🚀 go-pugleaf

[roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes ...]

>In <4521@helios.ee.lbl.gov> nolra@ux1.lbl.gov (Arlon Hunt) writes:
>> 3) [...] Should we choose DOS v.3, DOS v.4, OS/2, Unix, or Windows?
>
>	I suspect you are about to make a very common mistake.  You've made
>some fairly specific decisions about what type of hardware you want, but
>you don't even know yet if you want DOS or Unix.  You're doing it all
>backwards.  First, decide what application software you want to run.  Then,
>decide what operating system will be best to run it under.  Then, finally,
>decide what hardware to get to run it on.

  Standing ovation for Roy.  This was exactly my reaction when I saw
the original posting.  This is an all -too- common mistake for people
starting into computers.

  While the differences between MS-DOS and Unix (and ..etc..) software
capabilities are starting to blur, it's still best to figure out what you
want to do with your machine, then figure out the software you want to
use, and then choose a platform to run that software.  Not the other way
around...

  BTW, the same goes for buying a printer or any other piece of
hardware.  First find the software that does what you want.  Then find
what printers are supported by that software.  You can often limit the
choices by finding the 3-4 programs that do best what you want and then
finding which small number of printers are supported by all of the
programs you want to use.  After that, buy the best one you can afford
(not always the most expensive by-the-way...)

---
  John Stanley <john@dynasoft.UUCP>
Software Consultant / Dynasoft Systems