Re: "The Best Software...." and local support

[Daniel Say say@xxxxxxxx]

" 	"My friend Marion, who chairs the department of nutrition at New York
" University and has been a dedicated computer user for 16 years, can hardly
" be described as a techno-phobe. But she does have a
" technology problem: upgrade resistance," writes Charles Piller in today's
" Los Angeles Times.
" 	"In 1983, Marion adopted the word processor XyWrite, once a market
" contender but nowadays of interest primarily to computer-trivia buffs."
" 	In an article headed "The Best Software Is the Kind You Know How to Use,"
" Piller details Marion's struggles to stay with XyWrite in a hostile world.
" Finally, it's too much for her.
" 	"In 1996 she upgraded to a Windows computer, ending her love affair with
" XyWrite; the Windows version was a Microsoft Word look-alike."
" 	"Even now, there isn't a single thing that gets done on Word that goes
" faster than I could do with XyWrite," Marion is quoted as saying. "It
" brings me to tears when I'm in a bad mood."
"
" Piller's article can be read at
" http://www.latimes.com/HOME/BUSINESS/t000118403.1.html
"
" Richard A. Sherer
" Computer Trivia Buff and active XyWrite user
"
-------------
	But it was local (Non)-support at the worksite hat
	made up her mind to join the MS-word-windows masses.
..... quote

"  I gave up on xy-write after someone in
" technical support--who had never used III+--was totally condescending. At
" that point, I knew I would have to switch to MicrosoftWord because there
" were people around who used it and could explain how it worked.
" Marion Nestle
" Department of Nutrition and Food Studies " New York University
" 	E-mail: marion.nestle@xxxxxxxx
"
-------------- end quote

	
	When you can't find local persons to help with
	DOS or odd Windows wordprocessors at the worksite
	for integration with the software and hardware
	that they require of you, why bother.

	We've just been forcibly converted, badly, to
	Windows NT, for the reason that they can control
	it. Windows 31 and 95 were all-over-the-place
	but they can control WinNT and set it up better
	with a pseudo-Unix.

	Xywrite works under it, but one has to be careful
	where and what they've put the ugly-configured
	printers.

	And despite WinNT, most of the work is done in
	text-mode telnet sessions. Sheeesh.

	But XYTextmode lets you get the work done and
	most veterans have accumulated a lot of specialized
	SPL dictionaries with abbreviation expansion
	and macros for doing real work--creation of text
	faster and better than those taking their hands
	off the keyboard to stroke the rodent.

				Daniel Say,
				pasting XYfile to elm
				under OS/2, Yowzza!!