🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <dwpMsTAMyCy7Ewlc@pigsonthewing.org.uk>, Andy Mabbett
<andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk> writes
>A win95/8 system, as opposed to 3.1, would be sensible, as she is
>familiar with Win 2K at home.
>
>What is the minimum spec she can run with, and what is the going rate?
>She has a very limited budget obviously, though muggins might help out.
>
I have a lot of experience of this. My daughter did the first 3 courses
on an old 386 Compaq running W3.11. Her joke was that it was so old it
was still wearing flares. She was shown how to type into it and do some
basic formatting, ordered always to save in rtf format and always to
save to the HD and to a floppy, provided with her brother's old printer
and sent on her way. The printer was essential.

The only problems came when others borrowed it, which they did, and lost
their work. It usually seems to occur the night before the work is due
to be handed in. After long phone calls to the support line here, we
usually managed to recover something. All students should be assumed to
have a crisis the night before any deadline.

The black and white screen removed the temptation to play games, and
removed the need for worrying about needing TFT.

When the HD eventually died, we moved up to an old AST 486 of mine
running W95. This worked OK here, but was less successful in the field,
because of the longer boot-up, the need to close down properly, and all
the other things that we take for granted. I know I had a lot more calls
late at night saying 'Where has it all gone'. This machine was pretty
horrid to use because of the DS screen. Neither machine was W2k
compliant, but this didn't matter.

AST 486's go for under �50 on eBay. I think we paid about �20 for the
Compaq in a non-computer auction, but that was when prices were higher.
:-)
Something like a P90 would be way over the top, and would be good enough
to attract the 'computer experts', which is the last thing she will
need.

>She will need a virus checker which can be updated by me downloading
>updates and giving them to her on floppy - what do the panel recommend?

F-Prot was fine for us. Not sure whether it will still fit on a floppy
these days.

I've still not seen a version of Word that works properly. (but I gave
up at Word 97). Things like keeping the footnotes on the same page when
editing a document seems way beyond the capabilities of MS, although
vital for students. Maybe there's a better and simpler word processor?

Bill

-- 
Bill Holt              bill@itsound.demon.co.uk