Darius Vaskelis <U39648@uicvm.uic.edu> (06/02/91)
> I need to know about Qualitas BlueMax 5.1: BYTE (May 1991) says > that it supports Windows only in enhanced mode. Does this mean > that I'd have to change CONFIG.SYS (restore HIMEM.SYS) and re- > boot each time I wan't to run Win in standard mode ? Or is there > a newer, standard-mode-supporting version available ? Otherwise > the BlueMax sounds great. That's right, the current version of BlueMax from Qualitas (5.10) does NOT support Windows 3.0 in Standard mode. ONLY Real and 386 Enhanced modes are supported. I've been told that BlueMax version 6.0 is in beta test, and that it will support Windows 3.0 in Standard mode. If you MUST have support for Standard mode AND need a decent memory manager, try Quarterdeck's QEMM. The latest version supports Standard mode, but to be honest, I like BlueMax MUCH better in a Windows 3.0 environment. (Note that QEMM does NOT support BIOS compression on IBM PS/2s...) The reason is because with BlueMax 5.1, Windows 3.0 becomes far more "stable" than with just HIMEM.SYS. It's because it supports something call TSR/Device Driver "instancing." As an example, the original SideKick. Try loading it and making it resident before loading Windows. Now, open up two DOS sessions in Windows 3.0, and in each one, bring up SideKick. With QEMM or HIMEM.SYS, Windows pukes. With BlueMax 5.1, everything is fine. It has created a seperate instance of SideKick for each DOS session so that they are isolated from each other. I know a sysop who runs a BBS that needs a device driver called GATEWAY that creates a GATE1: device driver that is mearly COM1 w/FOSSIL driver loaded and CON tied together. (Input comes from the modem OR the keyboard, and output goes to the modem AND the screen.) Without BlueMax 5.1, when this device driver was used under Windows 3.0, again, it would all puke, even if it was a single instance. With BlueMax 5.1, it all just works. This is more like the way OS/2 2.0 handles DOS windows. Each one has seperate copies of any device drivers needed, so they are isolated and safe from crashes caused by one DOS session somehow getting to another's data. - Darius ========================================================================= BITNET: U39648@UICVM | "I'd rather laugh with the sinners Internet: u39648@uicvm.uic.edu | than cry with the saints, ====================================| the sinners are much more fun, "Don't set fire to strangers." | and only the good die young." - Mr. Zarniwoop | - Billy Joel