From: rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (Yamanari)
Subject: Re: Just what exactly does os2 require?
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 14:40:13 GMT

In article <1gcncpINN8fr@escargot.xx.rmit.OZ.AU> s914534@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (UT) writes:
>Hello, I'm really interested in purchasing os2 - however, I don't know what
>sort of hardware is required for it to be usable. I have a 386-40 with a 105 MB
>hard drive. How much of my system will it use?

	Processor-wise, you have nothing to worry about.  You 
	might want to tell us the manufacturer and date of your
	BIOS (but it shouldn't matter).

	Anyway.

	First, no one here will be able to help you unless you
	post how much RAM your system has.  If it has 4 megs and
	you aren't willing to expand it, forget it.  Os/2 in four
	megs is slower than molasses in a deep-freeze.  

	If you have 6, you might try it, but it'll be sluggish and
	a dissappointment. 

	If you have eight megs or more, then the issue becomes storage.
	There is currently no version of Stacker for OS/2 (there is
	an alternative, but since I've posted at least 3 times 
	asking about it and no one has responded, I'd just forget
	about it for now), so if you depend on Stacker or a stacker-like
	product to make your harddisk situation bearable, then 
	forget it.

	Assuming that you want DOS and Windows (==~3.0) support, 
	you can count on dedicating somewhere between 40 to 45
	megs of that HD to OS/2 alone.  [No flames--I am including
	the swap file and room for it to grow--we all know what happens
	when it runs out of space]

	Furthermore, you will _probably_ want to keep DOS and
	Windows 3.1 around to be used via a the dual-boot 
	mechanism, because (having compared the two) WinOS2 is 
	much slower than Win31 (It's a bit faster than Win3.0,
	and contains only [mostly] Win3.0's features--not 3.1's) 
	and it gets worse when you consider that, chances are,
	you'll be able to get a fast video driver for Windows
	and not one at all for OS/2. (So, another 10-15 megs
	for that)... If you use primarily Windows software,
	OS/2 is probably not going to satisfy you unless you
	use 3.0 and don't mind it.

	Which brings us to the next item--you didn't tell us
	what video card you're using.  If you're using a Tseng
	or Trident card, you're probably not going to really
	care much, but if you're using a Diamond or ATI 
	or some other "accellerated" card, you will be very 
	frustrated to learn that Os/2 drivers for these cards
	are either extremely out of date, buggy, or nonexistant.

	If you have not bought a card, you might consider to hold
	off for the Radius XGA-2, which is sure to work great with 
	OS/2.

	If you can make due with the storage problem, and have enough
	memory to run the system well (With OS/2, the more memory, the
	better--16 is great, 12 is fast, 8 is good, anything less
	is a _b_a_d_i_d_e_a_)--then go ahead and try it, you'll probably
	be pleased.  
	
	[That is, don't worry about the video card, since you can
	always go back--the key is the other stuff, so that you can
	get a decent evaluation of performance]   
-- 
 Snout: O Bottom, thou art chang'd!  What do I see on thee?          
 Bottom: What do you see?  You see an ass-head of your own, do you?  
 ---"I despise mystics, they fancy themselves so deep, when they----
 ----aren't even superficial"    --Nietzsche   ---------------------
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy