carter@ferrari.mst6.lanl.gov (Dave Carter) (10/23/90)
i'm looking for a good DOS emulator to run on my DECstation 5000, running Ultrix 4.0, also running X windows. i've got some DOS applications which i would like to run on our DECstations. i have looked at SoftPC, written by Insignia (sp?) but was less than impressed. this product is pretty shabby. has anyone looked at other similar products? - dave
carter@ferrari.mst6.lanl.gov (Dave Carter) (10/24/90)
Chris Siebenmann writes on Re: DOS emulator under UNIX and X windows > You write: > | [...] i have > | looked at SoftPC, written by Insignia (sp?) but was less than > | impressed. this product is pretty shabby. > > Some people here will be trying to use this soon, so I'm interested > in hearing about the problems you ran into with SoftPC under Ultrix > 4.0. Thanks in advance. from the number of responses i've received, it seems that this is of interest to many, so i'm going to post a response: first of all, let me say that the SoftPC which DEC is currently selling, (which i bought) will not run under Ultrix 4.0. (DEC strikes again :-)). i spent a good deal of time trying to make it work, only to have Insignia say "oh yah, that won't run under Ultrix 4 - DEC should have told you that." (thanks, guys!) they supposedly have a "beta test version" which may run under Ultrix 4, - they're going to send me that soon. when it did run, under ultrix 3.x, it worked, but was not impressive. the biggest drawback is that the emulator only supports CGA mode. come on, guys, with all the great graphics software and programmers out there for X, you'd think they could do VGA mode, or at the very least, EGA! anyway, this was our biggest complaint. it made programs such as lotus freelance, manuscript, and other "presentation software" unbearable. also, the emulator only emulates an 8088, and not an 80286. this is not generally a problem, but if your application requires an AT, or if it looks at upper memory, you should be aware of this. the support from Insignia is also very poor. i called in with a few relatively straight-forward questions, and got the runaround. i eventually got answers, but it was a long, frustrating day of calling around. to summarize, if you're looking for software that does extremely simple DOS applications, though i can't think of any in particular, this software might work. if you're looking to run applications such as lotus products, word processors, spreadsheets (forget about 123R3) and such, you're going to be very dissapointed. on that note, does anyone have any experiences with other similar software? - dave p.s. if you do plan to try this "product" out, be aware that the installation script is useless - it is a 3 page script which does nothing but ask you over and over "do you really want to do this?" then all it does is copy over some font files, but doesn't even put them in the correct directory :-)
carter@ferrari.mst6.lanl.gov (Dave Carter) (10/24/90)
In article <38623@ut-emx.uucp> jeff@nic.the.net writes: >In article <1274@mustang.mst6.lanl.gov>, Dave Carter writes that >SoftPC doesn't run under Ultrix 4.0, emulates only an 8088, and >supports only CGA. > >I'm happy to report to the contrary that the version I have installed >on my DS3100 ("SoftPC-AT V2.11") runs under 4.0, emulates an >80286+80287 (real mode only), supports CGA, Hercules, and EGA, and >supports EMS (LIM) up to 32mb. > >I'm not convinced that this is a great product, but I thought that >folks should at least have current info. just goes to show how good their support is: i talked to a number of people there *yesterday*, and got the word that they were planning a release which supported EGA "probably by the end of December or early in '91." i also asked DEC to look into this, and they came up with the same answer. they also said that they were "negotiating" for a VGA version which may be out in about a year. we are talking about the same company, Insignia, right? :-) i'll have to call them again tomorrow morning, and see if i can find someone there who knows what they're talking about. (right! :-)) you would think that people at a "one-product-line" company would at least know that one product! - dave