Re: DOS, was Re: Ada Tutor Web Site Shutting Down

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"Georg Bauhaus" <rm.dash-bauhaus@futureapps.de> wrote in message 
news:4dcc5c75$0$6891$9b4e6d93@newsspool2.arcor-online.net...
...
> MS Word on DOS is one example.  It has qualities which I have
> had to learn and to explain to a few uninitiated. It has been
> a major headache for many, many users of DOS computers.
>   ESC - transfer - load:
> it takes a computer savvy person to actually understand and explain
> what these notions are referring to.  Yet MS sold it to the masses
> They wouldn't need to write software for the masses' skill level.
> The masses got used to the qualities of programs like MS Word.
> In part because they did not have to pay for the software.

I don't think MS-Word was ever available on plain MS-DOS. You might be 
thinking of Wordstar or Wordperfect (separate programs by other companies 
that had many fans).

Anyway, you are getting to my pet peeve here: an OS has absolutely nothing 
to do with the quality of the user experience. No one outside of programmers 
should be using an OS at all! What matters to the ordinary user is the 
programs running on top of the OS.

Stuff like GUIs have nothing whatsoever to do with the OS and should not be 
considered part of it. Perhaps it makes sense to *sell* these things as a 
bundle, but they don't have much too do with the OS.

                    Randy.