home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
DP Tool Club 31
/
CDASC_31_1996_juillet_aout.iso
/
vrac
/
info5_96.zip
/
OS2
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-05-20
|
10KB
|
126 lines
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│A Common Man's Experience with OS/2 Warp. │
│ │
│By Ben Zell (ben.zell@swcbbs.com) │
│ │
│ At first I wanted a good 32-bit operating system that │
│would relieve me of the resource problems and multitasking │
│limitations of Windows for Workgroups 3.11. I went over to │
│my local computer store and picked up OS/2 Warp for $70 on │
│CD-ROM hoping this would solve all of my problems. The │
│process: │
│ │
│PROBLEM #1: Compressed Drive Incompatibility │
│ I looked at the installation manual and noticed that it │
│said that OS/2 Warp would not install on any compressed │
│drive (besides special OS/2 compression utilities). I am │
│using DriveSpace, which comes with MS-DOS 6.22, so that │
│means I have to uncompress my hard drive, requiring me to │
│delete some important things to free up space (Like Doom!!). │
│Well, after all that, I installed OS/2 and no major │
│installation problems occurred. │
│ │
│PROBLEM #2: Unsupported Printer │
│ I am finally in OS/2 and am configuring it to my │
│hardware when I notice that it doesn't support my printer- │
│nor does it support Windows drivers, so I would probably │
│have to call the printer manufacturer's BBS (long distance) │
│and download one... what a pain the ass! │
│ │
│PROBLEM #3-5: Windows Programs in General │
│ Okay, now that all the installation is over, I'm ready │
│to try a Windows program (due to lack of OS/2 programs). I │
│go into the Win-OS/2 folder and double click Edit Master, my │
│text editor of choice. Error! Error! Error! I though OS/2 │
│was supposed to run Windows programs seamlessly?!? Well, │
│that program is made in Visual Basic, so I decided to try my │
│communications program (Procomm Plus for Windows). │
│ │
│PROBLEM #4: Modem Trouble │
│ Well, this problem adds a little to the previous one │
│but here goes... Well immediately I spot a few graphic │
│glitches that weren't there before, and the size of the │
│title bar and min/max buttons are unusually large and out-of- │
│proportion compared to the rest of the window. So, I try to │
│dial a BBS assuming at least that would work, CONNECT │
│9600. What's the deal here?!? I have a V.34 28800 baud │
│modem! I want my moneys worth and I want to be able to │
│connect at 28800 (or one of the fallbacks). Well, that │
│blows. │
│ │
│PROBLEM #5: Sound Shut Off │
│ I have to admit that OS/2's 16-bit system sounds │
│impressed me on my Sound Blaster 16, but when I'm running │
│any Windows program, it's as if my Sound Blaster were off, │
│no sound in Windows, no sound in OS/2-- strange. │
│ │
│PROBLEM #6: HyperACCESS (Bonus Pak) │
│ A terrible overlooked bug! How can you spell Pak │
│without the `c'? Nah, just kidding... but after all this │
│modem trouble I though that maybe I could use the modem │
│program that comes in the bonus pak from now on │
│(HyperACCESS). It doesn't install - end of story. It just │
│won't accept the CD-ROM as the source installation drive! │
│ │
│PROBLEM #7: Unbearable Slowness │
│ This is definitely one of the more important problems. │
│With OS/2 my harddrive is almost constantly loading; I │
│almost feel bad for it! It never loaded like this in │
│Windows, probably because of my 2-meg Smartdrv cache, but lo │
│and behold, there is no OS/2 equivalent of Smartdrv, causing │
│things to become incredibly slow. One feature that really │
│takes a beating is multimedia. I have a 10 second long 16- │
│bit 44.1khz stereo WAV file that plays a tenth of a second │
│of sound, then loads for a half second, then repeats until │
│the file is over. It's almost hard to tell what it is │
│that's playing. The same thing happens with AVI files │
│(multimedia video). │
│ │
│PROBLEM #8: DOS is More Complete! │
│ In addition to DriveSpace, I miss Scandisk, Defrag, │
│Smartdrv, Edit, and other utilities IBM failed to include, │
│they just throw in the bare basics. │
│ │
│PROBLEM #9: Incompatible with a lot of TSR's │
│ I used to use Mcafee's Vshield TSR to protect myself │
│from viruses, but screw that; it's only useful if I'm gonna │
│stay inside the DOS window I loaded it from... forever. │
│Obviously similar TSR's won't work with everything either. │
│ │
│PROBLEM #10: Inconsistency between standards │
│ All of my beautiful fonts, not compatible with OS/2 │
│programs. OLE isn't either! Neither is DDE! Great, you │
│can have Windows, OS/2 and Windows on the same screen, but │
│too bad they can't take advantage of eachother's features. │
│ │
│PROBLEM #11: Colorado Jumbo 250 │
│ I paid a couple hundred dollars for my tape drive and │
│it's not supported by OS/2! That's pretty much all I can │
│say! │
│ │
│PROBLEM #12: Uninstallation │
│ I'm sick of this crap! Now how do I get rid of it? │
│IBM doesn't include an uninstall program with it's OS as │
│Microsoft does, so I have to format my hard drive and use a │
│boot disk to reload everything onto my hard drive from tape. │
│This is not exactly the "user friendly" way. │
│ │
│ Well, to conclude these are problems that occurred in 2 │
│days of use, there has to be more problems, since I still │
│never got around to trying everything. I never used much of │
│the Bonus Pak and I never got to try any games with it (I │
│had to delete them to fit OS/2). Well basically OS/2 Warp │
│is not a good buy and is not the future of computing. │
│Undoubtedly Microsoft's Windows 95 will not have most of the │
│problems listed here, and I think that they will have a │
│better chance... I can't say though since I haven't seen the │
│new system. │
│ But anyways... please distribute this file everywhere │
│possible and try to keep it in its original archive if you │
│can. Thanks a lot. │
│ │
│ -Ben Zell (ben.zell@swcbbs.com) │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