Jack,
I would make sure my hard drive was completely and verifiably backed up before downloading anything from anywhere. Certainly, I would do so before testing one of Mr. Gates' infamous software patches. Such faithful and consistent hard disk backups should be considered de rigueur under any circumstances, however.
I still use Windows 3.1 running on top of DOS 5.0, steadfastly refusing to upgrade beyond those Microsoft packages. I used to be a hardcore software and upgrade junkie, but I have learned. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Left on my own, I run DOS and DOS application. I am deeply in love with WordPerfect 4.2, which is, in my opinion, one of the five best and most elegant software programs ever written. The rise and fall and eventual demise of WordPerfect Corporation makes for fascinating study on a number of levels.
By nature, programs written to run in the Windows environment, as opposed to pure DOS, must take hits in performance and versatility and--most importantly--predictability or reliability of performance. Anyone who had the occasion to compare WordPerfect for DOS with WordPerfect for Windows, or any number of the cross-platform products of the early 1990s, knows exactly what I am saying.
Sadly, Windows has become the de facto standard, essentially, and no one, to my knowledge, is writing new applications or upgrading their older applications for the DOS platform, not even WordPerfect, probably the absolute last of the holdouts for DOS.
Ooops, I see I've rambled and ranted again, but I'll leave it alone and go ahead and post it.
Holly |
