NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/comp/os/os2/advocacy/3889

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From: [e-mail] (Michael R. Platzke)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: I've seen NT......and I'll take OS/2 2.0 thanks!
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 13 Aug 92 17:38:08 GMT
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>From: [e-mail]
>Subject: I've seen NT......and I'll take OS/2 2.0 thanks!
>Date: 13 Aug 92 07:31:41 GMT

>At the Computing '92 show here in Wellington, Microsoft were demonstrating
>Windows NT.
>
>It uses the Win3.1 interface/program manager. You need a 486/33 with 16Megs of
>RAM. It takes up acres of disk space - I think he said 60 megs of disk space.
>
>It does everything OS/2 already does on a much smaller platform. It looked
>very powerful, but then it was on a high-end 486 with 16-32 megs of RAM

Microsoft has announced that the minimum requirements for the final release
of NT will be a 386-33 with 8 megs of memory.  The OS should require around
50 megs of HD space, and that includes a required 20 meg swap file.
(I don't have my copy of the press release lying around so please feel free
to correct any inaccuracies).  The Developers pre-beta release requires a
386-33 with 12 megs of memory (16 recommended) and 100 megs of disk space.
Reports have it running on 8 meg machines with less disk space tho.

>
>The presenter *stressed* it was NOT a desktop system. It is NOT a replacement
>for Windows 3.x. (that much was obvious!).

Yeah, Microsoft has stated that NT is not a desktop system.  However, when
I look at the announcements in the last couple of months, it sure seems that
microsoft is viewing NT as its strategic system.  They have announced that
Cairo(their object-oriented shell-API-collection-of-doohickeys) will only
be available on NT.  Add to this the fact that 486 systems are selling like
hotcakes...It is my opinion that microsoft intends to make NT their future
main OS.  Maybe they don't want to announce this so that they can continue to
milk the Windows-DOS cash cow and not scare away buyers.


>OS/2 will do for you on your 386SX/20MHz with 6Megs what NT needs a 486/50
>with 16 megs to do.

Well, without starting a flame war, I would point out that NT has
built in networking (limited LANMAN and full TCP/IP), symmetrical (sp?)
multiprocessing(okay, not much good on a single cpu 486, but still cool),
multiple APIs (Win-16,Win-32,OS/2 1.3,POSIX), built in security (which forms
the basis for multiple users), and other goodies.  Yeah, I've heard that
the mythical :-) OS/2 2.1 is supposed to have much of this stuff, but when?
In regards to that, would someone from an IBM site care to comment on the
"offical" feature list of the next OS/2 release (not CSD).  If non-ibm sites
wish to chip in, please list source of info (not "well some guy on the net
said that ...").


>BTW, the MS presenter also said that Presentation Manager support will be
>incorporated in NT in 1993. Is this recognition that OS/2 V2 is a viable
>market presence?
>

Again, just my opinion, but the OS/2 support is only for version 1.3 and I
think that MS included it so that they can claim that they did not drop
support for those OS/2 users who bought ver 1.3, they merely upgraded them
to NT.

>Steve


-The above statements are only my humble opinion

-Michael R. Platzke ([e-mail])