Re: Grrr [OS2 and XY install]

[campbelc@xxxxxxxx (Carter Campbell)]

August 9, 1995

Well, I thought I would jump into the fray as well and add a few
comments myself. Jack Shafer started this off by writing:

>Don't torture yourself over the failure to install OS2 on your
>rigs. I read today that IBM's own Aptiva line has a difficult
>time digesting the operating system. Me, I spent three months
>trying to install it on an Austin 486/50 with no tweaky boards.
>Installation/compatiblity seems to be the Window 3.1/95's one
>excelling virtue.

I don't think it is torturous to install OS/2, I have had quite good
luck with it since I began using it. I will admit, I have crashed it
several times, enough so I needed to reinstall it. However, during
day-to-day use, I have rarely had problems and I certainly haven't had
near the trouble with OS/2 as I have with MS DOS and Windows.

I agree, you can install DOS/Windows on anything, but that doesn't
mean that it will run, or that it won't systematically consume your
hard disk and data files.

Then James Besser chimed in and wrote:

>Yeah, the OS/2 devotees are living in some kind of fantasy warp.
>It *is* a terrific OS--if you can get it to work. Many people
>can't, and it's not because we're complete idiots.

No offense, but I have yet to meet one in the flesh. (Now watch, I
have opened my big mouth and the Fates will seek revenge on me for it.
 Poof there goes the easy OS/2 install ions I expell). I have heard
about this and I am not going to say that these statements are false,
but I haven't seen this and I have installed or helped install it on a
number of machines.

>More and more , I find myself returning to basics. I'm using
>XyWrite 3.55 again, with v. 4 for occasional use only; I
>"downgraded" from OS/2 to Windoze, and if I could just figure
>out a way to get faxes in the background with a DOS program, I'd
>go back to XyWrite and plain DOS.

Actually, have you tried COMMit for DOS. It isn't great, but it does
run in the back ground, either that or DOSFax (Winfax people make it).
 I wanted to use DOSFax during my Desqview days, but it was hard to
come by here in the Great White.

And then Annie Fisher wrote something like:

>The flame war may go on, but the OS war is over. The 1 August
>1995 NYTimes business section headline told the whole story:
>  "I.B.M. Chief Concedes OS/2 Has Lost Desktop War

>>>> LOTS OF STUFF OMITTED <<<<

>"`Let's put it this way,' Mr. Barnes said. `I'm going to put
>Windows 95 on the machines in my house.'"

Actually Annie, if you bop on over to the news group
comp.os.os2.advocacy you will find a war raging across the netscape on
this very topic.

Some are saying that there was a retraction and that Gerstner was
taken out of context and so on. Others are saying that Peter Lewis
doesn't like IBM and wants to see them fail; therefore, writes
material slanted that way, etc. The thing is, when IBM actually
informs me that it is pulling the product (from the desktop market), I
will just keep a'crusing and hoping.

In many ways, I hope this is not true, as this will be the second OS
that was pulled out from under me, the first was DR DOS. If OS/2 does
go, I will probably have to start looking closely at Lynix, as there
is no damn way I am going back to MS anything.

Got my fingers crossed.

Carter Campbell
campbelc@xxxxxxxx
carterc@xxxxxxxx
Calgary Alberta
Canada