LE>> I was referring entirely to the WinModem and other similar devices which 
LE>> require platform-specific software in order to operate as
modems. Rockwell 
BG> That's not true.  The so-called USR Winmodem is nothing more than a generic 
BG> DSP device, which could just as easily be a sound card as a modem, 
BG> depending upon the installed VXD.  When used as a modem under Windows, it 
BG> makes use of bit stripping and data compression, and is a hell of a lot 
BG> more functional than a Rockwell RPI modem which has neither in hardware.

Nope, it is precisely equivalent to an RPI modem, only even worse - an RPI
modem can at least be used in a cripped, semi-dysfunctional sort of way
without special operating-environment-specific drivers, and emulators can
run the various RPI-supporting comms packages quite acceptably (well, as
acceptably as RPI can get). A WinModem outside Windows is useless. It's
unsurprising USR gave them away. Making modems into platform-dependent
devices is insane.

LE>> from Microcom re MNP licensing, which is the reason why none of the major 
LE>> communications packages support it.
BG> Not "none".  QmodemPro is a major comms package, and it
supports RPI.
That's the first I ever heard of it, so it can't be that big.

LE>> Fortunately, nobody takes these non-standards seriously.
BG> Is that a fact?  V.FC and Class 2 fax are "non-standards",
yet Rockwell 
BG> takes both of those VERY seriously.
Rockwell is in the luxurious position of owning roughly 70% (and shrinking
;-) of the modem market. It is analogous to the situation vis-a-vis
Netscape extending HTML. If 70% of the world is using the standard, people
who don't match the standard look like also-ran peripheral marketeers with
an inadequte grasp of the technical aspects of the product in question.

-- Lewin A.R.W. Edwards [Team OS/2]  Tel 0419320415 * 0412809805 * 0414927056
@EOT:

--- MsgedSQ/2 3.35