By Harvey Bruneau
Well another year is coming to a close. Voting for our 1992 officers will take place after the main presentation by Microsoft. Please be sure to make your nominations prior to that time. Present nominations are listed in the Secretary’s Report column.
It certainly was an exciting year in the PC world. Next year may not see as many lawsuits, mergers or innovations since many companies have been swallowed up by bigger ones or just plain went out of business. However, endusers will have some serious decisions to make about hardware and software selections in the coming year. Hardware decisions will be mainly based on the processor manufacturer (Intel, AMD, CT, or Whirlpool) and the bus architecture (ISA, EISA, Microchannel or Greyhound). The ever growing list of nonstandard standards is the main reason for falling hardware prices which should continue to drop through the 1st quarter of 1992. In the software arena, the decision will be among operating systems and environment. Please remember that Windows 3.0, the present environment leader, is just a shell which executes other programs. Windows 3.0 does require an operating system (DOS 3.1 or higher) before it can be used. The major battle of the year should be between IBM (OS/2 2.0) and Microsoft (Windows 3.0). IBM has a real challenge ahead of itself to overcome the head start which Microsoft has. It will take some fancy marketing by IBM for OS/2 to establish even a foothold in the PC arena. Additionally, DR DOS 6.0 (Digital Research, owned by Novell) could add to the fight against Microsoft dominance. Below is the tree [omitted here] we will need to climb in 1992. The wrong decision in either hardware or software could put you on the wrong branch. Hopefully as a group we can help each other determine which branch is best suited per individual. Unfortunately, I believe that one branch will not be the answer for everyone. Each member may have different requirements of a PC, and only a specific branch may provide the desired results. However, the common denominator between all of us is that we do use a PC.
Last meeting I mentioned that I had ordered, from Gateway 2000 (mail order), a 486 33 MHz PC on the 11th of November. This was the 1st time I had used a mail order company. The PC cost $2645 + $95 for shipping for a total of $2740. The price included a tower case, 4 Mb RAM, 1.2 MB & 1.44 MB floppies, l6 bit VGA board with 1 MB, 14" color crystal scan monitor, 120 Mb HD, Microsoft mouse, MS DOS 5.0 and Microsoft Windows 3.0. This 486 machine is still cheaper than my original IBM PC that I purchased in 1984. The day after placing the order I faxed a confirmation letter to my Gateway salesman. The letter confirmed the product I ordered along with detail about possible refund, price guaranty, service and support as it was presented to me. I don’t mind telling you that was a lot of money and at 1st I was concerned. However, after reading reviews of Gateway products, seeing the Dun & Bradstreet rating of Gateway 2000, and hearing favorable comments from existing Gateway users within our user group, most of my concerns went away. Gateway promised that my PC would arrive in three weeks, which placed delivery around the 1st week of December. In actuality the PC was delivered in 11 days. The PC booted the 1st time and brought me into Microsoft Windows. Of course Gateway loaded DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0 before shipping. So far this has been a pleasant experience. The main reason for getting the PC was to get into the Windows environment and yet still have the option of installing OS/2 2.0 when it arrives. After copying all my data from my old PC, I loaded three new Windows product which I have never used. These included Corel Draw, Perform Pro and WordPerfect. It wasn’t long before that 120 MB drive was full. I decided to install Stacker V2.0 compression software to increase the drive capacity. In all, my disk space doubled to 240 MB for a cost of only $89 additional dollars. The only other problem I can see is that running Windows programs on a 14" screen is hard on the eyes. This is mainly due to the fact that data is displayed smaller than on a text based system.
My comments are not meant as an endorsement for Gateway 2000 products or that you should buy a 486 PC. You should determine your needs, budget and vendor comfort factor before you purchase.
From Marylee and me, we wish you and yours the best for the holidays and the coming new year. u