Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen
From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: PW review of IBM workstation
Message-ID: <3050@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: 18 Dec 90 13:50:10 GMT
References: <28775@usc> <1990Dec15.010143.9614@phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY
Lines: 36

In article <1990Dec15.010143.9614@phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au> hunter@phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au (James Gardiner [hunter]) writes:

| I did read that IBM where porting OS/2 to RISK based stations
| (as even a suped up 386 has trouble driving it.

  Seems to run reasonably on a 16 MHz SX. The display system is slow,
I'll grant you that. I haven't heard that IBM is porting it, I *did*
hear from two sources that MicroSoft has it running on the Intel 860,
but that they aren't sure what to do about marketing it, if anything.
One source is questionable, one has been reliable in the past.

|                                                  The overhead is just
| to much and makes it unusable) 

  Again, I don't see evidence that the overhead is that high. Higher
than UNIX, yes. <20%, yes to that one, too. And when using lightweight
processes it may well be lower overhead than a "stock" UNIX which must
use full weight processes. Wasn't that supposed to be in V.4?

|                                 If you where IBM and had developed this
| OS, spending MILLIONS opon MILLIONS,  would not you try anything to
| get it off the ground if it was failing on its PLANNED platform.
| OS/2 probably does run on 90% of risk stations.

  I's like to see a source for that statement. I would have to see ports
to SPARC, MIPS, and 88000 before I would believe anything close to 90%.

  I believe that OS/2 has some very nice ideas which should be
incorporated into UNIX. I don't believe that OS/2 will ever be a widely
popular multi-platform o/s, but I won't deny that if IBM and MicroSoft
dedicated all their resources to it they could give away or sell at
deep discount enough copies to make it widely used if not popular.

-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
    VMS is a text-only adventure game. If you win you can use unix.