All three operating systems under evaluations provides communications software of their own. There is a terminal and internet connection utilities in Windows 95 and Linux. OS/2 Warp has included all these in its BonusPak. It is worth mentioned that the internet connection utilities that comes with OS/2 Warp is well integrated to the operating system. Users of these utilities, can use a utility call UPDATE to update their internet utilities if IBM has made an update to any part of the internet program. What this UPDATE does is to connect to a IBM service site and retrieve the updated patches or files available. Users can then select files to be patched to their system. UPDATE will then bring the file back and automatically update the patches for the users. Inside the BonusPak, IBM also included FAXWORKS for OS/2. This program allows users to send and receive fax with their fax modem. As a competitor of IBM, Microsoft may want to include such a program in their future release.
Windows 95 and Linux are all readily support networking. However, only OS/2 Warp connect include this capability, where OS/2 Warp and OS/2 Warp for Windows do not have such support. OS/2 Warp connect support IBM LAN server, Novell NetWare and Microsoft Windows NT Server software and thus allow users to share resources. Besides Warp Connect also support peer-to-peer networking. Windows 95 has the same capability. Linux, like other UNIX operating systems, support TCP/IP, NFS and other Internet protocols. It is a little tricky to network Linux with OS/2, Windows 95 and DOS..