PLEASE describe 16-bit and 32-bit systems, how they affect performance and what they mean to the user? Also, why is there more positive talk about OS/2 and what does it mean to the user? RANDALL KING Hong Kong Imagine you have to transport a large number of people from point A to point B in your car. The speed at which your car can travel is only one factor affecting performance. Just as important is how many people can fit in your car per trip. The more people your car can carry, the more efficient your car is at doing the job.
The same logic can be applied to computer systems. Given that two systems are both rated at the same speed - 33MHz for example - the system which can move data around 32 bits at a time will clearly perform better than the system which can only move data around 16 bits at a time.
Where the issue gets a little more confusing, however, is when a computer is a ''true'' 32-bit system, such as an IBM compatible computer based on an Intel 80486DX CPU, but where the operating system, which the hardware is running, is written for a 16-bit system.
Operating systems are often a generation, or even two generations, behind the latest hardware because they have to be compatible with the older computers that make up most of the installed user base.
As for your OS/2 question, one could be cynical and attribute all the positive talk about the operating system to the fortune IBM must have spent on advertising and marketing. To be fair, however, the main reason is that OS/2 is really the only viable 32-bit operating system that will run on an average IBM compatible personal computer.
Some of the other systems will not run DOS and Windows applications, while OS/2 will do so while running applications designed specifically for it, too.
The second reason for the increasing popularity of OS/2 is that Windows NT was not the commercial success that it might have been. Some users who might have moved from Windows 3.1 to Windows NT have moved over to OS/2 instead. With more than four million OS/2 users, expect this trend to continue.