here is lots of excitement in the consumer marketplace for Pentium-based multimedia computers. Many, perhaps most, of these come pre-loaded with Windows 95. Very few, perhaps close to none, come pre-loaded with OS/2.

This easy-to-make observation coupled with the enormous amount of hype from Microsoft and corresponding coverage of Windows 95 by the trade press and popular media may lead OS/2 enthusiasts like ourselves to wonder: "What sort of future is there for OS/2 applications?"

In mid-May I received a mailing from Tiger Software. It was "VOL VI, Issue 4" of the "CDROM Buyer's Guide", with a cover price of $1.95, but it really is a direct-mail catalog with a "cover price" to qualify for lower US postal rates.

In the front page of this catalog there is a Compatibility Guide to the different applications listed. There are:

• "Win95 32-Bit" applications which run only on Windows 95 or WindowsNT
• "Win 95 Win3.1 32-Bit" applications which run on Windows3.1, Windows 95, and WindowsNT (Note that these are Win32s applications)
• "Win95 Win3.1 16-bit" applications
• "DOS" applications
• "MAC" applications

So what does it look like? Is there a developer stampede to Win95? Is OS/2 being left behind?

I analyzed all 302 CDROM multimedia applications in the catalog according to the platform. There was a wide diversity of titles, from "Mr Potato Head Saves Veggie Valley" to "Talk to Tabloid Beauties".

Here is what I found:

16-bit Win3.1/Win95	171	*****************
MAC	75	********
Win32s Win3.1/Win95	20	**
DOS	20	**
Win32 Win95/WinNT	12	*

If we remove the MAC titles and compare the number of OS/2 compatible multimedia applications with those that are definitely not OS/2 compatible, we see:

Likely to be OS/2 compatible
16-bit Win3.1/Win95	171	*****************
Win32s Win3.1/Win95	20	**
DOS	20	**
Known to be NOT OS/2 compatible
Win32 Win95/WinNT	12	*
(6 of these 12 are Microsoft titles)

Or, about 211 titles which are likely to be OS/2 compatible compared to 12 titles which are genuine Win32 applications and are not OS/2 compatible.

Despite the hype of Windows 95, and despite the large presence of Windows 95 in the consumer market, the "standard platform" appears to be "Win3.1 16-bit", followed far behind by "Win32s (Win3.1 compatible)" and DOS. Even farther back are native 32-bit Windows 95 applications.

It could be that "The Great OS Debate" may follow in the footsteps of "The Great Bus Debate". You'll recall a few years ago it was "Micro-Channel vs EISA: Who will win?" And the winner is: ISA (In terms of market share, not technical superiority...). So perhaps in the "OS/2 vs Win32 API war" it may turn out that the winner is: Win 3.1 16-bit APIs.

What does this mean for OS/2 enthusiasts? To me it means "Good News". There are only a few multimedia titles which OS/2 can absolutely not run. Most Win3.1 applications, and many Win32s applications run well under OS/2.

IBM's John Soyring stated at a speech in Chicago in April that it is IBM's intention to continue to enhance the usefulness of OS/2. This, he said includes improving the Windows 3.1 compatibility and improving upon Win32s capability of OS/2.

It's coming up on the one year anniversary of Windows 95 and it appears that the developer community has NOT gone hog-wild for this new product. An OS/2 user can avail themselves of much of the DOS and 16-bit Windows (Win 3.1 and Win32s) multimedia products available.

The "Great Revolution to Windows 95" just didn't materialize...

--
Our Sponsors: [Prominic Technologies] [ScheduPerformance] [Shenandoah] [SPG] [Surf'nRexx]

Copyright © 1996 - Falcon Networking