Hi Linda,

 JS> Also, you don't need all the same settings in the OS/2 DOS startup
 JS> file.  For example, you don't need or want any of the sound card
 JS> settings in there, OS/2 handles that for it's DOS sessions.

 LP> If all drivers were loaded when OS/2 boots, they don't take up memory
 LP> until used?

You HAVE to stop thinking in PURE DOS terms! OS/2 is a Virtual Memory OS (the
exact same as Linux, NT, etc...), so this means ALL memory in the machine is
virtualised. What this really means is that ALL OS/2 DRIVERS will occupy some
form of memory, but this is TOTALLY irrelevant to the VDM's (the Virtual DOS
Machines), because the memory used by the OS/2 drivers is NOT the same memory
the DOS session uses! Regardless of how many OS/2 drivers are loaded, a DOS
box under OS/2 will have more memory available than real DOS will ever have
(unless you specifically configure it to use less)! 

DOS does not understand the Virtual Mode of the processor, it ALWAYS runs as
if it is the only program in the CPU, in REAL MODE, where memory usage is
real! Under DOS, drivers load into REAL memory, its got no choice, DOS and the 
drivers do not know how to use Virtual memory. When you start a DOS session
"in a DOS box", then OS/2 provides the DOS environment as a Virtual DOS
Machine, but the DOS program just acts as if it was the only thing running, it 
has no knowledge that it is sharing the machine with other processes. In this
case OS/2 is "virtualising" a large number of the resources that DOS needs,
but all this is being done behind DOS's back... 

In fact you can start a dozen VDM sessions under OS/2, and each one can have a 
full 640K (and more if you configure it) of memory available (less the memory
needed for DOS itself within that session). 

If you MUST load a DOS driver in a DOS session, then yes it will load in the
DOS session AND steal memory away from JUST THAT SESSION, but it will have no
affect on the memory available to any other DOS sessions you have running, and 
of course to the rest of the OS/2 sessions you have running.

So if you ever load ANY sort of driver, then it WILL always take up memory,
except it wont matter in the slightest to the rest of the machine because it
is all VIRTUAL memory!

Is this getting any easier to understand now?........;-)

Cheers..........pk.


--- Maximus/2 3.01