To: K. M. Strickler who wrote (580 ) 1/21/1998 11:14:00 PM From: Lady Lurksalot Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1600
K.M. Thanks for all the good and helpful information. I enjoy reading your posts. I still run Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 5.0. I'm running on an ISA board with an IDE drive. I'm not on a network. I'm probably one of the last of the breed to whom a personal computer really is just that. And how did you know I love Tetris? Have you ever tried the shareware game Fractal tetris? It comes from Sweden and is really challenging. I have to brag and say that over the years I did my part and upgraded when the upgrades became available. I even purchased the Windows versions of the various products, but soon found that they did not include all the features and functionality of their DOS brethren. Hence, all of those Windows version applications became shelfware long ago, and I cling tenaciously but contentedly to the dying world of DOS. Funny thing is, I found DOS infinitely easier to learn and to use than I do Windows--and never mind its speed relative to Windows. As for programming, I'm doing well to write a few batch files and tweak some things here and there. By no stretch of the imagination do I think of myself as some sort of software or hardware guru. As I am sure you know, with The Great Windows Takeover, some software and hardware companies have merged with each other or their products bought outright. Still others quietly closed their doors, leaving orphan products. Ironically, many of the smaller companies had excellent niche products, the likes of which we'll probably never see again, but that could not readily be ported into the Windows graphical environment. I still use one such program, SmartKey, a keyboard macro program. Then there's Lotus and their excellent Magellan. Lotus no longer supports it and most assuredly will never upgrade or update it. Magellan languishes. I would like to see Lotus release Magellan's code into the public domain for updating. Another pet peeve I have is how Windows ever got off calling itself an operating system. Windows is an environment that sits on top of DOS, the actual operating system. Mostly, I would point a finger at the computer media pundits for perpetuating this misnomer. People working in WIN95 are ever surprised to find good ol' DOS, still there and grinning back at 'em. Getting back to MYM, it loaded no more slowly on my old 8088 XT than it does on my present system, but I have no real complaint. It's still loads faster than Windows and once it's there, it's there. <vbg> Remember the old joke about the ad for Norton's Desktop for Windows, the one in which Peter Norton is pictured standing with his arms crossed and a concerned expression on his face? Some of us thought Peter looked quite natural as someone who was waiting for the Windows Desktop to load. Holly