Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!samsung!crackers!m2c!risky.ecs.umass.edu!umaecs!daly
From: daly@ecs.umass.edu (Bryon Daly, ECE dept, UMass, Amherst)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: OS/2 2.0 is here! READ THIS, you'll be impressed
Message-ID: <13367.2814aeb7@ecs.umass.edu>
Date: 23 Apr 91 22:01:27 GMT
References: <F0wR11w164w@questor.wimsey.bc.ca> <1991Apr22.135439.17136@rti.rti.org> <1991Apr23.002101.14336@amd.com> <1991Apr23.025053.956@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> <12097@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Followup-To: comp.windows.ms
Lines: 26

In article <12097@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>, nataraj@celebrity.Eng.Sun.COM (Nataraj) writes:
>

<stuff deleted>

>    What is OS/2 2.0 and what is OS/2 NT which MS is supposedly developing.
> Is it like the Unix split (SysV and BSD )??
> 
> nataraj/.

OS/2 was originally planned (and still might be?) as the successor of DOS,
and was to deliver capabilites similar to more powerful OS's like UNIX (things
like preemptive multitasking, which DOS/Windows does not deliver), along 
with a GUI environment.  Early versions of OS/2 failed to deliver all they 
promised, and never took a strong market position.  OS/2 v2.0 claims to 
rectify many earlier problems and deliver what was promised several years back 
(finally).  Most people are saying "We'll see".
 
From what I've heard the NT in OS/2 NT stands for New Technology and is MS's
plan for the future of OS/2 / DOS.  It is supposed to be high end stuff, with
miraculous unheard of new features.  OS/2 2.0 is just a step along the way
towards NT.  I wouldn't start lining up in software stores for it quite yet,
though (to understate the fact).

-Bryon
daly@ecs.umass.edu