Author Topic: ArcaOS is the best multitasking system there is  (Read 10692 times)

David Graser

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ArcaOS is the best multitasking system there is
« on: November 30, 2023, 06:01:59 am »
While developing and testing the BigIcons, I took advantage of the systems mutitasking environment.  I had XPager set up for 5  desktops or rooms or whatever you want to call them.  I had FM/2 opened in the first, the second desktop ready to use another instance of FM/2 or PMView when needed, PMView in the third, Small (a text editor I purchased over 20 years ago in the fourth, with the 5th used to open folders and properties to get and check info, along with restarting the desktop.

I discovered you can only restart the desktop approximately 10 times before XPager disappears and the system has to be rebooted.  I can't imagine trying to do what I did under Windows.  What I did in 2 weeks, it would have be months under Windows.  As it was, I worked around 10 hours or more each day to get it to the presently level.  The wife wasn't happy.
« Last Edit: November 30, 2023, 06:11:29 am by David Graser »

David Graser

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Re: ArcaOS is the best multitasking system there is
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2024, 07:44:17 pm »
If we had the development tools, ArcaOS would be the ideal development platform.  Why?

You can set up desktop workspace folders, where when you open a folder, the programs are there that you need for that job.

With Xpager you can have as many desktops as you need to accomplish your work.

You can set programs to open more than once.  This is very useful with XPager.  This has helped me tremendously with the bigicons I have been working with.

We have dragtext which allows us to drag text to other applications.

We have the schedule tab in the program objects properties which allows one to schedule a program to run.

The RAM disks are great for temporarily storing files while working.

JTA mentioned virtualization to where you can open ArcaOS in Windows and eliminate a lot of limitations ArcaOS has.

IBM was a fool.  Developers should have been one of the markets they targeted.

I hate having to do things in Windows.  The desktop gets cluttered.  You can only open one instance of the program.  Believe me when I tell you it would have been many months to do the bigicons themes if I had to use only Windows.  In Windows, they have to setup external monitors to do what Xpager does.

 
« Last Edit: January 07, 2024, 08:03:59 pm by David Graser »

Andi B.

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Re: ArcaOS is the best multitasking system there is
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2024, 09:39:31 am »
I don't wanna say anything against your positive view on ArcaOS. But of course there are often similar tools for similar task with other OSes. F.i.
Quote
In Windows, they have to setup external monitors to do what Xpager does.
I use VirtuaWin (v4.5) on Win to replicate xpagers behavior and even set up the same keys for switching between the pages. There are other tools which do the same. But long time ago when I looked for it I choosed this one.

I also have DesktopOK and WindowManager (DeskSoft) on every of my Win installations together with a lot of other utilities to make this OS somewhat user frindly (for me).

Remember, on OS/2 (ArcaOS) we also need different third party utilities (like XWP and a lot of others) to make the system behave the way we like it.

JTA

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Re: ArcaOS is the best multitasking system there is
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2024, 04:29:43 pm »
... in Windows.  The desktop gets cluttered.  You can only open one instance of the program.

While not arguing whether Win or OS/2 is the better OS for app development, I did ponder the "can you open multiple copies of same app, under windows" piece. I believe this is dependent upon the developer of the app, and if they restrict it, or if it doesn't make sense for there to be two or more copies of their app running under windows, there could be difficulties?

Launch a windows app, and then hold shift key and click the app on the windows toolbar, and see if a second copy of the program launches ... if a very specific program doesn't seem to work well with this method, then the developer may be checking for and restricting a 2nd running copy. In which case, we have to cheat ...

Use Sandboxie Plus, or create a 2nd acct & have that acct run another copy on the same machine.

Or, my personal favorite (a bit biased here) is to use virtualization, and just spin up multiple vm's running the same program, all accessing data on the shared filesystem space. Works for Windows, and for OS/2 (just not needed in OP's case) ... could be a tad expensive in licensing costs, though.

OP has a good scenario for *why* we use OS/2 instead of Windows, and I'm adding it to "the sales list" ... alongside OO desktop & such, where things just aren't as polished under Windows, to this day. Such examples make it easier to show OS/2 strengths to someone who thinks in only Windows or Linux terms ...

Hope this helps ...

