leunglee@cs.buffalo.edu (Leung Lee) (09/24/89)
I apologize if this has already been discussed before; but; apparently, there seems to two camps of window users; first; the Desqview/386 camp and second; the windows/386 camp. I never understood the subtle differences of the two multitasking environments; presuming they run on a 386 hardware platform. What makes one settle for one over the other! Does anyone know, or it is it just a choice of economy??? Thanks Leung
wek@point.UUCP (Bill Kuykendall) (09/26/89)
>apparently, there seems to two camps of window users; first; the >Desqview/386 camp and second; the windows/386 camp. I never understood >the subtle differences of the two multitasking environments; presuming >they run on a 386 hardware platform. What makes one settle for one >over the other! Does anyone know, or it is it just a choice of >economy??? There are major differences between the two. Windows is graphics based while Desqview is character based. What that means in the real world is that Desqview chews up much less CPU time maintaining the user interface and therefore gives more power to the applications. Desqview also is a "preemtive" multitasking environment, allowing you to specifically assign percentages of CPU cycles to given applications. This is critical for things like high speed background file transfers, that must respond in real time to keep from timing out. Desqview also has builtin macros. On the other hand, if speed isn't your main issue, Windows has some advantages. Packages that are written to use the windows interface have a much higher degree of integration with one another than off the shelf 'DOS packages typically do. Cut-and-paste works with graphics as well as text in these applications. Graphical interfaces are "in" right now. OS/2 Presentation Manager, Windows under 'DOS, several X-Windows variations under unix, and of course the Macintosh, are all the rage. Desqview is the odd-man-out in that respect. I'd suggest the following rules for choosing: Assuming you have no major investment in non-windows based software, and that you value ease-of-use over speed and power, buy Windows. If you just want to multitask 'DOS programs and you still feel you made the right decision in not buying a Macintosh in the first place, buy Desqview. If you want your PC to run like a real computer, and you don't mind spending some time and money on it, buy unix. You can multitask 'DOS programs under VP/ix, but after a while you won't want to anymore! It's (quite) a bit more expensive, but you get what you pay for. Bill Kuykendall ...ddsw1!point!wek
mark@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Mark Turner) (09/27/89)
I bought both, and find that I use DesqView almost exclusively. Although Windows/386 does some really neat things with the virtual 8086 mode, it's just too slow for me (using a 20MHz 386). Windows/386 is also a fearsome memory hog -- requiring a minimum of 2Mb just to get started. However, if you have lots of Windows software, it may be the way to go. I prefer DesqView because most of my software is non-Windows (e.g. MS-Word, 1-2-3, Ventura Publisher) and DesqView is much better at handling traditional DOS programs than Windows/386. In addition, DesqView provides pseudo-virtual memory (i.e. disk swapping), whereas Windows/386 does not. This means that you can run more programs in less memory with DesqView. I also like DesqView's scripting abilities, which make it easy to automate common tasks. You should know that the two systems are not compatible with each other, and that to switch between them you must change your CONFIG.SYS file (to remove Quarterdeck's QEMM driver) and reboot. So forget about trying to run both. My solution to this problem is to use DesqView as my multitasking system and run Windows/286 under DesqView when I need to use a Windows application. I have found one problem with DesqView, concerning TOPS/AppleTalk compatibility (or lack thereof). So if you're running a network, you should research whether DesqView is compatible with it first. Feel free to email me if you wish. I don't read notes very often, so that would be the best way to get in touch. Mark Turner, computer geek, HP Circuit Technology Group