A Common Man's Experience with OS/2 Warp.


A Common Man's Experience with OS/2 Warp.

By Ben Zell (ben.zell@swcbbs.com)

      At  first I wanted a good 32-bit operating system that
would  relieve me of the resource problems and  multitasking
limitations of Windows for Workgroups 3.11.  I went over  to
my  local computer store and picked up OS/2 Warp for $70  on
CD-ROM  hoping  this would solve all of  my  problems.   The
process:

PROBLEM #1:  Compressed Drive Incompatibility
     I looked at the installation manual and noticed that it
said  that  OS/2  Warp would not install on  any  compressed
drive  (besides special OS/2 compression utilities).   I  am
using  DriveSpace,  which comes with MS-DOS  6.22,  so  that
means  I have to uncompress my hard drive, requiring  me  to
delete some important things to free up space (Like Doom!!).
Well,  after  all  that,  I  installed  OS/2  and  no  major
installation problems occurred.

PROBLEM #2:  Unsupported Printer
      I  am  finally  in OS/2 and am configuring  it  to  my
hardware  when I notice that it doesn't support my  printer-
nor  does  it  support Windows drivers, so I would  probably
have  to call the printer manufacturer's BBS (long distance)
and download one... what a pain the ass!

PROBLEM #3-5:  Windows Programs in General
      Okay, now that all the installation is over, I'm ready
to try a Windows program (due to lack of OS/2 programs).   I
go into the Win-OS/2 folder and double click Edit Master, my
text  editor of choice.  Error!  Error! Error! I though OS/2
was  supposed  to run Windows programs seamlessly?!?   Well,
that program is made in Visual Basic, so I decided to try my
communications program (Procomm Plus for Windows).

PROBLEM #4:  Modem Trouble
      Well,  this problem adds a little to the previous  one
but  here  goes...  Well immediately I spot  a  few  graphic
glitches  that  weren't there before, and the  size  of  the
title bar and min/max buttons are unusually large and out-of-
proportion compared to the rest of the window.  So, I try to
dial  a  BBS  assuming at least that would  work,    CONNECT
9600.   What's  the deal here?!?  I have a V.34  28800  baud
modem!   I  want my moneys worth and I want to  be  able  to
connect  at  28800  (or one of the fallbacks).   Well,  that
blows.

PROBLEM #5:  Sound Shut Off
      I  have  to  admit  that OS/2's 16-bit  system  sounds
impressed  me on my Sound Blaster 16, but when  I'm  running
any  Windows program, it's as if my Sound Blaster were  off,
no sound in Windows, no sound in OS/2-- strange.

PROBLEM #6:  HyperACCESS (Bonus Pak)
      A  terrible  overlooked bug!  How can  you  spell  Pak
without  the `c'?  Nah, just kidding... but after  all  this
modem  trouble  I though that maybe I could  use  the  modem
program   that  comes  in  the  bonus  pak   from   now   on
(HyperACCESS).  It doesn't install - end of story.  It  just
won't accept the CD-ROM as the source installation drive!

PROBLEM #7:  Unbearable Slowness
      This is definitely one of the more important problems.
With  OS/2  my  harddrive is almost  constantly  loading;  I
almost  feel  bad  for  it!  It never loaded  like  this  in
Windows, probably because of my 2-meg Smartdrv cache, but lo
and behold, there is no OS/2 equivalent of Smartdrv, causing
things  to become incredibly slow.  One feature that  really
takes a beating is multimedia.  I have a 10 second long  16-
bit  44.1khz stereo WAV file that plays a tenth of a  second
of  sound, then loads for a half second, then repeats  until
the  file  is  over.  It's almost hard to tell  what  it  is
that's  playing.   The  same thing happens  with  AVI  files
(multimedia video).

PROBLEM #8:  DOS is More Complete!
      In  addition  to DriveSpace, I miss Scandisk,  Defrag,
Smartdrv,  Edit, and other utilities IBM failed to  include,
they just throw in the bare basics.

PROBLEM #9:  Incompatible with a lot of TSR's
      I  used to use Mcafee's Vshield TSR to protect  myself
from  viruses, but screw that; it's only useful if I'm gonna
stay  inside  the  DOS window I loaded it  from...  forever.
Obviously similar TSR's won't work with everything either.

PROBLEM #10:  Inconsistency between standards
      All  of  my beautiful fonts, not compatible with  OS/2
programs.   OLE isn't either!  Neither is DDE!   Great,  you
can  have Windows, OS/2 and Windows on the same screen,  but
too bad they can't take advantage of eachother's features.

PROBLEM #11:  Colorado Jumbo 250
      I  paid a couple hundred dollars for my tape drive and
it's  not supported by OS/2!  That's pretty much all  I  can
say!

PROBLEM #12:  Uninstallation
      I'm  sick of this crap!  Now how do I get rid  of  it?
IBM  doesn't include an uninstall program with  it's  OS  as
Microsoft does, so I have to format my hard drive and use  a
boot disk to reload everything onto my hard drive from tape.
This is not exactly the "user friendly" way.

     Well, to conclude these are problems that occurred in 2
days  of  use, there has to be more problems, since I  still
never got around to trying everything.  I never used much of
the  Bonus Pak and I never got to try any games with  it  (I
had  to delete them to fit OS/2).  Well basically OS/2  Warp
is  not  a  good  buy  and is not the future  of  computing.
Undoubtedly Microsoft's Windows 95 will not have most of the
problems  listed  here, and I think that they  will  have  a
better chance... I can't say though since I haven't seen the
new system.
      But  anyways... please distribute this file everywhere
possible and try to keep it in its original archive  if  you
can.  Thanks a lot.

                             -Ben Zell (ben.zell@swcbbs.com)

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