Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi
From: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Buying a 386 clone -- want advice
Message-ID: <6173@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 17 Mar 89 06:55:04 GMT
References: <3177@imagen.UUCP> <1309@bucket.UUCP>
Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 17

In article <1309@bucket.UUCP> leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes:
>The prime factor is this: OS/2 *doesn't use* the BIOS ROMs!!
>This means that you can only run a version of OS/2 that has been
>"written" for your brand of computer. IBM OS/2 and say, Dell OS/2
>aren't interchangeable.

...Interestingly enough, it turns out the the use of the ROM-BIOS
makes operating systems *more* finicky about what hardware you run them
on, not less.  A good example is the varous UNIXes.  One of the last
things people worry about when running these is hardware-
compatibility.

If OS/2 is finicky about the machine, it's because it was deliberately
written to be finicky.  UNIX isn't.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi         UUCP:  <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi
                    ARPA:  dhesi@bsu-cs.bsu.edu