[Am-info] Re: MS Depositions

[Marcus de Geus]

In reply to a message from "Bockhorst, Roland"
<Roland.Bockhorst@hqisec.army.mil> dated 2002-01-31 09:51:47 -0700 (Thu):

> Please elaborate on "quietly switch to other, better, and cheaper ways of
computing. It's what I did in 1993 and I can't say I regret it."

Roland,

In 1993 I switched (after a brief, unsuccessful flirt with DesqView) from a
DOS system (which had succeeded my CP/M box in 1987, I think) to OS/2 2.1. I
upgraded twice, to OS/2 Warp 3 in 1995, and to Warp 4 a year later. I may
upgrade to eComStation (ouch, hate that name!) when the next edition is
released, but I'll take another good look first.

I spend a lot of time at the PC man/machine interface, so to me the most
important parts are the display and keyboard. The latter is a 1991 vintage
IBM model, so no problem there, but developments in video controllers have
prompted me to upgrade main boards from time to time. I went from 80486DX/50
to Intel/P133, and finally to EPoX/AMD K2/350, adding the maximum possible
amount of memory ("only" 384 MB, BTW) when prices dropped and 128 MB DIMMs
were on the verge of being phased out. Even so, my old P133 system is still
in daily professional use, happily running OS/2 Warp 4 in 64 MB.

Now I'll admit the P133 box doesn't quite cut it any more in terms of speed
and flash <g>, but my K2 boxes will run rings around any Windows system,
even with less than 20% of the RAM installed (in the K2 boxes, I mean, you'd
be hard put to boot a current Windows system into 64 MB).

Counting the full cost of the OS/2 upgrades (which you could easily avoid by
picking up a copy of Warp at a car boot sale <g>) and of the EPoX/AMD
hardware, I'd say I'm considerably cheaper off than anyone trying to keep up
in the WinTel rat race.

That is not to say that I'd recommend my setup as the cheapest available
solution. The cost of the OS licence alone ensures that any Linux offering
will take that prize. And in my opinion, it's high time it did, if only to
put a stop to the squandering of public funds by governments and local
authorities who insist on installing and upgrading WinTel setups while there
is a perfectly viable cheap solution available.

Regards,

Marcus de Geus
--
marcus@degeus.com
http://www.degeus.com