• Tag Archives Windows

  • PC World (July 1990)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source:  PC World – July 1990

    PC World was probably the most widely available PC Magazine throughout the 1990s and 2000s. At some point, they started covering more and more other consumer electronics stuff and it sort of lost appeal (at least to me) as a computer magazine. Page count was a fairly good way to judge how they were doing at at nearly 300 pages, it looks like they were doing quite well in 1990. The July 1990 issue includes:

    Previews

    • Windows Makes the Grade – A look at Windows 3.0. This was really the first version of Windows to start to become ubiquitous on PCs. My first PC had Windows 3.11.
    • HyperCard Meets Windows – A look at ToolBook, a HyperCard-like programming tool for Windows.
    • Windows 3.0 Quiets the Critics – Various software publishers like WordPerfect start supporting Windows but believe OS/2 will be the future…boy were they wrong.

    Reviews

    • Software You Can Really Use – A look at some of the best utilities including WindowDOS 3.0 (a DOS shell not to be confused with Windows 3.0), PC Tools, Norton Utilities, The Norton Commander, SpinRite II, Speed Disk, Fullback Plus, SideKick, and lots more.
    • Hard Disk Health Insurance – A comparison of hard drive recovery tools including Norton’s Disk Doctor, PC Tools’ DiskFix, and Mace Utilities 1990.
    • Making DOS Manageable – A round-up of DOS Shells including 1dir+ 3.03, Disk Director 1.06, Magellan 2.0, Norton Commander 3.0, PC Tools Deluxe 6.0, SoftBreeze 3.0, Tree86 3.2, and XtreePro Gold 1.4.
    • Disk Trouble? No, Thanks! – A round-up of nine utilities to tune up and troubleshoot your hard drive. Included in this review are Disk Optimizer 4.05, Optune 1.2, Mace Utilities 1990, Htest 3.0, The Norton Utilities Advanced Edition 4.5, PC-Kwik Power Disk 1.0, PC Tools Deluxe 6.0, SpinRite II, and Vopt 2.2.
    • No-Excuses Backup Software – A round-up of backup software. At the top of the list are Norton Backup and PC Tools.
    • Playing for Time: Five Personal Schedulers – A round-up of scheduling software including Calendar Creator Plus 3.0, Complete Calendar 2.5, PC Tools Deluxe 6.0, Reminders 2.1, and SideKick Plus 1.0.

    Features

    • Buyers’ Guide: Our Favorite Utilities – The editors of PC World pick their favorite utilities.
    • Souped-Up Word Processing – A buyer’s guide for tools for word processors. Product covered include Grammatik IV, Word for Word Professional 4.1, GrandView 1.01a, and others.
    • Spreadsheets With Extra Reach – Tools for spreadsheets including (at)BASE 2.22, RAR Worksheet Report Writer 1.0, Look&Link 1.1, Noteworth 1.01, Worksheet Utilities 1.01, Budget Express 1.0, Delta-Manager 1.0, Impress 2.0, Sideways 3.31, and more.
    • Time-Savers for Desktop Publishers – Utilities to make desktop publishing chores more efficient. Some utlities included here are MouseWare 1.0, The Soft Kicker Plus 2.0, PageMaker Portfolio, and others.
    • Communications Shareware: The People’s Choice – Tools to improve and make your online experience more efficient. These include TAPCIS 5.2, List 7.3d, PKZIP 1.10, Doorway 2.05, DSZ, E-Z Reader 1.24, MPt Protocol, and Viruscan 2.7V60.
    • Are You Satisfied With Your Software – A survey of what users would like to see in their software to make it easier to use.
    • Who Says Users Can’t Get No Satisfactions – PC World readers pick their favorite softare.

    How To

    • Instant Reference Card: Word Perfect – Keyboard shortcuts for Wordperfect 5.0 and 5.1.

    News

    • Top of the News – Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 released, IBM to introduce another home computer, Windows applications to run under OS/2, DOS 5.0 coming soon, and more.
    • Industry Outlook – Lotus and Novell mergers plans, Compaq expands into peripherals, AT&T markets office software called Rahpsody based on HP’s NewWave, censorship on Prodigy, and more.
    • Product Outlook – A brief look at new products including the PC-6220 laptop from Sharp, PC Power and Cooling Inner Source 2210 combination power supply and UPS, new Tandy systems (2800 HD, 4033 LX, 4016 DX, 4016 SX, 2500 XL), 1.44 MB floppy drives for Next systems, and more.

