OS/2 e-Zine! - June '97 Reader Survey Results

June '97 Reader Survey Results

The ability to run Windows 3.x software in a WIN-OS/2 session has long been praised and lamented by OS/2 users and industry analysts. We wanted to find out exactly how much our readers want and use this capability, so last month we asked, "Do you use WIN-OS/2?"

What did we learn about our readers' love-hate relationship with Windows? Read on and find out!

Answers to our survey were accepted from June 16th until July 13th and any duplicate, incomplete or mangled submissions were discarded. We had a total of 2,315 readers send us valid replies to our questionnaire last month and the results were as follows:

Do you have WIN-OS/2 support installed?

This was the question our readers were most able to agree on -- a whopping 92.6% of you installed WIN-OS/2 support with your copy of OS/2. This seems reasonable given the fact that we learned in an earlier survey (vol. 2, no. 4) that 76.8% of our readers use Warp 4 which comes with WIN-OS/2 support. If it's free, why not install it, right?

Do you use WIN-OS/2 support?

The answers to our second question were a little further from unanimous but a clear majority of readers still told us they do use WIN-OS/2 support -- but less than 1/3 of the time. Significant numbers use their WIN-OS/2 support between 1/3 and 2/3 of the time but very few (4.7%) use WIN-OS/2 more than 2/3 of the time.

Interestingly, while only 7.2% of readers reported in question one that they did not install WIN-OS/2 support, almost twice that number (320 or 13.8%) told us they do not use WIN-OS/2 support. Presumably these people either leave the support installed "just in case" or just can't be bothered to de-install.

Do you want or need Windows 3.x support in future versions of OS/2?

After we found out what our readers were doing with WIN-OS/2, we asked what they wanted to be doing with it. A not surprising 1,418 (61.3%) people told us that they definitely want Win32s support in future versions of OS/2 but at greater levels than currently available (i.e. greater than v1.25). This would allow running newer Win3.x apps in WIN-OS/2 sessions.

Only 376 (16.2%) of our readers wanted Win3.x support in future versions of Warp but were satisfied with the current levels. Almost that many (16.1%) didn't want any Win3.x in future versions at all.

Do you want or need Windows 95 support in future versions of OS/2?

Finally, we found that Win95 support in OS/2 is something most readers want. 1,423 (61.5%) replied yes to this question. A surprising number (271 or 11.7%) of readers were not sure, however, whether they wanted Win95 support or not.

That's it for last month's survey. Don't forget to fill out our questionnaire this month (it's on the next page) and check back in August for complete results!

Complete June '97 Survey Results

Do you have WIN-OS/2
support installed? Do you use WIN-OS/2 support?

Category Count Percentage

Yes 2,144 92.6%

No 166 7.2%

Don't Know 5 0.2%

TOTAL 2,315 100%

Category Count Percentage

Yes, but less than 1/3 of the time 1,399 60.4%

Yes, between 1/3 and 2/3 of the time 480 20.7%

Yes, more than 2/3 of the time 108 4.7%

No 320 13.8%

Don't Know 8 0.3%

TOTAL 2,315 99.9%

Note: the missing 0.1% in the above table is due to rounding errors.

Do you want or need Windows 3.x support in
future versions of OS/2?

Category Count Percentage

Yes, greater than Win32s v1.25 1,418 61.3%

Yes, up to Win32s v1.25 376 16.2%

No 373 16.1%

Don't Know 148 6.4%

TOTAL 2,315 100%

Do you want or need Windows 95
support in future versions of OS/2?

Category Count Percentage

Yes 1,423 61.5%

No 621 26.8%

Don't Know 271 11.7%

TOTAL 2,315 100%

[Our Sponsor: F/X Communications - Home of the InJoy dialer, #1 in OS/2 shareware (Jan-97).]

This page is maintained by Falcon Networking. We welcome your suggestions.