OS/2 Warp vs. Windows95 - Feature charts for OS/2 and Windows 95

The following charts provide a summary of OS/2 and Windows 95 features, including multitasking characteristics, application environments, and bundled productivity tools.

OS/2 OS/2 Warp VS Windows 95 ON ARCHITECTURE

                                              
FEATURE                            OS/2 Warp         Windows 95

32-bit Window Management              Yes              No (1)
32-bit Graphics Subsystem             Yes              No (2)
32-bit Printing Subsystem             Yes              Yes
32-bit Multimedia Subsystem           Yes              Yes
32-bit Kernel                         Yes              Yes
Demand Paged Virtual Memory           Yes              Yes
HPFS Support                          Yes              No
Non-locking Input Queue (3)           Yes              No
  (Applications can keep running)
  (1)  USER is 16-bit, non-reentrant code
  (2)  50% of GDI calls are serviced by 16-bit, non-reentrant code
  (3)  OS/2 Warp, new version of OS/2, has an engine that will unlock
       the input queue if it is locked

OS/2 Warp VS. Windows 95 ON APPLICATION ENVIRONMENTS

                                              
FEATURE                             OS/2 Warp        Windows 95

16-bit OS/2 PM Applications           Yes              No
32-bit OS/2 PM Applications           Yes              No
Win32s Applications (Ver 1.0 & 1.1)   Yes              Yes
Preemptive Multitasking (4)           Yes              No
Win16 Application Support             Yes              Yes
Win16 Device Driver Support           Yes              Some (5)
Number of 32-bit Applications         2000+            0    (6)
  Available

  (4) See chart on multitasking comparison
  (5) Windows 3.x communications drivers need to be re-written
  (6) Native Windows 95 applications

OS/2 Warp VS. Windows 95 ON MULTITASKING CHARACTERISTICS

                                              
FEATURE                             OS/2 Warp        Windows 95

Preemptive of 32-bit Os/2 and Win32s  Yes              No
     Version 1.1 applications
Preemptive of DOS Applications        Yes              Yes
Preemptive of Win16 Applications      Yes              No
Preemptive of mixed 16/32-bit         Yes              No (7)
     Applications
Multiple, Protected Win16 VDMs        Yes              No (8)
Crash Protection                      Yes              No (9)
Preemptive Multi-threading            Yes              Yes

  (7)  16 & 32 Bit OS/2, Win16, and Win32S V1.1 applications
  (8)  WinMUTEX prohibits access to USER and portions of GDI
       when a Win16 application  is executing
  (9)  All 16-bit applications share a single address space - the
       System Virtual Machine (VM)
  (10) Key operating system code structures (USER and GDI) share
       the System VM address space with 16-bit applications

OS/2 Warp VS. Windows 95 ON USER INTERFACE

                                              
FEATURE                              OS/2 Warp        Windows 95

Folder Work Areas                      Yes              No
Integration with operating SOM         Yes              No (10)
Launch Pad                             Yes              Yes
Drag & Drop Deletion                   Yes              No
Drag & Drop Faxing                     Yes              Yes
Drag & Drop Access Paths (change       Yes              No
  execution paths it will still work)
Object Type Templates                  Yes              No
Parent Folder Closing Options          Yes              No

  (10) Windows 95 shell components are not OLE 2.01 objects"

OS/2 Warp VS. Windows 95 ON MULTIMEDIA

                                              
FEATURE                              OS/2 Warp       Windows 95

Image Viewer                           Yes             No
Photo CD Support                       Yes             No
Autodesk Animation                     Yes             No
Play any Audio File from Internet      Yes             No
Audio/Video Synch Manager              Yes             No
MPEG Support                           Yes             Yes
32-bit Audio/Video Playback            Yes             Yes

OS/2 Warp VS. Windows 95 ON BUNDLED APPLICATIONS

                                              
FEATURE                              OS/2 Warp        Windows 95

Internet Access Tools                  Yes              No
    FTP                                Yes              No
    Telnet                             Yes              No
    Gopher                             Yes              No
    Newsreader                         Yes              No
    WEB Explorer                       Yes              No
CompuServe Front-End                   Yes              No
Word Processor                         Yes              No (11)
Spreadsheet                            Yes              No
Database                               Yes              No
Charting                               Yes              No
Report Writer                          Yes              No
Electronic Mail                        Yes              Yes
Image Viewer                           Yes              No
FAX                                    Yes              Yes
Phonebook                              Yes              No
Personal Information Mgr               Yes              No
Sys Info                               Yes              No
VideoIn                                Yes              No
Video Conferencing                     Yes              No

  (11) Windows 95 comes with a simple text editor, not a word processor


References King, Adrian, "Windows(TM), the Next Generation:An Advanced Look at the Architecture of Chicago",Microsoft Systems Journal,January 1994,pp. 15-24.

King, Adrain, "Memory Management, the Win32(R)Subsystem, and Internal Synchronization in Chicago",Microsoft Systems Journal,May 1994,pp. 57-61.

Pietrek, Matt, "Stepping Up to 32 Bits:Chicago's Process, Thread and Memory Management",Microsoft Systems Journal, September 1994,pp. 27-41.

Pietrek, Matt, "Investingating the Hybrid Windowing and Messaging Architecture of Chicago", Microsoft Systems Journal, September 1994,pp. 15-30.

Pietrek, Matt,"Which Win32 is For You". PC Magazine. September 1994

Notice: The information contained in this document represents the current view of IBM Corporation on the issues discussed at the date of publication. Because IBM must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of IBM. (All information, claims, references, and comparisons relating to Windows 95 in this document are based upon non-confidential information currently available as of the date of publication.) This document is for informational purposes only. IBM makes NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

1994 IBM Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

OS/2 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.

Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc.

NetWare is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc.


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