Re: Microsoft at Columbia University

["Erick Andrews" <eandrews@star.net>]

  On Thu, 13 Nov 1997 13:42:52 -0500 (EST), Louis Proyect wrote:
  
  >Just had an interesting chat with the techie in charge of microcomputer
  >support at Columbia. I was having problems printing because the Microsoft
  >network client doesn't work properly when there is heavy traffic. He
  >disabled it and I am using the Novell client instead.
  >
  >He says that the new pricing schedule that MS has instituted for
  >educational institutions represents a major hit. He also said that he
  >despises MS software himself and tries to avoid it at all costs. He says
  >that Microsoft Office installations fail 30% of the time, a shockingly high
  >incident rate.
  >
  >By the way, speaking of Microsoft applications, is it just me or is there
  >something really messed up with the way that the mouse functions on
  >high-powered pc's using WIN95 in at least two respects:
  >
  >1) when you insert the cursor in the middle of a sentence, it will often
  >highlight the entire sentence when this is not intended.
  >
  >2) when you scroll forward using the mouse from one page to the next, you
  >lose control over the speed of the scrolling and you shoot forward to the
  >end of the document.
  >
  >If I released custom-written software to my users at Columbia that was this
  >missed up, I would lose my job. Meanwhile, MS makes billions. Something's
  >wrong here.
  >
  >Louis Proyect
  >
  Windows95 has documented "memory leak" problems that many technical
  people are expecting to be "fixed" with the release of Windows98.  I am
  not aware of any interim fix or workaround for these problems, but then
  you will rarely find me surfing 'www.microsoft.com'.
  
  Your cursor issue:  perhaps your application has a "smart cursor" feature.
  If so, turn it off.  I don't like my computer applications to do all my thinking
  for me; and I don't like "barking dogs" suggesting to me that I don't know
  what I'm doing when I bumped the mouse.
  
  Your scrolling issue:  I have no an immediate idea to fix it.  If it were running
  OS/2, I would.  OS/2 has a "lie list" and if it were an MS app, I'd lie to it.
  
  I hope we're not off topic here by getting too technical, but there is something
  very wrong:  poorly written software.  At the risk of using an often heard quote 
  by OS/2 users:  
  
  "Windows95 is 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 
  8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor, written by a 
  2 bit company, that can't stand 1 bit of competition."
  
  Regrets to give the proper credit,
  
  Erick Andrews