Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!midway!gargoyle!chinet!chaz
From: chaz@chinet.chi.il.us (Charlie Kestner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: User Hostile
Keywords: ibm, gutman, user friendly
Message-ID: <1991Jan21.020223.14707@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 21 Jan 91 02:02:23 GMT
References: <2798af36-243dcomp.ibmpc@point.UUCP>
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Lines: 43

In article <2798af36-243dcomp.ibmpc@point.UUCP> akcs.bill@point.UUCP (Bill Wolff) writes:
>Well there is a fear that I felt that was coming for the IBM software
>line. Unlike other computers, IBM doesn't come with standard memory, disk
>drives, or even video cards. This means no two will very likely to be the
>same. This creates a problem when writing software. Which in short, one
>must try to cover all the bases.
> 
>What inspired this article was after reading Dan Gutman's article titled
>"User-Hostile." User-Hostile, what is that? That means instead of things
>getting easier for computer users, they are getting harder.
> 
>Case in point! Dan mentions the new computer game "King's Quest V" by
>Sierra Online for example. The new release contains five different
>versions and this is only for the IBM computers. It appears you can get a
>EGA, VGA (3.5), VGA (5.25), CD-ROM, and low density disk versions.
> 
>"In the past we've been able to support all the various hardware
>configurations of the IBM PC without publishing separate versions," says
>Sierra president Ken Williams.  "This is no longer possible."
> 
>Dan goes on to mention "It reminds me of a scene in the movie 'Moscow On
>The Hudson.' Robin Williams played a Russian musician who defects to
>America and is faced with so many different brands of coffee that he
>passes out on the supermarket floor. It's not likely that customers will
>be passing out in computer stores, but the store managers might. They
>don't want to stock nine versions of every piece of software."
> 
>I can only guess what the future will bring? What happens to ones
>software when they upgrade a video or drive unit? Does this mean they
>have to upgrade the software too? <BW>


  The reason they say they can't support this, is that they don't want
to.
  Regular EGA modes are subsets of VGA modes, thus VGA displays them too.
  It's simple (and cheap) to package BOTH 5.25" AND 3.5" disks in the
same box.
  It'd be silly for any software house to attempt to distribute a
single product, that is upgradeable, on CD-ROM.  The CD-ROM market is
still VERY small, and I've never heard of any user of a PC that DIDN'T
have a floppy drive in it unless it's a diskless workstation.
  The guy's comments about "not being able to support" it are utter
bullshit.