Re: Windows vs DOS XyWrite vs the future?

[nsivin@xxxxxxxx (Nathan Sivin)]

I have seen a number of reports that OS/2Win has compatibility problems with
applications that full OS/2 doesn't. Given the peremptory nature of
XyWrite, I would be hesitant to buy the former. I did, by the way, buy the
latter, and found that, since IBM doesn't really go on the line for it, for
many types of applications and utilities you are at the mercy of what is
available. IF it is available--I gave it up when it turned out that my CD-ROM
drive couldn't be accessed by OS/2, and neither the drive manufacturer, the
computer manufacturer, nor IBM had any interest in making a driver. That is an
example of IBM's lack of initiative, and of why Chicago, MS's knockoff of OS/2,
will get the millions of users OS/2, on its merits, should have.

-- Nathan Sivin
History and Sociology of Science
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA 19104-3325