From: s047@SAND.SICS.BU.OZ.AU (Jeremy Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: New PC's, what's happening acorn?
Date: 17 Aug 92 01:49:34 GMT


In article <9208110035.AA06560@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> you write:
>[In message "new PC's, what's happening acorn?", Piers Haken writes:]
>>It looks like the Arc/PC gap just got bigger:
>>
>>COMPAQ DESKPRO 66M
>> Model 510 Windows edition: 486DX2/66MHz, 8MB ram, 510Mb HD, $5,200
>>
>>I'm sorry guys, but however sentimental you are - this is fast, Windows
>>is getting nicer and you're falling behind a bit. I hope you replace
>>the A5000 with something really impressive, or people just aren't going
>>to be interested anymore.

Windows is getting NICER??!?! *cough splutter choke*!! There is a
fundamental flaw in the semantics of that sentence. First, windows was
never nice, so to imply that it is getting "nicer" is false. I have seen
and used 3.1, and from all outward appearances, the greatest single
major change is that they are using that horrible new logo everywhere.

Also, adhering to that wonderfull american ideology that we all know and
love, they have thrown even more into Windows proper than was ever
necessary. They now have, wait for it, a screensaver built into the
desktop controls. Why?!?! It's useless. It provides three screensaver
options, each of which are very dull. It also ignores that fact that
After Dark has just been released for Windows, and there has been a
reasonable PD screensaver called "ScreenPeace" available for one and a
half years!! There are other examples, but hardwiring a weak, useless
screensaver into what is basically the operating system just seems
insanely stupid.

Plus, a LOT of old software is very unstable or won't work at all under
the new Windows. Not even Microsoft software. Great way to get everyone
to spend lots more money on upgrades eh?

>You mean that the Arch/PC gap just got smaller. And it is still a pretty
>wide one. ;-)

Seconded. Overall of course. We still don't have 24 bit screens, but
PC's still don't have anything like STANDARD 8 channel stereo sound,
STANDARD mouse, STANDARD program environment, (Choose: DOS, or OS/2 or
Windows or NT or...) which means that even half the programs written
under one OS can't be run under another on the SAME HARDWARE PLATFORM
and who has room to install 4 OS's? DOS is the only common denominator.
Great eh? And don't forget how old DOS is. It's even older than ADFS!
(Oh Acorn, when are you going to replace ADFS with something that can
handle >10 char names!)

>If you can tolerate Windows 3.1 (if you can even get it running) -- good
>luck to you. You certainly need a machine this over-burdened to be able
>to run it at a decent speed. Will the Americans never learn about
>design?

No. Not while their companies are being run by the marketers.

Windows will install easily if you have the STANDARD setup. IE >286 with
at least 1mb, VGA, and a microsoft mouse. If you don't have all of
these, then forget it. I've installed windows on a machine that had 640k
and hercules. It took Days to get the system working. Another guy had a
non-standard mouse. He had to write back to the suppliers to get extra
software. Oh, yes, and of course you need a big hard drive.

It takes 8Mb to install windows. It takes another 5Mb to install WfW, or
Excel. It takes 3Mb to install Dos5. I have a friend with a 40Mb drive.
He's a pretty average user, a commerce student who only barely knows his
way around Windows, let alone DOS. His HD is full, and he can't work out
where all the space has gone. Also, over the past few months, his
Windows has been getting slower, and slower, and s l o w e r... And he
can't work out why. I've seen it, and I'm not sure that even disk
fragmentation can cause the boot up time to jump from 25 seconds to 2
minutes!! He's re-installed windows twice to no avail. Tell him he has
to re-format his HD every few months to keep his performence up and see
how he likes it!

>-Malcolm  lithgow@usl.com  These are my opinions.

And these are mine.

***********************************************************************
*    . Jeremy Lee s047@sand.sics.bu.oz.au    Student of Everything    *
*   /|            "Where the naked spotless intelect is without       *
*  /_|              center or circumference. Look to the light,       *
* /  |rchimedes      Leland, look to the light" - Dale Cooper         *
***********************************************************************