [Read the List, THEN post to ONE OS/2 newsgroup.]