CompuServe Messages

David, installing OS/2 would not be taking chances, since (unless you tell it otherwise) it leaves your existing DOS and Windows alone, allowing you to switch between booting DOS the way you always have, and booting OS/2. This is called "Dual Boot." NT does it also. But NT won't run 3DSr3, period. You have to Dual Boot back to DOS and you lose all NT advantages and access to NT's HPFS and NTFS volumes. With OS/2, 3DSr3 runs great, and you don't have to Dual Boot back to DOS to use it. You CAN still Dual Boot in case you have problems with OS/2, and you're back to DOS (but without any of the OS/2 features, or access to any OS/2 HPFS volumes — OS/2 and NT FAT volumes are fully accessible under plain DOS). Now that OS/2 2.1 for Windows LISTS for $25, what are you waiting for!? The more people in here who get OS/2, the more guaranteed customers Autodesk would have if they came out with an OS/2-specific port of 3DS (with multithreading)! That $25 includes a $50 rebate on the price of the forthcoming OS/2 Personal Edition (see below). For $14.95, you can get the latest beta of Warp (currently Beta 2) directly from IBM. Warp is the code-name for the NEW OS/2 Personal Edition, which runs in only 4MB of RAM, is faster, MUCH easier to install and use, and basically out-Chicagos Chicago months before we will even get to see Chicago! Warp 2 has received many accolades, including PC Week Product of the Week a couple of weeks ago. InfoWorld also praised it. You COULD download it from Compuserve (or GEnie), but I don't recommend that since it's HUGE (over two dozen high-density floppy disk images)! It would cost WAY more than the $14.95 to get it on floppies or CD-ROM from IBM, not to mention tying up your modem for about a weekend to a week (depending on baud rate)… I have myself run 3DSr3 under OS/2 2.1 with two 3DSr3 instances running at the same time: one for modelling, one acting as a Network Render station. The rest of the system sees the second instance as just another Network Render slave! And it can be rendering WHILE I'm modelling, or doing something in Windows, etc. on the same machine! And if I'm NOT doing anything else in the foreground, it actually renders larger projects somewhat FASTER than it would under DOS (because of OS/2's DPMI 32-bit swapping, which is VASTLY superior to Phar Lap's 16-bit swapping)!