🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan7.032313.6224@vpnet.chi.il.us>
cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (gordon hlavenka) writes:

[SNIP,SNIP]

>So, he upgraded his _286_ to Windows 3.1, and it's now even more
>slothful than before.  So he traded in the machine on a 386DX/40.

[SNIP,SNIP]

I did something similar--twice--in recommending 1992 MS-DOS software
to people with 286's: the Norton Desktop for DOS, and Lotus Works.
(I hadn't bought software for my 8088 in years; what did I know.)  Well,
I got them both to run these at usable speeds, but the AT's are so
highly tuned you can almost hear them resonate.

The $3 Ad packets on the news stand say a 25 Mhz 486 is the minimal
machine now.  The 386 is a micro-mainframe; and companies like
Microsoft never even offered an operating system for it, there was no
demand for 32-bit memory or devices (other than video). People are
buying 486's for simple ICONS and WYSIWYG word processing.  I
panicked: "I can't useful things on my 8088!  Thousands of lemmings
can't be wrong!"

They weren't: new commercial wares, even for DOS, won't run on 286's.
(A hark back to those romantic days when IBM sold both mainframe
hardware and software.)

The solution is to buy DOS shareware--or used, older versions of
commercial software--and a simple program for writing menus.

BTW, I discovered DR-DOS comes with a cute optional interface of ICONS
and windows (in selectable color schemes) that works nicely with its
task switcher.  I've used UNIX for years.  How often do I run programs
in the background, rather than stop them and switch to another?
Almost never.

Bruce (Gypsy Scholar)
-- 
Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
bathurst@phoenix.princeton.edu bathurst@pucc.bitnet !princeton!phoenix!bathurst