Back many years ago I posted this review on BIX, Byte Magazine's online
service. When this was written (file date was 11/03/93) Windows still
wasn't a serious contender in the OS wars.
Quarterdeck and Novell could have blown Windows off the planet had they
combined forces to join Desqview/X with DR-DOS. DVX fixed all the
problems I mentioned below. Only thing was, Quarterdeck never seemed to
be interested in selling any. When I wrote DESQview Unleashed DVX had
been out six months, but even though I had access to Quarterdeck's
programmers, tech support, and PR people, I could never obtain a copy of
the product. Ah, well...
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OS/2 for DESQview users: not so hot
I used to use DESQview. Quarterdeck has abandoned the product as far
as I know, and I decided to move to something else. After playing with
Windows and OS/2, I chose OS/2.
OS/2 is interesting, but it has some serious shortcomings. I get the
feeling IBM's programmers all mostly ex-mainframe guys, or they run raw
DOS. For anyone who makes serious use of their machine, OS/2 shows
some odd lacks. I used to run DOS 5, QEMM, DESQview, the Repeat
Performance keyboard accelerator, 4DOS, a CD-ROM, a tape drive, a
LANtastic network, and dual monitors. I guess I'd fall into the "power
user" category.
Every time you move to a new OS you're going to lose something.
Speed and disk space, mainly. I have a gig drive and space to burn, my
386-33 *screams* under DV. It's so-so under OS/2, but I can live with
that. There are things that are done differently in OS/2. They take
some getting used to. There are some things you can't do at all, or
only with incredible contortions. That's driving me nuts.
Here's a little list:
DESQview: OS/2:
runs over DOS, replaces some DOS true bootable operating system
functions.
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There doesn't seem to be any difference in reliability. I could crash
DV with certain things, I can crash OS/2 just as easily. So much for
"Crash Protection(tm)" "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." "So don't
do that." Okay, Windows, NT, PC-MOS/386, and Omniview all have their
little problems too.
DESQview: << OS/2:
preemptive scheduler, adjustable preemptive scheduler. Windows
timeslices per window, windows can can be configured to run in
be temporarily suspended to boost foreground only. No adjustments.
foreground speed, adjustable ratio OS/2's scheduler is supposed to
of foreground to background tasks. be smarter than you are, like it
Also has dynamic override to give or lump it
additional time to tasks with
serial I/O or keyboard input
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"Ooh, OS/2 multitasks, isn't that so NEAT?" Maybe to some goob who ran
bare DOS ever since 1982, but not to DV users, or Win3 users for that
matter. In fact, DV multitasks more efficiently than OS/2, and its
accessible scheduler is very useful. And even Windows lets you fiddle
with timeslices. People keep telling me there's a screen somewhere to
let you adjust OS/2's scheduler, but I can't find it, and it'd not
indexed in the manuals.
DESQview: << OS/2:
very small impact on system depends on what you're doing,
throughput - originally written to but speed loss is several times
perform adequately on 4.77MHz that of DV. Buy faster hardware
8088s
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With DV my 16Mb 386-33 I can have four or five background windows
converting files from .ZIP to .LZH format, a 14,400 file transfer, and
still have acceptable keyboard response. OS/2 has so much internal
overhead it's not worth running more than three windows at a time. If
you have a DOS image booted, the performance hit is horrible. I have
to have the image to access the net, which is where my CD-ROMs, E-mail,
and other stuff are.
DESQview: << OS/2:
works with your usual DOS network, just fine as long as you take out
but usually not as a server a second mortgage to buy LAN
Manager or the big Novell. You
have to boot a DOS image to run
LANtastic, Novell Lite, or other
inexpensive networks.
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And IBM has the balls to brag about OS/2's connectability in their
ads. 90% of the networks I come across as a consultant are LANtastic
or Novell Lite. I've never even *seen* a LAN Manager network.
