[comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d] Multitasking on PCs

gavin@mit-caf.MIT.EDU (Gavin C. H. Zau) (06/13/90)

	I recently posted a request for information on softwarer for
switching between application/ multitasking on 286 and 386 PCs.  The 
current forerunners are :
	Desqview 386 (+ QEMM 386 ?)
	Windows 3.0
	VM/386
and
	Software Carousel for 286.
Can anyone who has used these software please comment on the ease of 
use, hardware requirement, compatibility with a network drive (PCNFS)
and speed.   Windowing capabilities are not critical but are nice to
have.

Thanks alot.

-- 
************************************************************
Gavin Zau	Dept of Chemical Engineering, MIT
		gavin@caf.mit.edu	mefl@eagle.mit.edu

jhoward@helps.cactus.org (James Howard) (06/14/90)

In article <4633@mit-caf.MIT.EDU> gavin@mit-caf.UUCP (Gavin C. H. Zau) writes:
>
>	I recently posted a request for information on softwarer for
>...
>	Windows 3.0
>...

Will McClatchy in Information Week, June 11, 1990, page 15 writes:

  "Early users of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 software say it will
   destory data and crash hard disks that have not been formatted with
   MS-DOS 4.01.  What's more, some users say the company knew about
   the problem but has not done enough to alert them...."

  ---

James Howard          Howard Electronic Laboratories Products & Services
AA5R           cs.utexas.edu!helps!jhoward  or  jhoward@helps.cactus.org

rap@la.excelan.com (Robert A. Pease) (06/14/90)

In article <1086@helps.cactus.org> jhoward@helps.cactus.org (James Howard) writes:
>Will McClatchy in Information Week, June 11, 1990, page 15 writes:
>
>  "Early users of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 software say it will
>   destory data and crash hard disks that have not been formatted with
>   MS-DOS 4.01.  What's more, some users say the company knew about
>   the problem but has not done enough to alert them...."
>

I don't know where he (Will McClatchy) got this information, but I have
never had a data loss with Windows 3.0.  The only thing that has
happened is lost clusters from a temp file if I incorrectly terminate
Pagemaker, vi or some other program which uses temp files.  This is to
be expected considering the application was terminated before it
updated the directory.

rap.

Robert A. Pease, Novell
rap.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Novell, Inc. (Open Systems Division)
Internet: rap@novell.COM

george@shumv1.ncsu.edu (George Browning) (06/15/90)

>Will McClatchy in Information Week, June 11, 1990, page 15 writes:
>
>  "Early users of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 software say it will
>   destory data and crash hard disks that have not been formatted with
>   MS-DOS 4.01.  What's more, some users say the company knew about
>   the problem but has not done enough to alert them...."
>  ---

	I've been using the beta and final releases of Windows 3.0 on a
variety of machines (at both home and at work) without any of the above
mentioned incidents.  We have had Windows 3.0 since around February.  We
have had no problems running on DOS 3.3 (and some derivatives like HP
DOS) although we needed to get updated workstation shells from Novell
for our network.

                                             - Jeff 
--
_____________________________________________________________________
| George Browning                  North Carolina State University  |
| george@shumv1.ncsu.edu                               Raleigh, NC  |
|___________________________________________________________________|

abukarb@mist.cs.orst.edu (Bassam A. Abu-Karroum) (06/15/90)

In article <1086@helps.cactus.org> jhoward@helps.cactus.org (James Howard) writes:
>In article <4633@mit-caf.MIT.EDU> gavin@mit-caf.UUCP (Gavin C. H. Zau) writes:
>>
>>	I recently posted a request for information on softwarer for
>>...
>>	Windows 3.0
>>...
>
>Will McClatchy in Information Week, June 11, 1990, page 15 writes:
>
>  "Early users of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 software say it will
>   destory data and crash hard disks that have not been formatted with
>   MS-DOS 4.01.  What's more, some users say the company knew about
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm sorry, but this is not true. I'm running Win3.0 on my 286 machine with
DOS version 3.30 with no problems at all. What the article didn't mention is 
that most of those users are using a non-standard disk partitioning utilities
such as disk-manager and speeddstor that are not "compatible" with Windows
3.0.
>   the problem but has not done enough to alert them...."

On the original disks, I don't recall which one, there is a text file that
discusses such situations and offers a workaround for the problem. The
workaround involves modifying the WIN.INI file by adding a couple of lines
(the changes included in the text file) to allow Windows/3.0 and disk
partitioning utilities to co-exist. The problems is mainly with disk drives
with cylinders > 1024 AND partitioned by *some" 3rd party methods. 

From my personla experience, if you need to work > 1024 cylinders disk, use
DOS 4.01 to save you the headache and worries.


NO, I don't own shares in Microsoft.

Sam.