Re: OS/2 & Cyrix

[Peter Evans peterev@xxxxxxxx]

At 09:33 PM 7/30/97 -0500, Harmon Seaver wrote (and perhaps accidentally
sent me twice):

>> My own impression . . . was that, whatever its other actual or possible
>> benefits, Java-OS was a good way to s-l-o-w things down immensely.
>
>I seriously doubt you read that in regards to Java-OS. Could you tell
>us where?

Well, for example (and in the context of reviews of such packages as Corel
Office for Java): ". . . The disadvantage is that Java programs run
considerably slower than those optimized for particular platforms. . ."
(That's from http://www1.zdnet.com/pcmagcd/v5d2/html/javavue.htm.)

>Have you noticed any real sloth in Java applets running under Netscape?

No, but (amusing though they are) those I've encountered all do such simple
things that I wouldn't expect any sluggishness.

>The next release of Word Perfect will be pure, 100% Java . . . but do you
>suppose Corel chose that approach to slow down WP?

You surprise me. I thought that one of numerous existing releases of
WordPerfect was pure, 100% Java--and that it's nowhere near as ambitious a
program (or to put it more flatteringly, nowhere near as bloated) as the
various other versions, most of which Corel will continue to market and
upgrade. And that the reason why it's so simplified is to make it run at a
decent clip in little memory.

>And do you truly think that a OS that runs quite well on machines
>with only 4megs of ROM and 4 megs of RAM would be marketed by an
>ultra-tech company like SUN if it were slow?

"Ultra-tech" is new to me, but anyway, I suppose that yes, it's tolerably
fast--at least for what it does. (After all, Sun aren't complete dummies
when it comes to marketing.) But these are guesses; perhaps somebody who
has used one can tell us.

>Given the choice, you'd no doubt prefer your Pentium (of whatever
>speed) to a Sun Sparcstation of like "speed", eh?

I'm not sure of what you mean by these machines, and thus how to interpret
your question. Given the choice between a Sparcstation that ran Corel
Office for Java at a certain speed (as measured by an, um, "application
benchmark" [?]), and a Pentium or clone thereof that ran Corel Office for
Win95 at the same speed, I would be interested in the former but would
probably choose the latter, because:

  COJava is (I believe) like COWin95 lite
  UNIX applications are (I've heard) a pain to install
  parts for an Intel clone are cheap to replace when (not if)
   they go wrong
  there are a lot of Windows and DOS programs that I want to run
  UNIX (and other) Windows and DOS emulations are (I believe)
   slow

Anyway, I don't buy computers; I just pull out old bits when they get old
and dodgy or when new software I want to run is intolerably sluggish, and
stick in newer bits when these are already a year behind what Ziff-Davis
are salivating over, and thus cheap. That's how/why I moved from (Intel)
486DX/33 to (AMD) 486DX4/133, and thence (Cyrix) 586/133. (The second
change turned out to be unnecessary.)

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Peter Evans