kmw@ardent.com (Ken Wallich) (01/21/89)
Well, I picked up my copy of Virtual yesterday, went home, plugged in the PMMU, and installed the init. I've got a 2 meg MacII, btw. They don't tell you is that Virtual doesn't seem to run with the 'old' version of Multifinder (pre System 6.0). I struggled with that for a while, then downloaded the newest Multifinder from Compuserve, installed it, and all was well. I then tried most all of the significant applications I had gathered for the test (not extensively, it was 11:30 by this time), under Multifinder. They warn you that debuggers won't work, and that some applications will bitch about not having enough memory because they couldn't get loaded where they want (like some Microsoft products). I also found that the FullWrite Demo crashes the machine, depending on how much stuff was loaded before it, but that doesn't really surprise me. The newest production version may be happier. They also warn you about memory fragmentation, a problem with the MacOS, not Virtual (in fact, their manual is good reading for many novices, it could even reduce the traffic here, and the Mac owners frustration level in general, by answering some of those nagging begginers questions that Apple's documentation engineers don't think are a problem). I tried out the following programs (all loaded under Multifinder in some combination) successfully: MacWrite FullWrite (Demo) Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Think C MacScheme + Toolsmith Hypercard Soundwave Opcode Librarian Stuffit Versaterm SmartcomII Beyond Dark Castle Giffer Edit2.0 ImageStudio (pre release) PixelPaint Image Probably some more, but I forget. All of these ran perfectly (Soundwave said I could record 350+ seconds of stuff! I'm going to try that next week). When I brought up 3Meg worth of images in Giffer, and then brought up the bottom one, I got to see the 'degredation', if you can call it that. It wasn't instantaneous, to be sure, but it was damn quick. I do have a WrenIII (16.5ms) hard drive, so I suppose that helps a bit. In any case, it is as transparent as it can be (except for the 'jitter start', when it installs itself on startup). The context switching in Multifinder is virtually unnoticeable (< .5 seconds, virtually (-:) the same as without Virtual). I can now use the Mac more productivly, without giving money to the extortionists in the memory biz (but rather to software folks who have nothing but my best interests at heart :-). My MacII has now become *much* more valuable to me than my old 128->512K Mac. Not being able to run Multifinder (whenever you want to), made me wonder if just having color and a bigger screen were worth the investment. I highly recommend it. -- Ken Wallich Ardent Computer Corp kmw@ardent.com "I'd let you be macrobiotic, if you'd let me have some pie"
mackid@caen.engin.umich.edu (Michael Neil) (01/23/89)
Does anyone ou there know were you can order PMMU's from? I know that you can get them from Apple and the company that makes Virtual INIT but I was wondering if you can buy them from anywhere else for LESS! Something around $250 would be nice. You can reply here or direct E-Mail. I will summerize and post any information I get. Thanks -Mike Neil (The MacKid) MacKid@caen.engin.umich.edu Mike_Neil@UB.CC.UMICH.EDU "Mandelbrots RULE!"
peter@aucs.UUCP (Peter Steele) (01/24/89)
From article <KMW.89Jan20114548@gr.ardent.com+, by kmw@ardent.com (Ken Wallich):
+
+ Well, I picked up my copy of Virtual yesterday, went home, plugged in the
+ PMMU, and installed the init. I've got a 2 meg MacII, btw.
+
+ [...]
+
+ My MacII has now become *much* more valuable to me than my old 128->512K
+ Mac. Not being able to run Multifinder (whenever you want to), made me
+ wonder if just having color and a bigger screen were worth the investment.
+
+ I highly recommend it.
+
+ --
+ Ken Wallich
+ Ardent Computer Corp kmw@ardent.com
Where can I get this init? I also have a Mac II with 2 megs and have been
wanting more memory for a long time. I don't have a 16.5 ms hard drive, but
I do have a full page display (I presume that won't be a problem?). Any and
all info on this would be greatly appreciated.
--
Peter Steele, Microcomputer Applications Analyst
Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada B0P1X0 (902)542-2201x121
UUCP: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}!dalcs!aucs!Peter
BITNET: Peter@Acadia Internet: Peter%Acadia.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU