OS/2 Warp 4.0 -- an alternative operating system
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): What seems to be the voguish digit for today's operating system version number? It is 4.0.
Just when Microsoft Corp. releases Windows NT 4.0, IBM comes out with its OS/2 Warp 4.0. Both are targeted for the corporate market. Both vendors claim that their product offers superb stability, security and reliability, which are the three key issues in any MIS manager's decision chart.
While performance does not exactly get top priority in the minds of the developers of these two operating systems, the good news, according to a PC Magazine report (Sept. 24, 1996), is that both operating systems show improved application speed over that of their respective predecessors, namely NT 3.51 and Warp Connect 3.0. In addition, both also run better on systems based on the Pentium Pro processors as opposed to the plain-vanilla Pentium of the same clock speed.
Two big problems that Warp 4.0 seems to face are the availability of native applications and hardware device drivers. They are not as readily available as the ones for Windows NT. For example, neither the Labtec Winfast S600 SuperVGA card nor the Addonics Sound Vision 500 sound card that I had bought from Glodok for a new system I was putting together for a relative didn't have the OS/2 device drivers included. To my relief, though, they are available on the Internet.
Though many of us may not be aware of it, OS/2's existence is actually very strong. According to IBM, this operating system is widely used in financial institutions, including banks, because of its robustness. And, with a little effort, end users who are so hooked up to it will always be able to get great application software. Lotus, for example, will soon release its next generation SmartSuite for OS/2 Warp. Big Blue claims that it has sold 13 million copies of OS/2 to date.
The most important new feature in Warp 4.0 is its ability to listen to human beings and obey their commands. Yes, the operating system comes with VoiceType already built-in. VoiceType is a speech recognition application developed by IBM that lets us navigate through the system and even dictate memos.
This application may as well become one of IBM's strongest selling points. We will have to devote a separate article to this. For now suffice it to say that, in order to use the utility for dictating text, we need at least a 100 MHz Pentium-class processor with 24 MB of RAM. Otherwise, the manual says that a 486DX-33 is sufficient to run OS/2.
Prettier face
Courtesy of PT USI Jaya, I was able to play around with this new operating system. Since, as I mentioned above, I happened to be putting together a new 166 MHz Pentium PC, I had the opportunity to install and play around with it on a quite powerful machine.
The box contains three installation diskettes, four CD-ROMs, a brief manual and a mike-and-headphone set for VoiceType. The operating system itself and the Bonus Pack come in one single CD- ROM. A separate CD-ROM contains drivers for popular hardware, the Device Drivers Pak (DDP). The third CD-ROM is packed with sample applications, while the fourth one has Lotus Notes Mail 4.1.
In addition to VoiceType, the Internet-centric Warp 4.0 also comes with a Web browser and Java Developer's Toolkit. Once connected to the Internet, users can download Netscape Navigator 2.02, the special version of the Web browser that supports voice navigation as well. The Bonus Pack contains CompuServe Information Manager for, among others, OS/2, HyperACCESS for OS/2, IBM Works, FaxWorks for OS/2, Video IN for OS/2, and HP JetAdmin.
Having very limited experience with OS/2 before, I had to reinstall it four times before it finally ran smoothly. At the beginning of the installation process, which took about 20 minutes, I had the option of Easy or Advanced installation. It turned out that the Advanced option was just as easy as choosing between the High Performance File System and FAT file installation on the hard disk. FAT is the old method used by DOS. Certainly I chose HPFS for the speedier disk access.
As I mentioned above, the SVGA card I had bought for the new system didn't have the OS/2 driver diskette. Not to waste time looking for the driver, I just took out the Cardex Genesis card from my own PC and plugged it into the new one. As I told you in one of my past articles, this particular card comes with a CD-ROM full with device drivers -- including the one for OS/2. Still, I had difficulty installing the driver from the CD-ROM at first, because OS/2 always required its own CD-ROM to be placed in the CD-ROM drive. After a couple of attempts, I finally found the simple solution: The files had to be copied first to the hard disk. Only then was Warp's Selective Installation able to load it into the system.
When everything worked fine, the display had 256 colors and the screen had a 70 Hz refresh rate, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. OS/2's interface has been almost totally redesigned to give it an up-to-date look. The icons are more colorful and all icons and bars are now in 3-D. TrueType fonts are also supported. I lined up the icons on the left side and placed the new WarpAccess bar on the bottom, and suddenly, the screen looked indistinguishable from Win 95!
Differences
When I opened an OS/2 window, however, I saw some subtle differences. The control buttons on both ends of the title bar look different. I found it awkward to work with these windows at first, since OS/2 do not have the "Close" or "OK" buttons that we, long-time users of Windows, have gotten so used to.
In most cases, the only way to close a window is to click on the square with a diagonal line on the right end of the bar. Obviously we wouldn't be able to work in OS/2 without a pointing device. However, I felt comfortable working with it after two days.
Jimmy Teo Chin Fook, IBM's Technical Specialist, says Warp 4.0 runs better in Pentium Pro processors. The report by PC Magazine, based on the latest beta version of the operating system, confirmed what he said. Performance was reported to be 20 percent to 30 percent better than that on a regular Pentium with the same speed.
Warp 4.0 supports DOS applications with no problem. We can have multiple full-screen or windowed DOS sessions at the same time. The operating system also supports Windows 3.1 through its Win-OS/2 module. I was able to install Novel PerfectOffice suite with no problem. The suite even had a utility that creates a link to OS/2. WPWin ran smoothly. If you look closely at the accompanying picture, you'll see two instances of Win-OS/2 running at the same time, both of which have their own PerfectOffice Desktop Application Director.
Unfortunately, Warp doesn't support Win 95 or Win 95's 32-bit applications. IBM is doing its best to encourage software developers to write their applications based on the Open32 Application Programming Interface, so that their 32-bit Windows programs can be easily ported to OS/2. Open32 contains more than 800 of the most commonly-used Win32 APIs and the 300 most-common Win32 messages. They enable developers to write applications using common source code for Warp and Win32 platforms at once. A good example of the result is the upcoming WordPro from Lotus, which will be available in both Win32 and Warp versions at the same time.
Why would you need Warp 4.0? First, if you choose to stick to the tested Windows 3.x programs that you already have but you want to have a robust, full-function operating system with preemptive multitasking capability, OS/2 is definitely a good bet. Besides, support for programs that directly access hardware, such as games, are still generally better in Win 95 and OS/2 than in NT 4.0
In my own case, I was pleasantly surprised to find RealMagic Lite among the list of hardware for which OS/2 device driver was included in the DDP. That means that the old MPEG playback card, which has been gathering dust on the shelf ever since I made the move into Win 95, can be put back to work when I install Warp 4.0 on my own PC. Warp 4.0 may enable you to use your otherwise obsolete hardware.
Although you still can type your memos much faster than dictate it to VoiceType, disabled people may find the feature their only access to using the PC. Patients in hospitals may benefit from VoiceType.
Finally, if you are a corporate user, you may want to choose OS/2 for its proven track record.