DESQview: << OS/2:
no SCSI troubles iffen it ain't Adaptec 1542B,
you'll be plagued with minor
troubles
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Like most SCSI tape backup software searches specifically for the
Adaptec controller, for no reason I can tell. The Always IN-2000 is
officially supported, but is almost as slow as a floppy drive. The
Future Domain 1680 is officially supported, and appears to do
everything except talk to tape drives.
DESQview: << OS/2:
no CD-ROM troubles - use your you either have one of a very
ordinary DOS drivers small list of supported drives
(mostly SCSI, just for kicks)
or you try to get your DOS
drivers to work in a DOS image
box. This is a great way to
learn new methods of crashing
OS/2
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CD-ROMs have *finally* become commodity items. You can even buy them
at K-Mart. They're mostly slow, with proprietary interfaces, but
that's what the average user has. OS/2 only supports expensive drives.
It doesn't support any of the SIX drives I have, even the SCSI one.
DESQview: >> OS/2:
640x480x16 VGA or nothing. supports VGA, XGA, 8514, some
Limited and unsupported partial generic chipsets. Few cards or
compatibility with 640x480x256 drivers for accelerated video.
and 800x600x14. No XGA, 8514, Better than DV, not anywhere
S3, no installable video drivers near Windows
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This is one of the major reasons users have switched away from DV.
Quarterdeck has stuck its head in the sand and refuses to upgrade the
product.
DESQview: << OS/2:
video performance is *faster* DOS windows are unusably slow on
than DOS - much, much faster for a regular VGA/SVGA. Requires
programs which use DOS or BIOS 8514/A or other accelerator for
calls to access the screen reasonable performance.
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When I say "unusably slow" I mean it. Ten seconds for a DIR command?
DESQview: << OS/2:
supports simultaneous color and "dual monitors" appears to mean
mono monitors. Windows can be 8514/A and VGA, even though
configured to come up on a Setup lets you select mono. IBM
particular monitor. support said mono isn't supported.
No way to configure a window for
a particular monitor anyway.
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8514 and VGA might be neater than VGA and monochrome, but I haven't
tried it. It doesn't look like IBM really wants you to do it anyway,
since there's very little in the docs about it. Of course, there's
very little in the DV docs either. I'm giving the nod to DV because
it's easy to experiment - mess around with OS/2's setup much, and
you're likely to be restoring from tape. I really liked dual monitors
on DV, but it's not that important with the 20" monitor and 8514.
DESQview: << OS/2:
DOS tape drives usually don't work same, except you're hosed if
inside DV. You must exit to DOS you're running hpfs. OS/2 tape
to back up software normally costs extra -
often more than the price of an
entire DOS drive and DOS
software
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This doesn't seem to be a problem for most people, who either don't
back up, or have dinky 120Mb drives they can back up with one of those
$150 tape drives. I have a 1079Mb drive, so anything running off the
floppy controller is right out.
DESQview: << OS/2:
just tap the alt key and a two you *can* use key commands, but
letter code to bring up any it'll take you a while. IBM
preconfigured window. No reaching wants you to use the mouse.
for the mouse when you're
burning up the keyboard.
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IBM insists you use the GUI. You could open a bunch of text windows
and alt-esc through them if you wanted, but you'd still wind up hitting
any open WPS windows too. It takes several seconds for my Mitsubishi
monitor and ATI video board to flip from text to graphics modes, and I
have several programs which won't run in windows - the ATI card and
8514 drivers don't support several common VGA video modes, for example
the one used by my comm program, Qmodem. If I'm in DV and editing a
file, I can tap a few keys, open another file, cut and paste from it,
and banish it, all with a dozen-odd keystrokes. OS/2 requires major
contortions to do the same thing. No big deal to you? It's one of my
most common operations.
DESQview: << OS/2:
built-in macro facility feeds dream on
keystrokes to apps, opens and
closes windows, etc.
