Re: Windows 95

[Sean Chou <ychou@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>]

> Windows 95 Preview Program is up and running on my ThinkPad 750!
> (monochrome LCD, 33MHz, 20MB RAM).  I'm quite pleased so far.  I think I
> like it better than OS/2 Warp.  Performance is *much* better,

I had the same inital reaction about Win95 being "better" than
Warp.  After some use though, I came across a number of things
that _really_ bugged me.

First, the multi-tasking is still not up to par.

Another thing that bugged me was the way Win95 seems to push
you into its way of doing things...I don't know if that makes
sense, but it started to bug me after a bit.  Although there
are many choices available, it still seemed to be all too
restricted.  And the pop-up menu choices...which human factors
guy designed those?

Another important thing is that I do a lot of cross-platform things
and need long filenames.  Win95 may have long filenames under the
GUI, but if you need to use a DOS-based app like perl or even
zip, you lose the long filenames.  Hopefully, that'll be fixed as
new apps come out.

One thing that was a plus at first rapidly became an annoyance and
that is the 3-d effects and little animations all over.  I think
the animations can be shut off at least, although they did impress
all my friends! ;) The instant make-over for existing apps is also
a nice touch.

I'm surprised that you think perf is much better with Win95 even
with 20 mb RAM.  If you had less than 16, I wouldn't find it
surprising, but you seem to be at the mark that I needed to
overcome in order to really see Warp move smoothly...

> particularly with 16-bit Windows applications.  DOS app performance also
> seems better while running one session, though I suspect OS/2 Warp does
> a better job of handling multiple sessions.  It's been as stable as OS/2

I don't think DOS perf under Win95 is anywhere _near_ DOS perf under
OS/2 _if_ you take the time to tweak things under OS/2.

> so far, but I have yet to really start pushing it.  The DriveSpace
> compression program is much much better than Stacker for OS/2 and DOS.

One thing is that Win95 and Warp _both_ seem to be a step backward
in stability! Boy, if a unix only had Photoshop...

The integration that Win95 achieves with its applets is truly
awe-inspiring though...

> Plug and Play really works!  I set up Win95 while I had the TP away from

Yeah, it took me by surprise.

> no problem.  I can do dynamic resolution changes.  I loaded the Win 3.1

Dynamic resolutions changes are definately a nice point.

> Power management seems to be the only problem.  I loaded "Advanced Power

Surprise! :) Maybe one day, notebook manufacturers and OS makers can
get a clue and get power management down pat...

> can't suspend from the ThinkPad Features Fuel program.  I can't
> hibernate at all--trying to do so just lands me in suspend mode.

I hate to ask, but have you made sure you have a hibernation file?