Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!ncar!tank!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!uxg.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: BS/2 running 32-bit mode on 386 Message-ID: <45900156@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> Date: 26 Sep 88 20:22:00 GMT References: <147@imspw6.UUCP> Lines: 39 Nf-ID: #R:imspw6.UUCP:147:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:45900156:000:1767 Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald Sep 26 15:22:00 1988 >>Anyway, one guy was wearing a suit (but no tie). He >>informed me that OS/2 fully supported the native 32-bit protected >>mode of the 80386, and indeed that OS/2 was really INTENDED to....... > The charitable assumption is that the gentleman simply didn't know >what he was talking about. That appears to have been the case. He sent me a glossy (glossy MAROON!) blurb that indeed said OS/2 did not use 32 bit mode. > Microsoft has just spent the last 6 - 8 years perfecting a >relatively simple monitor program (MS/DOS). A real operating system >such as UNIX or DEC VMS takes eight or ten years or more to get >healthy, robust, and fast for a given architecture. UNIX, which is the >ONLY portable OS worth talking about, represents the work of true >geniuses at several hundred sites over about a fifteen year period; as >a basis for comparison, a comparable intellectual endeavor might be the >entire literature of a semi-major nation over a 200 - 500 year period. >The chances of Microsoft bringing BS/2 anywhere close to challenging >UNIX within the next ten years are slim and none, and Slim's riding out >of town on his horse even as you're reading this article. >Ted Holden Genius, well I wouldn't know. But Unix and OS/2 are not similar things. Unix is a MULTIUSER operating system. OS/2 is single user. Unix is missing several things that OS/2 has: in particular, device monitors, installable device drivers, and the ability to do IO (but unfortunately not to capture interrupts) in user mode. The main thing Unix has is portability. But in the IBMPC world, nobody cares a hoot about portability. Of course, all those things could be added to Unix. To me the ability to do actual IO in user mode is absolutely vital. Doug McDonald