Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!bu-cs!mirror!prism!rob
From: rob@prism.TMC.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 386 vs 286 vs 8088
Message-ID: <206900132@prism>
Date: 17 Oct 89 17:19:00 GMT
References: <8595@max.u.washington.edu>
Lines: 24
Nf-ID: #R:max.u.washington.edu:-859500:prism:206900132:000:901
Nf-From: prism.TMC.COM!rob    Oct 17 13:19:00 1989



Minor correction - 

>> If so, then what is the difference in buying a 20Mhz 286 machine
>> than a 20Mhz 386 machine, in terms of capabilities?

> Nothing at all, except maybe some speed.
  
  There's a fair (and growing) amount of 386 specific software that won't run
on a 286. Windows-386 and Desqview-386 are two examples. Whether there's a 
difference between the 286 and 386 depends on whether you'll want to run 
such software now or in the future.


>> Any comments will be appreciated....

> OS/2 is and will be a dog until it is ported to the '386 architecture.

  Agreed. But I fear that as long as IBM has a minicomputer line to protect,
it might be a long wait. Though there's been no official announcement of
OS/2-386 yet, the 'unofficial' release date (mentioned periodically by Bill 
Gates in speeches and interviews) keeps getting pushed back. We'll be lucky
to see it before 1991.