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On Thu, 30 Mar 1995 19:10:33 -0800 you wrote: > >>> SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAR 27 (NB) -- A weekly >>> computer publication says it has found Windows 95, Microsoft >>> Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) next generation combination user interface >>> and operating system, "flawed" to the point it will be of use only >>> to home users. >>> >>> According to Nicholas Petreley, executive editor of >>> reviews at InfoWorld, the long-awaited and several-times-delayed >>> Windows 95 has such severe problems that its functionality is >>> limited for business use. The InfoWorld editor said the problem is >>> that Windows 95 runs out of system resources when running >>> multi-threaded 32-bit applications. >>> >>> If the magazine is correct, that could be a serious >>> obstacle to widespread corporate adoption of the program, which is >>> now scheduled to launch in August 1995, since the ability to run >>> 32-bit applications is touted as one of its major advantages. >>> >>> In an interview with Newsbytes Petreley called Windows 95 "a >>> disaster" if it ships in its current form. "I fear that unless >>> Microsoft goes back to the drawing board on this operating system, >>> only light home users will get anything out of it," writes Petreley >>> in this week's issue of the publication. >>> >>> The problem, according to the editor, is that Windows 95 is a >>> 32-bit wraparound on top of Windows 3.1., so Microsoft is running >>> into a lot of the limitations of Windows 3.1 due to the company's >>> desire to make Windows 95 backwards-compatible. "They managed to >>> move some of the information out of the (graphics) GDI heap into the >>> 32-bit address base but they haven't really done it successfully >>> with the user heap, so they are keeping this thing called the >>> Windows class, which is really the basic building block of all >>> Windows objects and windows. That information is still being kept >>> in the 64K user heap in conventional memory." >>> >>> Petreley told Newsbytes the result of that architecture is that >>> when you place a folder-oriented multi-threaded desktop on top of >>> it and want to open a number of different folders, you fill up that >>> relatively small user heap very rapidly. "I ran out of resources >>> just running Microsoft Word and the Microsoft Network at the same >>> time," he told Newsbytes. Petreley said he was running Windows 95 on >>> a Pentium-based PC with 32 megabytes (MB) of memory. >>> >>> Petreley said Microsoft hand-delivered a fix to InfoWorld that moved >>> the Windows class out of the user heap and into the 32-bit address >>> space. "But it breaks things left and right, including 32-bit >>> applications. Microsoft Network crashes and Word for Windows >>> crashes," he said. >>> >>> The Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary Second Edition defines the >>> heap as "a portion of memory reserved for a program to use for the >>> temporary storage of data structures whose existence or size cannot >>> be determined until the program is running. The program can request >>> free memory from the heap to hold such elements, use it as >>> necessary, and later free the memory." >>> >>> A call to Microsoft in an attempt get that company's comment on this >>> story had not been returned by press deadline. >>> >>> (Jim Mallory/19950327/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080; >>> Infoworld, 415-572-7341) >> > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >| "Pearl Harbor will never be attacked from the air." | >| - Adm. Charles H. McMorris, U.S. Navy, (Dec. 3, 1941) | >----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Roger J. Buffington 1L, USC Law Center AB6WR Go Trojans!! .