Herb-
As far as I can tell, *no one* is developing numerical software in a
16-bit environment any more. The rule among programmers I know is to
always develop for the future; the code will be antiquated soon enough
as it is!
So I'd say Windows 95 32 bit or Windows NT. No one can afford to do
their computing an order of magnitude slower than their competitors.
Even considering just raw clock speed, a Pentium II (at 250 MHz) is 10
times faster than my old 486. And I see the DEC Alpha advertised at 500
MHz. My point is that everyone will be forced to move to faster machines
and as soon as they do, they will surely move to 32-bit operating
systems. Don't look back! 64-bit systems will probably not be far
behind.
In the last few weeks, I've met two die-hard Mac users who have switched
to Intel/Microsoft platforms. I've never seen this before, but I think
it means you are safe to abandon a wonderful but dying computer. (I
recognize there could be a substantial sampling error in this
"survey".) :)))
Regards,
Bob
--
Robert D. Phair, Ph.D. rphair at ix.netcom.com
BioInformatics Services http://www.webcom.com/rphair
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