Re: XY and on-line sessions

[rtenn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (R Tennenbaum)]

I thought I had posted on this subject, but apparently it
didn't take -- here's another try with some additions:

I used OS/2 for years with just 8 meg on a 386-dx25 quite
contentedly, and it can surely be done. However, If someone
is interested in saving money, I would suggest that going
with 16 meg rather than 8, and then buying a "slower" CPU
than what's state of the art (or shall we say "state of the
catalogue") might be a good move.

Another suggestion: build your system "slowly," one costly
peripheral at a time. For one thing, it spreads whatever
strain of adding things across time, making it easier to
tweak settings, accomodate peripherals, etc. -- not to
mention easing the budget strain that goes with upgrading. I
started with the above-mentioned 386 board in 1991 (I
think), then populated the RAM slots with 16 meg. Two years
later, I swapped the motherboard out for a rather pricey
EISA-VESA m/b, re-using the RAM of course from the old
board. Not until six months ago did I put in an EISA SCSI
controller with a nice 1-meg Fujitsu drive -- the price of
which had dropped by something like 60%, at least, from the
previous year. A month later I installed an external CD-ROM
(100 bucks, down from $250? before). The last thing I
replaced from the old Swan -- I'm still using that old case
-- was the video card: I put in a Trident 9440 VESA adaptor
(I actually had wanted to go with an ATI but apparently it
didn't like my m/b, or else it was defective) which cost
exactly $73. The next thing is a scsi tape backup (don't
lets start about floppy-based tape backup) which if I'm
lucky might drop below $150-200 before too long.

So, to Alarik: do it one thing at a time -- *most* of the
time. I happen to think that there are some things that you
should do all at one: for instance, if you're going to
change operating systems, and you need a new hard drive, do
these both at the same time. First, study as much as you
can (I probalby recommended "OS/2 Unleashed" already) and
then hope for a nice easy two-hour install. But don't tear
it up if it takes a day or two -- it was a week before I had
my scsi drive set up properly, but it hasn't blinked since.


  Rafe T.
  Readme @http://www.quicklink.com/~rtenn