From: fwbent@watmsg.uwaterloo.ca (Fred Bent)
Subject: Re: Workers hate windoze, revolution at 11!  :-)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 18:14:49 GMT

In article <6762@otc.otca.oz> damos@otc.otca.oz (Daniel Amos) writes:
>>>>Although there are a few people who know nothing about computers, but
>>>>can still see what a completely lame system Windoze is.  Take my mother,
>>>>who just bought (with no aid or input from me, I might add) a brand new
>>>>386 machine for word-processing.  She refused to let them give her
>>>>Windoze--she may not be very technical, but she's encountered Windoze at
>>>>work, and hates it because it's so slow and awkward compared to DOS
>>>>text-mode.
>
>I installed Win3.1, Word and Excel on my wife's machine at work, and I'm almost
>embarassed that I ever did it.  In her environment, they use Wordperfect 5.1,
>and Lotus 123.  Aside, I find that nearly every person that I ever met that
>uses Wordperfect will not use anything else - I can't understand it, because I
>hate it (I think they invest so much time learning it that they won't give it
>up, also Wordperfect runs very well on slow machines, and windows 3.1 won't
          ^^^^^^^^^^^ 

You mean Wordperfect for DOS. Wordperfect for Windows is SSLLOOWW

>even run on most of them).
>
>Anyway, my wife's machine is a PS/2 model 70 with 2 megs of Ram.  The first
>thing I noticed was that it ran very slowly (compared to the way it runs on our
>8 meg + OS/2 machines).  Next, I discovered that she was having no end of
>problems - often simple things that really stressed her.  For example, program

You problem is that you only have 2 megs.  Try increasing it to at least
four!  With four megs Windows should have OK performance.

>disappear, they think that they have wrecked the system.
>
>Secondly, printing to a file.  She has HP deskjets on other machines, but the
>setup isn't networked yet.  So she tries to print to a file - it prints 2 lines
>then stops.  I have never had any problems doing this because I always use

Is this mean that it is not printing to the file correctly, or that it
is not outputting to the printer correctly?

>Postscript and talk to a laserprinter.  I tried to emulate her problem at home,
>and sure enough, it didn't work (Epson LX80 printer),  and again at work on a
>Canon bubblejet, and I could no get it to work.  So what does she have to do?
>Save here files as Lotus 123 or Wordperfect and print them out that way (this
>does no always maintain formats correctly).

How are you doing this?  Several characters in the binary file might cause
it to stop copying.  These file will tend to be very large.
Word for Windows 2.0b should handle Word Perfect files OK.  This is a free
upgrade for registered owners.

I think that copy has switches to handle binary files.  Off the top of my
head try:

COPY /B FILE.TXT PRN

and see if this works.


>
>Next, the windows interface is really messy.  How could a new user possibly
>learn to set up groups etc without a lot of explanations.  The Macintosh and

How can you learn to setup folders (naming them is tricky)?  How are you to
know that you must empty the trash?  What about that alarm? :-)

>OS/2 interfaces are far better in general.  Furthermore, they are generally
>consistent, so when I learn something, it applies all the time.  in fact, my

I don't find that all apps in MAC world are consistent. Try Word for MAC.
When you are spell checking, and it can't find the dictionary....
How that for a helpful dialog box?! :*)

Any interface is only as consistent as app developers let it be.
However, Microsoft is encouraging developers to use the
Common Dialog Boxes.

>biggest problems on the Mac are Microsoft products which do their best to be
>non-conformists with a standard interface.  I find Microsoft love gadgets -
>they love to have some obscure feature on a tool bar with some obscure icon,
>and use it to sell a product which is basically very ordinary (although often
>better than many other products).

Of course if every word processor had the same interface, and the same
features then they would not stand out from each other.  As for the tool
bar, if you don't like it then you can get rid of it. Word4Win is TOTALY
customizable, you can change anything and everything in the interface
using WordBASIC.  (not to sure about the ToolBars thought :-))

>
>I've come to the conclusion that Windows is more trouble than it is worth for
>new users.  Macintosh is my prefered desktop interface, but this still requires
>training for new users (how to use a mouse etc - have you tried explaining a

Yes, about two months training IMHO.  It is not very intuative, no GUI
is.  But once you know how to do something in a GUI or any environment
it then becomes obvious :-)  It's just that DOS has a small user interface.

>complicated mouse maneouver to a computer illiterate over a telephone?).  In
>general, Dos is less hassle for new users.  I can set up their machine to boot
>in a given manner, and write a list of things that they can type to achieve
>given results, and provided they type is exactly as it is written, you have no
>problems.  My wife got to the stage where she could find her way around Dos in
>a couple of weeks, and in general, i can help her over the telephone.

This is because there is not such a steep learning curve for command line
interfaces.  You simply have to remeber a handful of commands.

>
>In my opinion, the ultimate environment would be the OS/2 kernal with a
>Macintosh user interface, but I hear that Apple and IBM are in bed with each
>other... watch out Microsoft.
>

I still cannot see what makes the MAC interface soo easy to use.  You
simply use the Finder to open folders and start apps.  Same as in
Windows, except that the desktop is always there. Each MAC app steals the
main menu bar when it is active.  Windows each app has its own menu
bar.  When you "minimize" a MAC app you have to use the silly icon on
the right of the Bar to maximize it (make it active).  The desktop does
not change.  In Windows the active app "jumps to the top of the desktop".
Windows makes an icon for the minimized apps, MAC simply adds it to the
menu of the apps that are running.

Both have sound effects for events.

Mac only has one button on the mouse.

>
>
>
>-- 
>Dan Amos        |  ACSnet:     damos@otc.otca.oz
>Engineer        |  UUCP:       {uunet,mcvax}!otc.otca.oz.au!damos
>Services R&D    |  Snail:      GPO Box 7000, Sydney 2001, Australia
>||||OTC||       |  Phone:      (02) 287 3102   Fax: (02) 287 3299


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