I came across this ( http://www.mit.edu:8001/activities/os2/faq/os2faq-toc.html ) site on the web. If you want to know about OS/2 it might interest you. I didn't know much about OS/2-- my previous knowledge of OS/2 was limited to ---"OS/2 is a superior OS than M$ Window$". But this article tells more about OS/2.
Below is a portion of what the article said about OS/2. "OS/2 Warp was designed from the ground up with preemptive multitasking and multithreading in mind. "Preemptive multitasking" means that the operating system is responsible for allocating processor time to the one or more applications which are running. (Cooperative multitasking, as found in Microsoft Windows or the Macintosh's System 7, requires that each application surrender the processor after a certain amount of time. If one application refuses to yield, all the other applications stop running.) "Multithreading" means that programs can start subtasks which will then be executed by the operating system in the background. For example, a word processor may create a separate thread (subtask) to handle printing or saving to disk. When the user asks the word processor to perform one of these tasks, the word processor creates a new thread and control returns to the word processor (and the user) immediately. The subtask is executed by the operating system in the background. The user is then free to ask the word processor to perform another task without waiting for the thread to complete. Applications which utilize multithreading can be much more responsive to the user. OS/2 Warp also protects applications from one another (a single misbehaved program will not typically disrupt the entire system), supports all addressable physical RAM, and supplies virtual memory to applications as requested, breaking DOS's 640K barrier." All these OS/2 features remind me of Linux. OS/2 has been doing this since 1987. But Microsoft killed it with Win95 with it's monopoly power. Ever since we have been stuck with far inferior desktop OS(s) and without innovation on the desktop for almost 10 years. Linux desktop is only maturing now. I think it is a sad history of computing. Microsoft has thwarted computing innovation. "Byte and Windows Sources have pointed to some architectural problems with Chicago [Win95's code name]. These publications have cited Chicago's pervasive use of 16-bit subsystems (which will cause "thunking," i.e. a performance hit for calls made by 32-bit applications), failure to protect 16-bit Windows applications from crashing the entire system (which OS/2 Warp already prevents), and the 16-bit locking mechanism (which means that 16-bit Windows applications will not be preempted by Chicago, possibly resulting in hung background file transfers, poor multimedia performance, and other problems, even for 32-bit applications). Moreover, reportedly all video and network device drivers for Windows 3.1 must be rewritten to work with Chicago. A recently published book, "Undocumented Windows95," even suggests that new 32-bit Windows applications may still depend on real mode vestiges from ordinary DOS." Microsft touted Win95 as a true 32-bit computing platform. But reading the above paragraph tells you it was all a lie-- so typical of Microsoft. The recent settlement between Microsoft and AOL also troubles me. AOL is cash strapped and Microsoft is again buying it's way out with green. Looks like IE is the future for the mass and Netscape will just be a name in the history. I hope I am dead wrong on my prediction. --Nash
