Windows 10 - free upgrade to those with PC using Windows 7 or 8

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

OS/2 was quite nice, the problem was IBM was more realistic up front about the memory requirements, so it was perceived as much more expensive.

It *was* more expensive.
Not everybody sprung for all those upgrades. Not everybody needed full-spec OS/2 functionality. (Just as today there are people just fine with netbooks and 1GB WinTabs.)
That was the real reason for the split.

Entire swaths of users, especially in small business thrived on 1 and 1.5 MB systems. There were still tons of installations using PCs as word processors/terminal emulators.
(And even if they did, it was installment payment buying. )

OS/2 fans always reminded me of pascal and smalltalk users.
More recently, epub evangelists.

The real world wants quick, cheap solutions, not elegance, or specmanship.

As Adam Osbourne used to harp on: "Adequacy is sufficient."
Win 3.11 was adequate.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

I

The real world wants quick, cheap solutions, not elegance, or specmanship.

Netware (OK, not real cheap) Solid

I would run into people rebuilding their crashed NT server installation all the time.

Me, I would punch the KVM over to my NW4.2 server once every quarter or so, just to see if there was any log entries

[wodin]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

As Adam Osbourne used to harp on: "Adequacy is sufficient."

Or as immortalized in that old Klingon proverb "The perfect is the enemy of the good enough."

[Jack Torrance]

It only took about 5 evenings of updating and now after almost 200 b updates totaling about 1.5 gbs my laptop is back to square one but with W10 pending. At this point I'll bypass the beta testing and just wait until the end of July for the next one.

Now I can start fixing my desktop.

[Apache]

Win 3.0 was so buggy that MS had to quickly replace it with 3.1.
Apache

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Apache

Win 3.0 was so buggy that MS had to quickly replace it with 3.1.
Apache

Essentially from the first release of Windows through WfW 3.11, it was like we were all part of the MS dev team, getting to take part in their debug and build cycles!

Good times.

(Looking back at release dates, it was actually a very long time between 3.0 and 3.1. Almost 2 years, longer than between most other releases of the period.)

[Apache]

Originally Posted by ApK

Essentially from the first release of Windows through WfW 3.11, it was like we were all part of the MS dev team, getting to take part in their debug and build cycles!

Good times.

(Looking back at release dates, it was actually a very long time between 3.0 and 3.1. Almost 2 years, longer than between most other releases of the period.)

I hate getting old.
Apache

[bullet]

Originally Posted by wodin

Or as immortalized in that old Klingon proverb "The perfect is the enemy of the good enough."

I remember the notion that "Rational men satisfice" from a MIT Press text used in a course I took many years ago. It stuck with me. Here's a link to the text today

http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Statis.../dp/047138349X

More on satisficing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing

At the time (well before Gore invented the internet) it was referred to as the excellent but expensive Wiley Series. I still have the original MIT Press text. The hardback was expensive for a graduate student at the time but certainly not $106, the cost of the Wiley Series paperback today.

fjtorres Thank you for the clarification/expansion on the MS-IBM wars. Your memory and knowledge exceed mine.

[bullet]

Originally Posted by theducks

Is this the Old Computer farts home
I came from (hardware support) a mainly DEC PDP-Unix, IBM 308x and Later Sun 3's house.

I like the idea of an Old Computer Farts Home. It is good to be alive.

I knew ChemEs doing process control work with PDPs. I also remember holding 80 column cards in an 029 IBM keypunch machine to achieve an accounting overpunch for debit/credit for somebody's COBOL program. All running on an IBM DOS machine with removable diskpacks.

Good to be alive.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by bullet

I like the idea of an Old Computer Farts Home. It is good to be alive.

I knew ChemEs doing process control work with PDPs. I also remember holding 80 column cards in an 029 IBM keypunch machine to achieve an accounting overpunch for debit/credit for somebody's COBOL program. All running on an IBM DOS machine with removable diskpacks.

Good to be alive.

I visited at the http://www.computerhistory.org/ a few years back when they had a working Babbage engine on display.
As I walked thru the other exibits, I woud say "We had one of those (at work)", over and over and over (But we never had that Cray )

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by bullet

fjtorres Thank you for the clarification/expansion on the MS-IBM wars. Your memory and knowledge exceed mine.

It helps to have period references:

Like Wikipedia.

And:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Microsoft-.../dp/020132797X

The origins of Encarta are particularly interesting.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by theducks

I visited at the http://www.computerhistory.org/ a few years back when they had a working Babbage engine on display.
As I walked thru the other exibits, I woud say "We had one of those (at work)", over and over and over (But we never had that Cray )

I wouldn't be surprised if someone here worked with Babbage .

For myself, I can lay claim to having built and worked with the first abacus .

[murg]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

I wouldn't be surprised if someone here worked with Babbage .

I was engaged to Ada at one point...

[murg]

Originally Posted by Apache

I hate getting old.
Apache

I now what you mean...

Damn kids, now a days...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by murg

I was engaged to Ada at one point...

Lucky dog.
She was quite the looker.
And smart.
A bit OCD, though.