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Since OS/2 has its own keyboard handlers, a macro facility should have
been trivial. Even Windows has Recorder.
DESQview: << OS/2:
DOS keyboard accelerators work feels like a manual typewriter.
fine - cursor moves at Warp 12 Keyboard acceleration should be
built into the OS. From my usual
100cps repeat rate, there's little
difference between the min and
max adjustments in Setup.
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Pretty much the same as above. My DOS accelerators sometimes get very
strange in OS/2 boxes, and of course they don't help OS/2 boxes a bit.
When I'm running MSC 6 in OS/2, I can move the cursor faster by
hammering on the keys than by waiting for its sluggish repeat. Yuck.
DESQview: << OS/2:
change windows with alt-alt or alt-esc for window queue, ctl-esc
alt-number. Can go through for window selector. No way to
window queue or directly to any jump to a specific window. Use
window. Hotkeys can be set in IBM's hotkeys or suffer
Setup
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OS/2 makes it harder to change windows than it needs to be. Also,
OS/2 appears to make use of the BIOS for keyboard access, and it can't
see alt-home on my machine. Under DV, I'd just go into Setup and tell
it to use ctl-home or something.
DESQview: >> OS/2:
zoom/unzoom requires accessing just use alt-home, if it works on
zoom menu your particular machine
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OS/2 gets the nod here.
DESQview: >> OS/2:
runs in standard text mode. No resizeable windows and fonts
fonts.
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This is IT - this is why I went from DV to OS/2. I can open four or
five windows, shrink them to a convenient size, and stick 'em anywhere
on the monitor. For most purposes, this is the only major difference
between DV and OS/2.
DESQview: OS/2:
confusing and brain-dead setup looks fancier, but everything is
scattered. Changes may be
permanent or temporary depending
on where you make them - there
is no warning from the OS
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Both could use serious improvement here.
DESQview: << OS/2:
on a Smartdrv-cached FAT drive, FAT or hpfs, 50Mb or 512Mb disk,
there is no measurable loss in OS/2's disk access is noticeably
disk access time. slower, background I/O, SCSI
transfer, and all.
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I've been in a few discussions about this, but in the end it still
comes down to the fact that DOS blows OS/2 away on disk access. DOS
with BUFFERS=20 can run neck and neck with OS/2, with any cache at all
there's no contest. Now, DOS is a single tasking system and the whole
thing stops when DV accesses the disk, but DV packetizes the accesses
into timeslices and runs 'em through the scheduler. You can move megs
of data on the hard drive and see little change in visible performance.
OS/2 appears to be doing the same thing, except for higher overhead.
DESQview: OS/2:
you can run MS Windows in comes with Win/OS2, does standard
standard mode in a DV window and enhanced mode
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Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
DESQview: << OS/2:
intercepts ctl-alt-del, lets you ctl-alt-del brings down the whole
"reboot" a window. Use shift-alt- house of cards... sometimes.
del to reboot machine
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I've managed to "hang" windows in OS/2, and OS/2 wouldn't let me close
them. DV doesn't have that problem. Also, there's no excuse for a
multitasker to let any arbitrary key command reboot the system! What
if you had a background process going? OS/2's response to ctl-alt-del
is not consistent, and it should not reboot the system without at least
a dialog box. I have a couple of programs that use ctl-alt-ins; a slip
of the finger and OS/2 goes down? Get real!
DESQview: << OS/2:
uses ordinary MS or Logitech uses built-in driver only, no
mouse driver; ballistic and other ballistic, no double-speed,
programmable functions all work mouse is like a dead slug. Where
fine. I could flick the cursor from
edge to edge in DV, I feel more
like I'm sanding a car in OS/2
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Ballistic drivers are a love/hate thing. I *love* them. There's no
excuse for not being able to set a ballistic mode, or at the very least
the double speed threshhold.
Score: don't care: 3
OS/2 2.1: 3
DESQview: 15
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