January 1994 / Special Report

The Great OS Debate	Since the dawn of microcomputing, users and developers have jousted with one another to defend the honor of their chosen operating systems. - by Jon Udell, Senior Technical Editor
Small Kernels Hit It Big	Suddenly microkernels are the central design element of new operating systems. But Microsoft, IBM, USL, and others differ on how best to implement one. - by Peter D. Varhol
The Chorus Microkernel The Facts	Amid all the hype about microkernel-based operating systems, don't overlook Chorus/MiX, a commercially proven Unix variant from France that offers a number of enhanced features - by Dick Pountain
Inside The Nucleus	The Chorus nucleus is divided into four functional parts: The multitasking real-time executive allocates local processors and schedules threads using a priority-based preemptive scheme (or, optionally, by time slicing).
A Chorus Lexicon	Actor. The equivalent of a Unix process; it provides an execution context for one or more threads.
Objects on the March OLE VS. OpenDoc	Object-oriented technologies will help the next generation of operating systems evolve in an orderly way and reach out across the network - by Peter Wayner
To Inherit or Not to Inherit?	The ability of objects to be derived from and specialize more general objects is fundamental to any object-oriented system.
Personality Plus	The ability to run Windows and Macintosh software is the order of the day, and the name of the game is "multiple personalities" - by Frank Hayes
SunSelect's Wabi vs. Insignia Solutions' SoftWindows	SunSelect's Wabi (Windows Application Binary Interface), which will be bundled with many Unix workstations, uses the workstation's normal X Window System display protocols for creating the images called for by a Windows application and Unix's usual facilities for handling files, memory, and other resources.
Windows NT and Workplace OS: Plug It In	While Unix personality modules are designed to function as if they were applications, both Microsoft's and IBM's entries in the portable 32-bit operating-system sweepstakes take a more integrated approach.
A Better OS/2 Than OS/2?	Ironically, the first major operating system to demonstrate the commercial value of supporting multiple personalities is now demonstrating a new way to support them.

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