Xref: utzoo comp.windows.ms:5554 comp.os.os2.misc:239 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!olivea!orc!inews!iwarp.intel.com!gargoyle!chinet!patrickd From: patrickd@chinet.chi.il.us (Patrick Deupree) Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms,comp.os.os2.misc Subject: Re: Query: Which would you recommend? Windows? or OS2 w/ PM? Message-ID: <1990Sep24.050147.11516@chinet.chi.il.us> Date: 24 Sep 90 05:01:47 GMT References: <4227@rex.cs.tulane.edu> Organization: Company name soon to be announced Lines: 35 In article <4227@rex.cs.tulane.edu> keating@rex.cs.tulane.edu (John W. Keating) writes: >Here's a question for the net: > >I was looking through some magazines lately and came up with these (rounded, >from memory) figures: > >A difference of only $101. For an operating system that leaps as far ahead >of MSDOS as OS2 does, and for a better integrated GUI, that seems an awful >small price to pay. > >This brings up a few questions in my mind. Why would anyone buy Windows >when such a better alternative is available for a comparative price? Well, the difference is not only in the price of the software. In order to effectively run OS/2 you'd need a 386 with, oh, lets say 3 Meg of memory and at least 20 Meg of disk space. Windows would probably run as well in 2 meg of memory and it needs only 6 meg of disk space. (I'm basing this on running both on a 3 Meg Compaq Portable and seeing the speed differences). The other issue to look into is support for said systems. The last I knew, printer driver (and other hardware driver) support for OS/2 was rather limited. Software availability is somewhat limited as well, though you will be able to find programs to support the major things on PM, such as desktop publishing, word processing, spreadsheet operations, and data-base support. I'm sure there are other issues that I've not mentioned, but I believe that OS/2 and PM are still a "rich mans" game. -- "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." William Shakespeare Patrick Deupree -> patrickd@chinet.chi.il.us (708) 328-3800 (Please note there are both a patrick and a patrickd at this site)