Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!microsoft!philba
From: philba@microsoft.UUCP (Phil Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Why call it Windows/286?
Message-ID: <5731@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 16 May 89 15:52:15 GMT
References: <89May12.000432edt.19614@me.utoronto.ca>
Reply-To: philba@microsoft.UUCP (Phil Barrett)
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 20


In several articles, people raised objections to calling it Microsoft
Windows/286.  The basic gist of the complaint(s) is that since it doesn't
use *any* features of the 286, its false advertising.  

MS Windows/286 Versions 2.10 and 2.11 (current version) *do* use features
of the 286.  While it does not run in protected mode, it does take advantage of the the first 64K of extended memory for the resident portion of User. 
This yields some significant performance improvements in several specific
cases since it increases the memory available to MS Windows applications
by 10% to 20%.  In addition, drivers are included to use extended memory for a
RAMDrive and disk caching. Granted, this doesn't take 100% advantage of the 286
but the statement "doesn't use at all" isn't true either.  No false
advertising ...


Phil Barrett
Microsoft Corp

Of course, the above opinions are mine and are not representitive of
Microsoft Corp