Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ubvax!ames!killer!chasm
From: chasm@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Charles Marslett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: MS Windows 2.x and 286 - what's the difference
Summary: MS Windows/286 is Windows 2.1x with an (optional) driver
Message-ID: <5995@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 4 Nov 88 18:50:47 GMT
References: <386@fauern.UUCP>
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 46

In article <386@fauern.UUCP>, roderus@fauern.UUCP (Helmut Roderus) writes:
>    - a 386 version, seems to have real multitasking and is
>      running in protected mode
>    - the 2.x versions, which I suppose are to run on all
>      XT/AT ...
>    - a 286 version.
> 
> Who can answer the following questions to me?
> 
>    Does the 286 version run in protected mode of the 80286?

The 286 version runs on XTs (so it does not run in protected mode).  It
differs from the 2.0x version in the "bug fix" and upgrade state, and
it comes with a "driver" that makes use of the 286 idiosyncracy that
in real mode the 286 can access 1 MB + 64K - 16 bytes of memory, while
the 8088 can only access 1 MB.  The difference means a lot to some
people, but I can't get to excited about it!

>    Does it support multitasking?
All three Windows systems support a cooperative multitasking system --
the programs have to work at it (be coded explicitly for windows) to
provide all the features of Windows programs.  Only Windows/386 really
time-slices to handle misbehaved or compute bound programs (I think
this is true, but I may be spouting off, too).

>    Will all MS Windows Applications run on this special version?
Windows applications that work with Windows/2.03 will work with all
three version, most 1.04 applications works within limits, but
obviously an application written for Windows/286 or Windows/386 that
use the 286 or 386 instruction sets will fail if run under Windows/2.03
or Windows/286 on an 8088 machine (though Excel seems to work, or
starts up at least, on a V20 based XT box -- I did not buy it, so the
testing was very minimal).

> 
> Thanks for your answers,
> 
> Helmut Roderus
> roderus@fauern.uucp

In summary, all Windows environments are more or less the same (like
all Unix systems :-) . . . but they are nested in functionality, like
the Intel processors (386 runs 286 runs 8088 programs, most of the time!).

Charles Marslett
STB Systems, Inc.           <-- apply all standard disclaimers
chasm@killer.dallas.tx.us