Sabon

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Re: ArcaOS is the best multitasking system there is
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2026, 09:09:32 am »
While developing and testing the BigIcons, I took advantage of the systems mutitasking environment.  I had XPager set up for 5  desktops or rooms or whatever you want to call them.  I had FM/2 opened in the first, the second desktop ready to use another instance of FM/2 or PMView when needed, PMView in the third, Small (a text editor I purchased over 20 years ago in the fourth, with the 5th used to open folders and properties to get and check info, along with restarting the desktop.

I discovered you can only restart the desktop approximately 10 times before XPager disappears and the system has to be rebooted.  I can't imagine trying to do what I did under Windows.  What I did in 2 weeks, it would have be months under Windows.  As it was, I worked around 10 hours or more each day to get it to the presently level.  The wife wasn't happy.

You posted this on Nov 30, 2023 and it is currently March 1st, 2026.

I just retired and I just purchase Arca Noae OS/2 though I'm waiting on some dual layer DVD-R disks (I ordered them and they will be arriving in about 5 days) in order to install it on a laptop.

My experience with OS/2 was from when the beta for OS/2 2.0 was first being demo'd by IBM in the fall of 1991 and IT CHANGED MY LIFE! And that is an understatement.

Before OS/2 2.0 beta I was running four computers on my desks. I had four computers and four desks with one chair and would spin from one to the next because I wore MANY hats writing things in WordPerfect (and printing or emailing them), creating spreadsheets in Lotus 1-2-3, created and ran batch files which copied files from our central location to Home Loan Centers and from the HLCs back to our central location, and I created digital versions of all our forms, and I was a programmer keeping programs up to date or bug fixing and that was just SOME of the things that I did. And if I had room and more hands I would could have used mored computers.

But when I went and saw what OS/2 2.0 beta could do I was blown out of the water. They gave us a disk (and license) to take to work with us and try it out. I was able to set up one computer with 4 MB of RAM and I installed all of the programs including the batch files and I was able to do EVERYTHING on that OS/2 computer and I didn't have to switch to another computer and never had to worry about anything crashing because OS/2 was THAT stable.

I got rid of all my other computer and just used that one OS/2 2.0 computer after that and bought licenses for more computers. And anytime I had a user that was having problems with Windows or DOS programs on a continuing basis, I would buy another OS/2 license and install it on their computer and tell them it was a special version of Windows so they wouldn't realize it wasn't Windows which would have them throw a fit. But all their problems went away when they were using OS/2 instead of Windows!

I was maybe three times more productive because of OS/2 than I was with FOUR DOS and Win 3.1 computers because I didn't have to worry about which computer my program or files were on since they were all on the same computer. And that computer never had to be rebooted unless I installed an update to OS/2 that updated the main part of OS/2.

I literally cried when IBM said they weren't going to keep updating OS/2 anymore or supporting it past some unknown date. Nobody at the time knew that they would license OS/2 to third party companies to keep drivers up to date so that companies could keep running OS/2 programs so they didn't have to rewrite the programs which would have caused a LOT of them to tell IBM good-bye if they had to do that. Which is why IBM wanted OS/2 to keep running on newer computers even if they weren't going officially keep updating it anymore.

OS/2 (and BeOS) are/were the only OSs that I LOVED using and OS/2 could do EVERYTHING that I needed to do and it truly was a better DOS than DOS and a better Windows than Windows (16 bit only) and Describe and other native OS/2 were great while they lasted. Unfortunately Describe went away along with most of the 3rd party shrink-wrap software and the only apps that continued to be around were those that people supported in house. The bank I worked for didn't use OS/2 other than what I used it for so the writing was on the wall for me using OS/2 as they were switching everything to Windows and I ended moving up to another organization that was even more anti anything other than Microsoft than the bank became.

RTAN

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Re: ArcaOS is the best multitasking system there is
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2026, 07:52:51 pm »
I hope you have a great time getting into ArcaOS and revitalising your own OS/2 interests. Whilst waiting for the D/L DVDs, bear in mind that you can actually install via USB memory stick if you have a spare one of those to hand:

https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/arcaos/obtaining-arcaos/

Scroll down to:
Creating a bootable ArcaOS USB stick for installation

Hope that helps!

Richard.