Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!unido!gmdzi!strobl
From: strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Rumor -> Loss of Mac's 20% advantage over Windows 3.0
Message-ID: <2937@gmdzi.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jun 90 11:10:52 GMT
References: <1990Jun27.193916.2852@midway.uchicago.edu>
Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, F. R. Germany
Lines: 42

gft_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes:

>In article <2932@gmdzi.UUCP>, strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl) writes...
> 
>>>  I don't know where this mythical 20% comes from, and I don't see how DOS
>>>would make up that difference.  Most all of the articles that I've been
>>>reading {both Mac and PC mags} have gone out of their way to point out that
>>>while Windows is nice, it's no Macintosh, and that if you *really* want a
>>>quality system then the Mac is a better machine.
>> 
>>I don't think so. Windows main advantage is that is was designed as a
>>multitasking and multiapplication system from the very beginning.

>Hmm.  Last time I looked Windows was an a windowing interface to the MS-DOS
>operating system.  MS-DOS is not a multitasking OS, as far as I know.  Now
>Windows may accomplish multitasking, but to say that it was designed as such
>from the beginning is misleading; I doubt DOS was designed from the beginning
>to be a "multitasking and multiapplication system from the very beginning".

>Robert

Sure. And MSDOS started as a poor CP/M clone, which hardly anyone would
call an operating system, today. But so what? Starting with version 2
MSDOS got a file system which was designed to look similar to the **IX 
file system. Windows inherits this file system from MSDOS and has to live
with the restrictions it may have. But after Windows is started, most
other resources (CPU, memory, timer, printer, communication ports) are
managed by Windows. 

The resource management of Windows is designed under the assumption that
there are many applications running concurrently. Even the spooler (which
is now called "print manager") is a normal application program, which
gets print requests from other applications. There are no accessories,
because there is no need for them. Two or more instances of an application
share their code. Windows can move code segments around or discard
them and reload them later, even if the code is currently in use.
It can move data segments around, if they are local or not locked.

All this is not a feature of some future version of Windows, it has
been there for five or six years now.

Wolfgang Strobl