Re: Re Speaking of Linux [OED]

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Caballero  on Tue, 28
Oct 2003 22:04:06 -0700 (MST)

Carlo:

>> 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.

I know that medium; I've owned the OED First Edition + 1933 Supplement since
1967 (US$2700, if I remember correctly, way back then -- a LOT of money), and
acquired the four New Supplements as they appeared (1972-1986). Beyond
"reliable", so [self-]satisfying to open those staggeringly erudite volumes.
You imagine yourself ensconced in a carrel with Murray, Onions, and all the
philological giants.

And today, the 20 volume Second Edition is only $895!

But, you know, the BOOK doesn't make sense anymore. You've got a lot of
reading to do if you want to Search for a word/phrase/quotation through 20
volumes. Electronically, it's instantaneous. The OED on CD interacts with
XyWrite (and many other apps) smoothly (with a little programming magic). The
satisfaction of handling the greatest book in the English language is absent,
and I feel the enormity of the loss; but speed and ease and immediacy do
compensate. On Ebay, at this moment, there's a bid going on for the OED Second
Edition v1.10 CD at a "Buy It Now" price of $99.99 -- it may sell for much less
(http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=3634258275). The OED
on CD is a terrific deal. Especially v1 of the Second Edition CD, now out of
print, but the best version by far.

And incidentally, the v1 CD _does_ run on a Mac
(http://www.oup.co.uk/sit/oedmac.sea). Moreover, you can install it to a Mac
hard disk using an image file -- a fairly simple and common procedure in the
Mac world. I've also gotten v1 to run on Win98SE, WinNT, Win2K, WinXP, and
OS/2 -- I have at least one machine running it under each OpSys (two on XP, by
the way -- I often read ridiculous claims that XP can't run OED v1).

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

No mistake -- it matters.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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