Re: New PC - What MS OS?

["Simon Coulter" <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello All,

I was ignoring most of these responses because the original appender was asking 
for a MS OS but both Larry and 
James have mentioned OS/2 so I would like to add some comments.

I too run OS/2 on my desktops and Thinkpad.  The beauty of using it on the 
Thinkpad is that I can vary on and 
off TR and Eth interfaces, assign new IP addresses, disconnect from one network 
and connect to an entirely 
different one all WITHOUT REBOOTING!!!!  And I have a full TCP/IP suite, not 
the half-baked effort MS think is 
acceptable.  OS/2 has also been properly Y2K compliant for nearly a year.

James, you made a comment about NT being OS/2.  That is true but it is OS/2 
Version 1.x which is a far cry 
from the Warp 4 of today.  NT can run only OS/2 text-mode applications.  "New 
Technology"?  I don't think so!

Larry, you made a comment about OS/2 being functionally stable.  Have you 
noticed though that there is still 
quite a bit of device driver activity happening for a supposedly dead OS?  New 
USB support is available for 
mice, keyboards, speakers (!!!!), etc.  Also new version of Warp Server 
available.

Dean, you made a comment about nothing shipping with NT drivers.  I didn't know 
that but why are you 
surprised?  It's OS/2 and very little ships with OS/2 drivers either.  Still, I 
would expect better support 
from vendors.

The only piece of hardware I cannot use on the Thinkpad is the DVD drive (but I 
can use it as a CD drive) 
however there appears to be some work occurring on a DVD driver for OS/2.

OS/2 is not perfect but it is far better fit for my use than any MS OS.

For those of you interested in the travails of MS the following URLs may be of 
use:

Win 2000 application compatibility problems:
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/columns/0,4351,389278,00.html

Win 98 Y2K problems with French Government:
http://www.techserver.com/story/0,1643,22223-36252-265429-0,00.html
although the article is pretty vague and finishes discussing fairly old 
software.

I don't believe the MS OS BS (hee, hee, hee).

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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