 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Your first computer Tom Coleman |
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We are talking about the general user. Not the specialist with some narrowly defined use for their computing. It is not really important whether you are going to be a home user or a business user. You must start at the bottom of the learning curve and make your way up.
So you make the decision to buy your first computer. What to you think you want to do with it.
Business uses seem to be the most popular reason to get into computing.
Word Processing must sell 80% of the first time computers. Which one of the dozen or so word processing packages you get probably will not make any difference. Most of the major packages are pretty good. So far as the first timer is concerned PC-Write is no better than Multimate. They both do more than the user can appreciate at the outset and it takes a few years experience to be able to discriminate amongst the features being offered. By this time you have become quite proficient with your first choice and cannot be bothered learning a new package because the differences are not sufficiently better
You will imagine that you want a Spreadsheet and Database too. Probably you can see an accounting package and a whole tribe of utilities as well. You can be sure that the salesman will tell you that LOTUS 123 will solve all your accounting and financial problems.
This a criminal. The first time a novice opens the 123 manual most of the cerebral fuses blow and the computer starts on the way to a shelf in the garage. No one should look at this kind of package until they have at least some idea of what computers are about and have attained that psychological plateau where they have an appreciation of how a computer thinks.
Then you think you would like some educational software for the kids (and maybe yourself when they are, not looking.)
This is a sad illusion. From the outside it looks as if the computer should be a great power in education but is is not. It should be but the present state of educational software is pathetic. In many cases the computer is no more that an electronic page turner.
The bulk of what is available is devoted to narrowly defined subject matter and once you have learned it it is useless. The cost of these packages is out of proportion to the use you get out of them.
The only thing computers are good for learning about is computing. In spite of the intellectual mystique that surrounds computing, it is for the vast majority of us, a hands on learning experience.
It is this mystique that give many users an intellectual flinch when it comes to playing games.
There is nothing wrong with games.
Computing can be a solitary pas-time. Games can turn it into a social event that involves everyone. They encourage those who would otherwise be intimidated by a computer to have a go, often with surprising consequences. Games have the power to turn resentment into curiosity that can lead everywhere.
Games are fun too.
In order to achieve any of these goals you need some minimum configuration. Remember that anything above the minimum needs some level of experience to be appreciated.
Computing is a very personal thing. The way I have my computer set up and the way I use it and what I choose to use it for, is a reflection of myself and my attitudes and preferences. The same applies to you and all computer users. It is prudent to look for the opinions of those with more experience but it is presumptuous of that experienced user to assume that the way they choose to use a computer is the best for everyone. Only salesmen do that.
By starting out with the bare bones and building up a machine as the needs are recognized it allows the capabilities of the computer to match the experience of the user. It allows the user to customize their computer as a reflection of themselves.
So just what do you need. A keyboard seems a good start. The novice cannot tell the difference between a "Tacky" keyboard and a "Springy" keyboard. When you first start into computing you don't know what 10 function keys are for, so having 12 is not going to do anything for you. All you want is a keyboard that works. Any more than that and you do not know know what you have got.
Any keyboard will do.
Having a keyboard is not much use unless you have a screen to look at but what kind of a screen.
If you think you are going to be locked in to word processing and that's all then there is no point in looking beyond a good mono screen.
However most users would like to have some graphics capability. This means either Hercules or CGA. Now there are many packages, especially games that will not run on a Hercules card. On the other hand CGA is terrible. It really is awful.
BUT CGA is not so bad that you cant read it. It is just ugly. CGA colour is rough and primitive and really not good value. You are no worse off with a composite green or amber screen. These are cheap and they keep your upgrade path open when you want to review the situation later in the light of your own experiences.
AN but what about EGA I hear someone cry. What about it. EGA is not good. Its just better than CGA, which is no achievement. Look at an Amiga or the Mac. Look at the Atari. Everywhere there are plenty of examples of good screen resolution. No! EGA is not good. VGA is starting to shape up but any upgrade beyond CGA is going to cost much bigger dollars. To purchase EGA will almost double the price of your unit.
The advantages of these higher resolution screens and the colour are not useable by the beginner. Having a VGA screen will not make you a better computer user nor will it accelerate you up the learning curve. At the beginning it offers no advantage except that it looks pleasingly different but it is not better.
A CGA/Composite green screen will do all you are going to be capable of doing for the first six months and probably will do you quite well until you trade the whole lot in on your next set up.
What kind of drives should you have in your first machine. There is certainly enough to choose from but look around and have a look at which disk format does everyone support. Its the 5.25in 360K floppy.
