home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
/ Cream of the Crop 20 / Cream of the Crop 20 (Terry Blount) (1996).iso / sound / info5_96.zip / OS2 < prev    next >
Text File  |  1996-05-20  |  10KB  |  126 lines
  1. ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  2. │                                                                             │
  3. │A Common Man's Experience with OS/2 Warp.                                    │
  4. │                                                                             │
  5. │By Ben Zell (ben.zell@swcbbs.com)                                            │
  6. │                                                                             │
  7. │      At  first I wanted a good 32-bit operating system that                 │
  8. │would  relieve me of the resource problems and  multitasking                 │
  9. │limitations of Windows for Workgroups 3.11.  I went over  to                 │
  10. │my  local computer store and picked up OS/2 Warp for $70  on                 │
  11. │CD-ROM  hoping  this would solve all of  my  problems.   The                 │
  12. │process:                                                                     │
  13. │                                                                             │
  14. │PROBLEM #1:  Compressed Drive Incompatibility                                │
  15. │     I looked at the installation manual and noticed that it                 │
  16. │said  that  OS/2  Warp would not install on  any  compressed                 │
  17. │drive  (besides special OS/2 compression utilities).   I  am                 │
  18. │using  DriveSpace,  which comes with MS-DOS  6.22,  so  that                 │
  19. │means  I have to uncompress my hard drive, requiring  me  to                 │
  20. │delete some important things to free up space (Like Doom!!).                 │
  21. │Well,  after  all  that,  I  installed  OS/2  and  no  major                 │
  22. │installation problems occurred.                                              │
  23. │                                                                             │
  24. │PROBLEM #2:  Unsupported Printer                                             │
  25. │      I  am  finally  in OS/2 and am configuring  it  to  my                 │
  26. │hardware  when I notice that it doesn't support my  printer-                 │
  27. │nor  does  it  support Windows drivers, so I would  probably                 │
  28. │have  to call the printer manufacturer's BBS (long distance)                 │
  29. │and download one... what a pain the ass!                                     │
  30. │                                                                             │
  31. │PROBLEM #3-5:  Windows Programs in General                                   │
  32. │      Okay, now that all the installation is over, I'm ready                 │
  33. │to try a Windows program (due to lack of OS/2 programs).   I                 │
  34. │go into the Win-OS/2 folder and double click Edit Master, my                 │
  35. │text  editor of choice.  Error!  Error! Error! I though OS/2                 │
  36. │was  supposed  to run Windows programs seamlessly?!?   Well,                 │
  37. │that program is made in Visual Basic, so I decided to try my                 │
  38. │communications program (Procomm Plus for Windows).                           │
  39. │                                                                             │
  40. │PROBLEM #4:  Modem Trouble                                                   │
  41. │      Well,  this problem adds a little to the previous  one                 │
  42. │but  here  goes...  Well immediately I spot  a  few  graphic                 │
  43. │glitches  that  weren't there before, and the  size  of  the                 │
  44. │title bar and min/max buttons are unusually large and out-of-                │
  45. │proportion compared to the rest of the window.  So, I try to                 │
  46. │dial  a  BBS  assuming at least that would  work,    CONNECT                 │
  47. │9600.   What's  the deal here?!?  I have a V.34  28800  baud                 │
  48. │modem!   I  want my moneys worth and I want to  be  able  to                 │
  49. │connect  at  28800  (or one of the fallbacks).   Well,  that                 │
  50. │blows.                                                                       │
  51. │                                                                             │
  52. │PROBLEM #5:  Sound Shut Off                                                  │
  53. │      I  have  to  admit  that OS/2's 16-bit  system  sounds                 │
  54. │impressed  me on my Sound Blaster 16, but when  I'm  running                 │
  55. │any  Windows program, it's as if my Sound Blaster were  off,                 │
  56. │no sound in Windows, no sound in OS/2-- strange.                             │
  57. │                                                                             │
  58. │PROBLEM #6:  HyperACCESS (Bonus Pak)                                         │
  59. │      A  terrible  overlooked bug!  How can  you  spell  Pak                 │
  60. │without  the `c'?  Nah, just kidding... but after  all  this                 │
  61. │modem  trouble  I though that maybe I could  use  the  modem                 │
  62. │program   that  comes  in  the  bonus  pak   from   now   on                 │
  63. │(HyperACCESS).  It doesn't install - end of story.  It  just                 │
  64. │won't accept the CD-ROM as the source installation drive!                    │
  65. │                                                                             │
  66. │PROBLEM #7:  Unbearable Slowness                                             │
  67. │      This is definitely one of the more important problems.                 │
  68. │With  OS/2  my  harddrive is almost  constantly  loading;  I                 │
  69. │almost  feel  bad  for  it!  It never loaded  like  this  in                 │
  70. │Windows, probably because of my 2-meg Smartdrv cache, but lo                 │
  71. │and behold, there is no OS/2 equivalent of Smartdrv, causing                 │
  72. │things  to become incredibly slow.  One feature that  really                 │
  73. │takes a beating is multimedia.  I have a 10 second long  16-                 │
  74. │bit  44.1khz stereo WAV file that plays a tenth of a  second                 │
  75. │of  sound, then loads for a half second, then repeats  until                 │
  76. │the  file  is  over.  It's almost hard to tell  what  it  is                 │
  77. │that's  playing.   The  same thing happens  with  AVI  files                 │
  78. │(multimedia video).                                                          │
  79. │                                                                             │
  80. │PROBLEM #8:  DOS is More Complete!                                           │
  81. │      In  addition  to DriveSpace, I miss Scandisk,  Defrag,                 │
  82. │Smartdrv,  Edit, and other utilities IBM failed to  include,                 │
  83. │they just throw in the bare basics.                                          │
  84. │                                                                             │
  85. │PROBLEM #9:  Incompatible with a lot of TSR's                                │
  86. │      I  used to use Mcafee's Vshield TSR to protect  myself                 │
  87. │from  viruses, but screw that; it's only useful if I'm gonna                 │
  88. │stay  inside  the  DOS window I loaded it  from...  forever.                 │
  89. │Obviously similar TSR's won't work with everything either.                   │
  90. │                                                                             │
  91. │PROBLEM #10:  Inconsistency between standards                                │
  92. │      All  of  my beautiful fonts, not compatible with  OS/2                 │
  93. │programs.   OLE isn't either!  Neither is DDE!   Great,  you                 │
  94. │can  have Windows, OS/2 and Windows on the same screen,  but                 │
  95. │too bad they can't take advantage of eachother's features.                   │
  96. │                                                                             │
  97. │PROBLEM #11:  Colorado Jumbo 250                                             │
  98. │      I  paid a couple hundred dollars for my tape drive and                 │
  99. │it's  not supported by OS/2!  That's pretty much all  I  can                 │
  100. │say!                                                                         │
  101. │                                                                             │
  102. │PROBLEM #1