    Perspectives

    • Richard Laundry – An editorial on why Windows is here to stay.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about FCC regulations, Excel vs. Lotus 1-2-3, modem usage, and more.

    Departments

    • The Help Screen – Help with formatting 720k disks on 1.44MB drives, dual booting DOs and OS/2, memory prices, ASCII file readers, scientific word processors, and more.
    • Consumer Watch – Deciding whether or not to upgrade your software.
    • Taking it Home – Taking your home office on the road with a Toshiba T1000 and SideKick Plus.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana DOS 📎and tagged

  • PC World (January 1990)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Computer & Video Game Magazines – PC World – January 1990 – – Cover

    PC World was one of the most widely read PC magazines in the U.S. In 1990, if you were buying a PC it would have probably been 386 based. A few years later I would be buying a 486 DX2-66. The January 1990 issue of PC World includes:

    Previews

    • HP’s EISA Breakthrough – HP’s Vectra 486 was the first PC to feature EISA slots. EISA was the first standard industry response to IBM’s Micro Channel. EISA was a 32-bit superset of ISA and ISA cards would work in EISA slots. However, EISA was relatively expensive and was never popular on consumer desktop PCs. They were mostly used for SCSI cards in servers. VLB and later PCI would eventually take its place. The Vectra 486 here featured a 25-MHz 486 CPU, supported up to 64MB or RAM, had room for six 5.25″ half-height drives, and included either a 150MB or 320MB 15ms SCSI drive. It would set you back between $13,999 and $16,999.
    • Super Servers – Several servers had been announced at this point that supported EISA including the Zenith Z-386/33E, the NEC 25-MHz 486 based PowerMate 486/25E, NEC 33-MHz 386 based PowerMate 386/33E, the multi-CPU Systempro from Compaq (a $15,999 machine but the article notes that it supports up to 256MB of RAM which cost about $176,000 at the time), the Deskpro 486/25, and more.
    • Can EISA Live UP to the Micro Channel’s Potential? – A comparison of the implementation and technical capabilities of EISA vs Micro Channel.
    • Breaking the Board Barrier – A look at the first wave of EISA boards. These mostly consist of drive controllers.
    • Word Meets Windows – A preview of Microsoft’s long awaited Word for Windows.

    Reviews

    • Micro Channel Clones Flunk the Test – A look at four non-IBM systems that support Micro Channel. Models looked at include the American Mitac’s MPS 22386 and NCR’s 386SX (featuring the 16-MHz 80386SX) as well as the Tandy 5000MCA and Grid’s 386MCA (featuring the 20-MHz 80386 CPU). The conclusion here is that they were a lot of extra money for not much extra benefit and often have compatibility problems.
    • Lotus’s Sensible Upgrade – A look at Release 2.2 of Lotus 1-2-3 which was an update to 2.01 that was lighter on resources and your wallet that release 3.
    • Fax Boards for Fast Times – Eventually pretty much all modems would have fax capability but at this time Fax boards were their own separate thing and some didn’t even have regular modem capabilities. Products reviewed here include the AT&T Fax Connection, The Complete Fax/9600, Datacopy MicroFax, GammaLink GammaFax CP, Intel Connection CoProcessor, and Panasonic FX-BM89 Plus 2. Prices range from $599 to $1295.

    News

    • Top of the News – Lotus debuts beta version of 1-2-3 for OS/2, Compaq launches high-end server with Micro Channel support, bugs found in early versions of i486 processor, and more.
    • Industry Outlook – A look at what vendors pay for PC parts, Lotus still dominates Spreadsheet Market despite Excel gains, desktop and laptop prices compared, and more.
    • Product Outlook – A look at new an upcoming products including the IBM Laserprinter 4019, NEC Intersect CDR-35 (first portable CD-ROM), NEC ProSpeed CSX (color portable), AST FASTboard 486/25 (upgrade your AST 386 based system with a 486), and much more. Except for color, the NEC Intersect CDR-35 looks exactly like the TurboGrafx-CD. Of course, they were both make by NEC so I guess that makes sense.
    • Update – The latest updates of existing software including Applause II, DynaComm 2.1, Micrografx Designer 3.0, XtreePro Gold, Lotus Spreadsheet for DeskMate, DeskMate Q&A Write, and Peachtree Complete III.

    Features

    • Software’s Next Wave: Putting the User First – The promise of intuitive applications in the age of high-powered hardware and easy-to-use interfaces.
    • Next: The Programmer’s Dream Machine – A brief look at the Next machine. It was not itself a commercial success but its OS would eventually morph into Apple’s OS X.
    • User-Friendly Programming: The Manager’s Perspective – Managers look for ways to reduce the burden of training and development.

