Re: Re Speaking of Linux

[Caballero Carlo.Caballero@xxxxxxxx]

Greetings. Please don't mistake what I write below for anything that
matters.

On Tue, 28 Oct 2003, Bob Molyneux wrote:

> system. It always gets down to applications. If you have to have the OED
> and it won't run on anything but Windows, that is that.

Of course, there's this interesting medium called the BOOK, and I find it
a reliable platform for consulting the OED.

>
> So, Mac it was.
>

I have XyWrite 3 and XyWrite 4 running on a Macintosh in my office; I
installed VPC (Virtual PC, by Connectix) to make this seeming miracle
happen. I mention this since VPC has come up in a vague way in a few
other recent E-mail messages. I think it is a nifty program, though the
manual left a lot to the imagination when it came to printing.

My own experience with Windows back in the early 1990s was decisive: it
sucked. And when I sit down at a machine that has its modern-day spawn, I
still shudder. I've stuck to DOS all these years, since all I do with my
main (DOS) machine is write books, articles, and letters--write, write,
write in XyWrite. For browsers, E-mail, spreadsheets, etc., I work from
the Mac. I don't need to use XyWrite on the Mac very often, but VPC makes
it possible when I need it.

I found out about VPC before Redmond bought it out, but a month or two
after Connectix stopped selling the DOS-only version (which cost something
like $70 instead of $270--the latter for software I had no desire to
emulate). So I bought a mint copy of VPC for DOS from a seller on E-Bay
in 2001. There are a few keyboarding glitches I haven't had the energy to
investigate (behavior of the arrow keys, page-up, page-down, and sometimes
the toggle between menu and text-area). I don't think these would be of
interest to this list, but if anyone wants to talk about them, I'd welcome
an off-list communication sometime.

> I still have five machines that can run XyWrite and a collection of
> operating systems so I can go back to DOS if necessary.
>

Bob, I'm glad to hear someone has the same excessive number of computers
to manage as I do! Two of mine are sort of "extras" awaiting their
special purpose in this world of binary woe. One day, I'll consolidate
and transfer, one day... Meanwhile, there are shirts with missing
buttons, too.


Cheers,
Carlo


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Carlo Caballero
Assistant Professor
College of Music, 301 UCB
The University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309 U.S.A.

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"Dickens was little read, except by the public." --Maurice Baring, "The
Nineties"