nmouawad@water.waterloo.edu (Naji Mouawad) (07/28/90)
The subject says it all. I have a '386 running at 20 Mhz and 4 Megs of ram.
I read most of the reviews on Windows '386, but so far I haven't seen a
comparative study involving Windows and DesqView, the way PC Mag did a year o
r so ago.
Anybody cares to comment ?
Thanks.
Posting or e-mail is fine by me.
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| Naji Mouawad | nmouawad@water.uwaterloo.edu |
| University |-------------------------------------------|
| Of Waterloo | "Thanks God, we cannot prove He Exists." |ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch) (07/29/90)
In <1990Jul28.163656.12359@water.waterloo.edu> nmouawad@water.waterloo.edu (Naji Mouawad) writes: >The subject says it all. I have a '386 running at 20 Mhz and 4 Megs of ram. >I read most of the reviews on Windows '386, but so far I haven't seen a >comparative study involving Windows and DesqView, the way PC Mag did a year o >r so ago. Also a good one about the same time in InfoWorld, though written from an end-users point of view. They also covered the minor players, such as OmniView. Followups I'd like to see: how good is DesqView's claim to support Windows programs? And I note that both DesqView and Windows ads are giving a little more play to their support of 286 machines; is this for real? Or is it hype and I should wait until I can afford that 386 upgrade? -- ergo@netcom.uucp Isaac Rabinovitch atina!pyramid!apple!netcom!ergo Silicon Valley, CA uunet!mimsy!ames!claris!netcom!ergo "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know!" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
grantk@manta.NOSC.MIL (Kelly J. Grant) (07/31/90)
I have a Zenith 386 with 4 megs of RAM, and I use both Windows 3.0 and DesqView. I am a programmer, but have been doing more analytical work (ie., Wordperfect 5.1 writing). This is my situation. [I suppose I should also say I am posting this message using Windows' terminal program :-) ] As to which is better I would have to say....it depends. If you use at least a couple windows applications like Word or Excel or Pagemaker, Windows will be the environment you'll want to use. It is easy to use, reasonably fast, and you can still run DOS applications easily. If you ever got frustrated with previous versions of windows (as I did), you owe it to yourself to try 3.0. It is an amazing improvement (although the 386 architecture certainly makes Window's task easier with the virtual 8086 mode). BTW, please don't start any 286/386 argument threads. I know there are probably ways the 386 makes life harder, but that isn't really the subject here. Many of the built-in parts of windows are very good. In particular, the terminal, the notepad, and word processor are all very useable. For doing quick file modifications I would use the notepad as readily as Brief or vi. As for Desqview. I use DV when I want to use several character based applications simultaneously, like dBASE, WP 5.1 and a DOS window to run my applications in. I like to set DV to show output in 43 line mode so I can see several applications at once, and can easily flip back and forth using the mouse. I see DV as the hacker's choice, because it is character based, and it makes it easy to switch quickly from one task to another. You can do tasks in the background, but you will pay a performance penalty if you do. I know my Zenith is slow for a 386 (my roommate here has an AST 386sx machine that blows the doors off my *REAL* 386 Zenith) but a background window will typically run with a Norton SI of 6.6. The first window I run (in conventional memory) will run nominally at SI 15.3. Once that first window is loaded (taking most of the available conventional memory) most windows operate at SI 6.6. I assume that it is slower to run programs from (E)EMS, but I don't really know. I don't know how others work, but when I am compiling I am generally working intently on a piece of code, and I want to see the effects of my changes as quickly as possible. (I often slip back to my standard development environment: SideKick plus. I have never found another environment where I can go as quickly back and forth between my program and the editor. Besides, with the QEMM memory manager, SideKick appears and disappears as quickly as original SideKick used to.) But I digress. DV is a neat environment to work with, and it doesn't require much of a philosophical change in the user. You will run all your normal programs in the same way you always have. You'll just have more things available to you. These are just my $.02 worth. I have BATch files that change my environment between SideKick, Windows, DesqView and NFS. I've been using the Windows more lately (because it really is neat!) and I split time between SideKick and Desqview. Comments ? Kelly ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kelly Grant grantk@manta.nosc.mil (619) 225-8401 Computer Sciences Corp ^^^^^^^^ Important: manta.UUCP won't get to me 4045 Hancock Street "If you are given lemons.....see if you can trade for San Diego, CA 92110 chocolate" - me These are my personal views of these products. These may or may not be CSC's or NOSC's views. -- Kelly Grant grantk@manta.nosc.mil (619) 225-8401 Computer Sciences Corp ^^^^^^^^ Important: manta.UUCP won't get to me 4045 Hancock Street "If you are given lemons.....see if you can trade for San Diego, CA 92110 chocolate" - me
boylanr@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (ross boylan) (07/31/90)
A previous message talked about how fast desqview tasks perform in the foreground v. the background. Actually, you can arrange any division you want, and you can alter this on the fly. You can also give the foreground task almost 100% of the CPU. I think Windows 3 has a similar capability, but I expect it has a higher overhead.