No really! It’s an article from PC Magazine, 29th of May, 1990. And it’s authored by Ray Duncan, before the infamous split.
NOTE FROM THE FUTURE It’s now possible to look at the version that Microsoft published after this version “An actual look at Microsoft OS/2 2.0“!
Of course, the thing that stands out from the screen shot is that OS/2 2.0 looks more like OS/2 1.2. And there is it’s ability to run two MS-DOS VDM’s in a window at the same time!
Flight Simulator, in a Window!
Although this was a feat that Windows/386 was capable of doing, going far back as far as 1987.
Windows 2.1/386 running Flight simulator 3.0 in a window
But as you can see, OS/2 did it better. Windows/386 was unable to run EGA graphics in a window, instead I was forced to run Flight simulator 3 in CGA mode. While the OS/2 2.0 beta could give over 620kb to a MS-DOS session, Windows/386 could only give me 550kb.
And when it came time to ship, well here is IBM OS/2 2.00 0xr6100 running Flight simulator 3.0 in a window and showing a MS-DOS box with about 600kb free.
IBM OS/2 running Flight Simulator 3.0
The real shame is that MS OS/2 2.0 was looking really promising in 1990, but thanks to the split the world didn’t get to try it out until 1992.
The article is a good read to get an idea of the state of development back in 1990. And of course all of PC Magazine’s 1990’s magazines are up on google books. I’ve managed to find 2/3rd of the Beta since I started looking (from 1990… been looking a long long time), and I have reviewed the SDK/toolkit earlier, and here.
PC Magazine, May 29th 1990 Pages 387-388
PC Magazine, May 29th 1990 Pages 389
Power Programming part 2
Power Programming Part 2, contd.
Power Programming pt3 1-2
Power Programming pt3 3-4
Power Programming pt3 5
Power Programming pt4 1-2
Power Programming pt4 3-4
Yea, as I said before, MS turned this project into an entire fiasco. As a side note, I wonder if this was how the infamous EXEPACK bug was first discovered.
Neozeed, is it still possible to run DOS software that uses graphics in a DOS window under OS/2? Just wondering.
If is so, how can it be done?
depending on how they setup the video card, and how the screen is rendered, yes. usually it just involves using a windowed dos box, or just hitting alt+enter ..
running EGA in a window on a VGA system or lower (cga/mda) works best
Thank you for the explanation.
For example, I’m running OS/2 Warp 3 using the Tseng ET4000 and I’m gonna have to find ways how to run software with EGA graphics on a 8514/A compatible graphics adapter, because OS/2 won’t accept DOS graphics running in a VGA window or higher :p