For sure the future will be largely three and a half inch drives but that is the future. It is not the present. At present Melb PC User Group supplies everything in 5.25. By special arrangement you can get three and a half and this is generally the case everywhere. You will find plenty of people who are having conflict with their three and a half inch disks but no one has difficulty with 5.25 unless they have invested in the future and collided with the present.
There is a good argument for getting a hard disk immediately. They really are a great improvement. Once you have used a hard disk you wonder how you ever managed before.
However you can do all that you want to do when you start out in computing with twin floppies. They are slow, they are an inelegant way to get things done. The floppy shuffle drives you crazy (especially when you put the wrong disk in and erase it) They are reliable.
Floppy disks are safe. They are so safe that they use them to back up hard disks which are notoriously unsafe. Hard discs are only cheaper than they used to be. They are not any more reliable.
Floppy disks are simple. Nothing to learn about swapping disks. Starting out with floppies means that there is less to learn to get going.
A hard disk should be the first upgrade but you can do all you want to do without it.
Finally there is the box. That's the beast with all the electronics inside. Part of those electronics is the memory. Almost all units come with 640 K of memory and have a turbo option. I don't know if you can buy a unit without a turbo these days.
You do see the odd offering of 256K but not often. You need 3Mk as a reasonable minimum. This will run most of the popular application programs and still allow you to load a few TSR programs such as Sidekick. It is only just enough and 640K is more realistic.
There all sorts of turbo options available. It seems that any more than 8 megs can get you into strife with some cards and peripherals not being capable of handling the increased speed.
Then you will get a multifunction card with a battery backed clock. These things seem to be a standard offering these days and it is usual for this to be part of the basic unit.
The advantages of the AT are lost on the first timer and there is no point in their spending the extra money on a machine with a 80286 chip in it when the 8088 chip will do everything they want to do.
There is a Chinese proverb which states that- "Living is a full stomach. All else is luxury". Maybe this can be applied to this bare bones entry into computing. What we have is -
- 640K
- Twin Floppies
- 8088
- CGA/Composite
With this configuration all your options are open. You are not locked into anything.
It will be through your own personal experience that you will come to identify what you want to improve your setup. You will be able to make informed decisions about your future.
All the time your equipment will be at least as capable as you are and you will not have to learn any more than is immediately functional.
The chances are that what you get when you start out, with only minor modification, will last you quite well until you are ready to purchase your next computer. When you do that you will know exactly what you want well in advance.
There is another reason for buying a barebones 8088 machine and not investing in any of the current flock of 80286 or 386 offerings.
Most generalized users and indeed many small business and some not so small business users cannot use the extra power of the 286 machines.
Remember the 286 machine is only a supercharged 8088. It still runs DOS with all of its limitations. The extra power that is inherent in the 286 was sacrificed in order to be able to run DOS. Unless you have a specialized application that can use some of the extra speed it offers no real advantage.
Now the 8088 is tried and true as is DOS, for all of its limitations. There is an enormous amount of support, experience, peripherals, software and knowledge out there, all centred on the 8088. It is offering a lot of security.
The end of the 286 era is in sight as is the end of the 8088. They will both fade away at about the same time.
The future will be the 80386 chip. This is here, now. There is a lot of confusion about this chip. There is a lack of a standard and a lack of direction but it is infinitely more capable than the 286.
It seems that PS/2 and OS/2 are at-tempts to breath life into a superseded chip. OS/2 will not run on any 386 machine other than the IBM PS/2 model 80 and is not set up to use the inherent capability of the 386.
It may be that the MCA will provide a standard for the future but not in PS/2. PS/2 and OS/2 could well finish up being something you have when you have an IBM but not what the rest of the world uses. Unless they have a need to plug into an IBM mainframe.
The field for a 386 operating sys-tem and a standardized architecture is wide open. There are a number of respectable contenders.
One of the good things about the 386 is that it has the capability to run DOS and OS/2 and Unix and Pick and all at the same time if necessary. Once a standard starts to emerge and software written for the 386 chip starts to become available many of these differences will vaporize.
Until then it maybe wiser to invest yourself in a secure present rather than in the uncertain future.
About the time that these uncertainties have resolved themselves you will be thinking of purchasing
your next machine and will by then be sufficiently computer literate to be able to make your own judgements.
Right now and the next few years are some of the most exciting and significant in the evolution of personal computing. Its great to be part of it and to be able to recognize it.
The present situation is now recognizable for what it is, just a period of transition where so many good ideas have come together so fast that they have fallen over one another and choked things up for a while. It will take another few years before it gets sorted out.
Meanwhile we should not be trying to look too far ahead. It would be easy to get caught going in the wrong direction. For now it is enough to maintain the status quo and stick with what we know.
Reprinted from the April 1988 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
