Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!optilink!cramer
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Paradise Autoswitch EGA 350 card and Win 3.0
Summary: y
Message-ID: <5809@optilink.UUCP>
Date: 28 Feb 91 00:03:05 GMT
References: <1991Feb23.195243.21117@potomac.ads.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
Lines: 53

In article <1991Feb23.195243.21117@potomac.ads.com>, baugh@potomac.ads.com (Follower of Chaos) writes:
> I've just gotten Windows 3.0, and have nothing but headaches
> trying to install it.  First it did some funky stuff about 3/4's of
> [problems, problems, problems]
> through the setup and then of course, crapola.  Damn.  Anybody else
> got an idea before I turn my computer into a boat anchor?  We're
> -- 
> 	Earl D. Baugh Jr.

In brief, the problems that Mr. Baugh is having (and the completely
different, but just as frustrating problems that I am having), are
the reason to buy a Macintosh, not a PC.

I really, really like Windows -- when it works.  If there were a 
smaller number of hardware configurations out there, it would 
probably work as well as the Mac.  But there are so many BIOS 
versions (not all of which work with Windows), so many graphics 
cards, which seem to work just fine with every non-Windows 
program known, and the infamous DMRDVR.BIN problem, that's 
it's hard to let my enthusiasm for Windows overcome my anger 
at the fingerpointing and general inability to get Windows to 
just install and WORK!  (I suppose if I weren't a software
engineer, with over 10 years experience in pulling chips,
fiddling with configurations, and dealing with complexity,
it would be even worse).

At this point I have invested at least five hours of time into
fiddling with CONFIG.SYS, reinstalling Windows, talking to
Microsoft Customer Support, talking to Club American Technologies
Customer Support, installing new BIOS ROMs, and I still have a
system that can't use extended memory.  Increasingly, I toy with
the idea of backing up all my stuff, translating the stuff I
regularly use to the Mac, and buying a Mac -- except that my
AT clone is worth so little that it won't buy much of a Mac.

I can understand when a small company doesn't have the resources
to test their software on every obscure BIOS version, graphics
card, and memory board out there -- but damn it, Microsoft has 
enormous resources, and they aren't even trying!  To add insult
to injury, if Microsoft had included a list of BIOS versions
known to fail with extended memory and Windows, I would have
wasted a lot less time than I have, because I would have upgraded
my BIOS immediately.

I'm so sick of fighting this hopeless struggle, that I'm losing
interest in Windows.


-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer
"Well, maybe the Holocaust was right *for that culture*." -- a moral relativist
with whom I work.
You must be kidding!  No company would hold opinions like mine!