Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!ima!johnl
From: johnl@ima.ISC.COM (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: OS/2 and the 80286
Keywords: OS/2  286  compatibility
Message-ID: <835@ima.ISC.COM>
Date: 6 Jan 88 22:17:52 GMT
References: <4347@garfield.UUCP>
Reply-To: johnl@ima.UUCP (John R. Levine)
Organization: Not enough to make any difference
Lines: 23

In article <4347@garfield.UUCP> robert4@garfield.UUCP (Robert Pitt) writes:
>     I am about to buy an 80286 machine but have come across a number of
>conflicting claims about the prowess of machines based on that chip.  I had
>gathered that an 80386 processor was required to run OS/2, and a number of
>salespeople I have asked are of the same understanding.  ...

OS/2 runs on 286 machines. You can run it on a 386, but it'll treat the 386 as
a fast 286 and will not take advantage of any of the 386's new features such
as virtual 86 mode. (I was at the April announcement in Miami and IBM and
their MS friends were quite clear about that. Maybe some day there will be
OS/3, but don't hold your breath.)

Like MS-DOS, OS/2 needs to be customized to the hardware of the machine on
which it is running. IBM sells a version of OS/2 customized for ATs, XT-286s,
and PS/2s. Other vendors such as Compaq and Tandy sell versions customized for
their machines. Like PC-DOS, IBM OS/2 may well run on an IBM machine if it is
similar enough to one of the supported IBM machines.

If this sounds like a morass, that's because it is.
-- 
John R. Levine, IECC, PO Box 349, Cambridge MA 02238-0349, +1 617 492 3869
{ ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something
Gary Hart for President -- Let's win one for the zipper.