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From: csr@druxw.UUCP (RoushCS)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: PCs for Mainland China
Message-ID: <1296@druxw.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Mar-86 19:27:44 EST
Article-I.D.: druxw.1296
Posted: Fri Mar 28 19:27:44 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Apr-86 07:36:15 EST
References: <1487@mhuxt.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
Lines: 60

I am posting a follow-up because I thought others might be interested.
> 
> Does anyone have experience with PCs in China? A friend of mine is a
> Physics professor there and is looking to upgrade from his 4 yr old Apple 2.
> I would have no trouble giving advice to someone in his position in this
> country, but we are very spoiled here. Basically he needs something with a
> Fortran compiler (when his University finally got a "mainframe" a couple of
> grad students wrote a Basic compiler for it to run the various pieces of code
> that had been written for the Apple 2!) and relability. The Apple has been
> very good having 0 problems (they run it from truck batteries and an inverter).
> He told me of a horror story about a friend who bought a PC in this country
> last year, only to have it die in China. Getting it to the closest repair
> depot has proven to have been impossible.
> 
> Steve Crandall
> ihnp4!mhuxt!evans

I am fuzzy about what you are asking, but I won't let my confusion stop
me from answering.  My experience: 3 weeks last year in China on an
"Office Automation" tour.

My questions:
- What is this man's background?  What operating systems, editors, ... does
  he know.  What is he capable/willing to learn?
- Where does he expect to buy the computer?  In China?
- How much money does he have available?  Internal or external currency?
- What is wrong with the Apple?  What does he really need/want in the
  way of hardware (processor, main memory, hard disk, floppy, .......)
  and software?
- What does he need in the way of Chinese character processing?  Or will
  he do everything in "English".

My answers:
- People with "hard" money (foreign exchange or actual $s) can buy IBM PCs
  or Olvetti M24s (6300s) or maybe even bootleg 3B2s (AT&T international
  was unhappy about that).  (IBM PC costs ~ $10,000-20,000 !!!)
- Software is harder to get.  There are Chinese-character versions of
  MS-DOS & DBASE II (unauthorized, I believe) available all over,
  but not much else.  (No copyright law in China, so don't give them
  anything you don't want copied!)
- Maintenance is something else!  Obviously there are very bright people
  in China, but there is no high-tech infrastructure.  They can maintain
  1 computer (maybe), but not hundreds.  They do not seem to operate 
  computers day-in and day-out.  One shift only, and even then machines sit
  idle (or in HALT state).  No preventative maintenance.  No maintenance
  of any kind.  It is common to see dusty computer rooms & I was told that
  filters on disk drives were not cleaned.  (Beijing is very dusty)!
- I would suggest a quality machine (AT&T/Olvetti or IBM) and good
  "cleanliness" practices.
p.s.  We heard that lots of the PCs they already had were unused.  Remember,
   they can't use our word processing packages.
p.p.s  The common media for data communication are the floppy disk and the
   bicycle..... First copy onto floppy, then give to messenger - who
   bikes across town.  They couldn't even concieve of using the phone system
   for moving data.  When I tried to make a phone call I found out why.

steve roush
AT&T Information Systems - Denver
druhi!csr  or  druxw!csr
303-538-4860