Subject: Re: Older wordprocessing software

From: Jules Richardson<[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Jul 9 19:48:08 2003

> > Windows 3.11
> 1. Replace Windows with an operating system. E.g. Linux or NetBSD.
> (Especially the later runs very well on older hardware with non-GHz CPUs
> and only a few MB RAM.) 
> You may skip this step if you are not willing to wrap your head around
> Unix. 

Ahh, been there though. I did run Linux on this very same laptop for a while -
I believe it was AbiWord I used as a basic GUI-based wordprocessor for my
scribbles. 

At the time, one problem was the lack of CDROM drive on the machine for getting
 any large software onto it. The only parallel-port drive I had access to was a
Microsolutions Backpack, and no matter what I tried it refused to work with
Linux. No problems there under DOS / Win311.

Second problem was one of performance - the linux distributions that were
around a couple of years ago tended to be aimed at slightly faster hardware. I
do still have old distributions lying around back to around 1994 or so (I
remember the days of SLS on 50 or so floppies - it was always guaranteed *one*
of the disks would be dead, usually near the end of the pile :) but then I'd
have all sorts of compatibility problems with any modern software. Alternately
I could trim down a more modern version of Linux - but that's a lot of effort
for something that just gets used for casual note-taking now and then.

Third problem is also performance-related, and down to the time it takes Linux
- or any modern MS operating system - to start up and shut down. If I just want
to spend a couple of minutes typing some notes, I don't want to be taking the
same length of time waiting for the machine to boot and then shut down again at
the end. With DOS / Win311 the startup and shutdown is extremely quick.

Maybe there's a version of NetBSD that gets round the second problem, but I bet
it still takes a lot longer than DOS/Windows does to boot and shut down. 

> I used several WYSIWYG text processing software at that time
> (WordPerfect, AmiPro, StarWriter, ...) and they all sucked. 

Wordperfect 6.0 I assume, 5.1 not being particularly WYSIWYG as I recall :-) 
And yes, from memory 6.0 did suck; all these posts have reminded me of all the
wordprocessing software I'd forgotten about. I used to use 5.1 a *lot* under
DOS until I started running Windows 3 on the PC I had back then.

I have a horrible feeling the negative thing I vaguely recall about Ami Pro was
its stability, at least in the version I had :-( Maybe there were later
releases with the problems ironed out, or it was just some odd problem with the
machine I had back then. If I can trace a copy then I'll find out I suppose...

Someone mentioned DisplayWrite too - arghh! That had totally faded from my
memory. My father's work made it their standard for a while; I should have
access to a copy in theory but I have no plans to try and track that one
down...  :-)

cheers

Jules

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---

From: [email-masked] (Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner)
Date: Sun Jul 13 19:12:06 2003

> Linux. No problems there under DOS / Win311.

  Heh.  I ran into this a few years ago when I received a laptop (486, 4M
RAM, 120M harddrive):

	http://boston.conman.org/1999/12/13.4
	http://boston.conman.org/1999/12/14.1-15.1
	http://boston.conman.org/2000/01/06

  It took several days, but I was able to get Linux (a drastically
lobotomized installation of RedHat 5.2) onto the laptop.  I think the entire
process went something like:

	boot laptop with Tom's Rootboot disk.  It barely ran in 4M of RAM
and about the only tools I had on *that* system were bash, dd and fdisk.  I
also had a full Linux installation on another system.  Generally, I made
disk images on the primary Linux system, tarred and compressed them onto a
floppy, then untarred, uncompressed and dd'ed on the laptop.  Rince. 
Lather.  Repeat.  For the better part of a day. 

> for something that just gets used for casual note-taking now and then.

  Heh, that is if you can still find an older Linux distribution that's
installable.  The reason I went the route I did was that RedHat 5.2 required
16M RAM just for the install, and the *oldest* Slackware version required 8M
RAM.  

> the end. With DOS / Win311 the startup and shutdown is extremely quick.

  Well, clean up the boot-time scripts and you can cut the boot time down
tremendously.  

> it still takes a lot longer than DOS/Windows does to boot and shut down. 

  True, you can just shut the machine down under DOS while you have to shut
down a Unix system---although again, if you clean up the boot-time scripts
you can cut that time to a minimum.

  -spc (Been there, done that, probably won't do it again 8-)