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- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
- Path: sparky!uunet!uchinews!ellis!sip1
- From: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples)
- Subject: Re: Ugrading to OS/2 from DOS now?
- Message-ID: <1992Dec12.220328.12124@midway.uchicago.edu>
- Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
- Reply-To: sip1@midway.uchicago.edu
- Organization: Dept. of Econ., Univ. of Chicago
- References: <1992Dec7.142659.11772@wam.umd.edu> <1992Dec8.071312.632@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> <1992Dec8.124945.1769@dmp.csiro.au>
- Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 22:03:28 GMT
- Lines: 114
-
- In article <1992Dec8.124945.1769@dmp.csiro.au> lachlan@dmp.csiro.au (Lachlan Cranswick) writes:
- >I want to upgrade to OS/2 as quickly as possible (sort of) from
- >DOS and Windows. The query is from previous replies from
- >some very nice netters out there
- >that I should wait for OS/2 2.1 release that incorperates all
- >the patches for various problems. Is this correct? - when does
- >OS/2 2.1 come out?
-
- Possibly January, but there's no definite word on this.
-
- >My work is 486-33 PC has 20 Meg of RAM of 2 x 200 Meg hard disks so
- >there is no problem with space and memory. I also have
- >an 8 bit Tseng labs card and a TI microlaser turbo postscript
- >printer. From previous advice I will be getting rid of 4 x 1Meg
- >SIMMS to have a clean 4 x 4Meg SIMMS.
-
- Very nice system, yes.
-
- >Of the 400 Meg of Hard-disk how much should I keep as a separate
- >DOS area? I use various X-ray diffraction search match software
- >and programs like SigmaPlot 5.0 for DOS. Most of the other software
- >is mainstream. How will Xtree Gold for DOS work with OS/2?
-
- Fine with those things you name, as far as I can tell. If you have
- the time to repartition, do so with Boot Manager, and leave about 50
- to 80 MB for DOS (until you get comfortable). Put OS/2 2.0 in its own
- 60 MB partition. Then leave the remainder for data. Use FAT
- initially, then switch it over to HPFS when you're comfortable.
-
- >My interrupts are :-
- >3 com2
- >4 com1
- >5 WD elite plus ethernet card
- >6 Floppy
- >7 LPT1
-
- Great -- no problem.
-
- >How does OS/2 handle the memory addressing (excluding de00 - dfff
- >in DOS) for the WD ethernet card and also the 280 memory address? Is
- >it transparent?
-
- It should be. Like most other memory managers, OS/2 2.0 does its best
- to figure out what space your card(s) need (and won't try to assign an
- EMS page frame in the space).
-
- >Does OS/2 run Windows and/or does it emulate it for Windows apps?
-
- Yes.
-
- >How fast will the windows apps work compare to a DOS system?
-
- Marginally faster than Windows 3.0 (and probably much faster with disk
- I/O), about 80% of Windows 3.1. For now.
-
- >On my home PC, I have a Sound blaster Pro instead of the ethernet
- >card. Is this easy to setup for OS/2 and can I still hear
- >my 10 Megs worth of wavs in Windows?
-
- Yes. There's freely available OS/2 software (available via anonymous
- ftp from ftp-os2.nmsu.edu) to play .WAV files and such. However,
- under Win-OS/2, the setup is a bit trickier. Win-OS/2 doesn't come
- with the multimedia DLLs, so you'll need to copy them over from
- somewhere. Win-OS/2 3.1, due shortly according to reports, will
- include them. (Just think of it like Windows 3.0 with ATM and the
- Windows 3.1 error trapping.)
-
- >If the above work PC goes well with OS/2, I will want to put it
- >on 2 PC's that log data from Philips Powder X-ray Diffractometers
- >using Philips APD software. This gathers data through the 1st serial
- >port. These PC's use a MS bus Mouse which is on either IRQ 1 or 2?
- >Any problems with this?
-
- On IRQ 2, no. IRQ 1 is a reserved interrupt on every system.
-
- >The final PCs I would want to put OS/2 on would be the nastiest.
- >These are PCs that each have a CD-ROM to read ICDD X-ray Diffraction
- >data. One has an external Hitachi CDROM and the other has
- >an internal Philips CDROM. Both use CDROM interface cards
- >to function.
-
- Hitachi is working on native OS/2 drivers, by the way. But see below.
-
- >-Would I need OS/2 drivers for the CDROM which may not exist
- >or can the DOS MCDEX?.SYS driver be use. One of the CD-ROM programs
- >uses a "standard filemanager" program for DOS. Has this got a chance
- >of running in OS/2. I haven't read much info in the internet
- >about OS/2 and CDROMs - especially given the inconsistency
- >of CDROMS in DOS.
-
- You can use MSCDEX, provided you use what's called a "specific DOS
- session." Basically all you do is prepare a diskette which boots DOS
- with your CD-ROM drivers, add an extra device driver, and then create
- an image file of the diskette on your hard drive. Harder than it
- sounds, really -- see Appendix E of the OS/2 2.0 Installation Guide
- for the full rundown. (PC Magazine, in the December 9th issue, I
- believe, also described the method.)
-
- >Sorry for all the stupid questions, but I wan't as few
- >suprises as possible when I shift to OS/2. Thanks for all
- >the other replies to my questions on OS/2 in the past.
- >Unless Microsoft introduce a DOS that gets around the 640k
- >limitation in the next 6 months (highly unlikely) I will
- >be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for memory limitation
- >problems relatively soon.
-
- Well, their only follow on non-DOS based product is NT, which isn't
- impressing me yet.
-
- --
- Timothy F. Sipples | Read the OS/2 FAQ List 2.0h, available from
- sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu | 128.123.35.151, anonymous ftp, in /pub/os2/all/info
- Dept. of Econ., Univ. | /faq, or from LISTSERV@BLEKUL11.BITNET (send "HELP")
- of Chicago, 60637 | [Read the List, THEN post to ONE OS/2 newsgroup.]
-