    How To

    • Do-It-Yourself Menus with Norton Utilities – How to create custom menus with Norton Utilities.
    • Tips & Techniques – Command-line tips and tricks for DOS users, how to create better WordPerfect macros, various application tips and a primer on Paradox Application Language.

    Perspectives

    • Richard Landry – The difficulties of creating software that takes advantage of the latest power hardware while not leaving users of existing PCs behind.
    • Letters – Letters from readers expressing doubt about the necessity of the 486, Windows and excessive resource usage, Microsoft Word and mouse support, WordPerfect vs. WordStar, LAN E-Mail, and more.
    • Another Angle – How the PC represents a revolutionary advancement not in terms of its increasing power but in the applications that are written for it.

    Departments

    • The Help Screen – Questions answered about replacing the clock battery in an Epson Equity III+ (or any computer for that matter), configuring extra memory in an IBM PC, converting Word Perfect macros between versions, and more.
    • Windows Journal – In a battle of word processors for Windows, who will win? Samna’s Ami or Microsoft’s Word? I think we all know the answer to that…
    • Network Q&A – Questions answered about using a fax gateway vs. individual fax boards.

    …and more!


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  • Digital Archaeology: Gateway M-1629

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    When looking at another Gateway laptop almost exactly like this one in appearance I pondered when exactly when Gateway’s quality started to decline. I think it may have been with Core 2 Duo era laptops. While previous Pentium M and Turion 64 laptops (nearly identical in construction) may have lost some of the excitement of earlier models, they at least seemed pretty solid and of decent quality. The Turion based laptop I’m looking at here, while it has an attractive silver and red design, it also has a flimsier feeling keyboard and buttons. Still, I would say it holds up better than Dell Inspiron models of similar age.

    The Gateway M-1629 I am looking at here has the following features:

    • CPU: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 @ 2GHz
    • Memory: 3 GB DDR2-666/PC2-5300
    • Video: Radeon Xpress 1270M
    • Screen: 1280×800
    • Hard Drive: Western Digital ATA WDC WD3200BPVT-6 (320 GB)
    • Optical Drive: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7560A

    Check out the output of HardInfo for a more complete look at the hardware.

    This is a lower-end laptop. The CPU is an AMD model which tended to be put in lower end machines because they were cheaper. However, this particular model is quite a bit faster than a similar Pentium (Core 2 Duo variant) laptop I looked at recently. Of course, the Pentium is typically clocked lower and has less cache than a Core 2 Duo. MHz for MHz a Core 2 Duo will be faster but also more expensive. The Turion 64 X2 is based on the K8 architecture so it is essentially the same thing as an Athlon 64 X2 only designed for laptops. The CPU is socketed so theoretically it could be upgraded to a TL-68 model running at 2.4GHz.

    The video hardware is also low end. The Radeon Xpress 1270M is integrated with the chipset and shares system memory. I suppose it is technically a little better than the equivalent Intel solutions at the time but it hardly matters. Neither was sufficient for what would have been modern gaming at the time.

    Vista was the version of Windows that shipped with this laptop. I’m not sure if it was the 32-bit or 64-bit version. It seems like the 32-bit version was typically included as the default install because 64-bit drivers were somewhat less available. Some users likely would have downgraded to Windows XP as well assuming drivers exist to support the hardware. Windows 7 and/or Windows 8 are probably the best choices for a Microsoft OS for this laptop. Any of those are fine for retro use but if you really plan to use it in a modern context then Linux would be the best choice.

    With a low-ish end CPU and a video solution that is near the bottom of the barrel, this was definitely a laptop for bargain hunters. Still, having two cores and a 64-bit processor it is really still good enough to run a modern OS. The cap of 4GB of RAM is actually the biggest limitation. Windows 10 really does better with 8 GB, especially when the rest of your hardware is already low end. However, I’m running a modern version of Xubuntu and it does fine. Web browsing is problematic because modern web browsers are such memory hogs. However, if you stick to 1 or 2 tabs then it is usable, if not exactly snappy. For some reason Firefox, the default browser in Xubuntu, is extremely laggy and seems to constantly eat CPU cycles. Brave does quite a bit better and there are lighter browsers available.

    It’s also still good enough to run BOINC and most projects, at least the ones I am most interested in. You can see how it is doing in Einstein@home, Asteroids@home, and Universe@home or see how it is doing overall at FreeDC.

    The photo at the top and the specs image were taken from The Gateway Computers Wiki. The other images are from the user manual.


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