I still have my Windows 3.1 installation floppy disks somewhere.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave" <dlh007@centurylink.net>
To: <main@TechTalk.groups.io>
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2017 11:23 PM
Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Window Eyes to Be Phased Out

Word Perfect? Man, I haven't heard of that program in years!
However, the one thing that the old Word Perfect 5.1 has going for it is
that it is old enough not to need to be Authorized by the use of an
Internet Connection, Unlike MS Office since Office 2000.

I still own and prefer using Office 2003, but decided to not install it,
because I did not believe Microsoft would Authorize its install and use.

And as long as the User is running a 32 bit edition of MS Windows, then
maybe, just maybe, that old Word Perfect copy can be installed and ran.
However, that old Word Perfect program will not be installed into MS
Windows 7, 8 or 10, if those versions are 64 bit.

16 bit programs tend not to run in 64 bit operating systems.

For what it is worth, at one time, Word Perfect was the Top Word
Processor used, much like MS Word is today. Sadly, Word Perfect is no
longer on top, and is only around to this day for who knows what reasons.
I rarely see anyone using it these days.


I once regularly attended Software Developer meetings, where loads of
software companies would meet to Inform each other of new solutions for
common Development problems. Someone related the News that Word Perfect
had put all of its energy into writing a nice new fancy Word Perfect
Word Processor for IBM's new operating system called OS 2.

OS 2 turned out to be a lot to do about Nothing, as OS 2 was a Flop, and
because OS 2 did not replace Microsoft's offering for an Operating
System, the makers of Word Perfect had nothing to offer when MS Windows
became popular. And of course, Microsoft advantage of the Vacuum
and pushed its early version of Microsoft Office, and the rest is
History.

Since then Word Perfect has been sold and bought several times, and has
never regained much of the Market Share it lost all those years ago.

Software Companies come and go, and such is the fate of those in the Software
Bizz.

And Speaking of the Early days, do any of you know why MS Windows was
created?

MS DOs would allow the operation of only one program at a time. As
computers became more of a Business Tool, the need to take the
information in one program, and some how get it into the file in another
program grew till someone made it happen.


In the Dos Days, doing this was awkward at best.

But MS Windows came along and would let the user run more than one
program at the same time, and the user could copy from one program and
magically switch to another program, and Paste it in.


The first edition of MS Windows that seemed to grab the attention of
the General Public was MS Windows 3.0 and 3.1.

It was Sluggish and Bulky, but it worked, and Microsoft has been in the
Drivers Seat ever since.


At the time, there was another program called Geo-Works that actually
worked better and faster, and allowed the user to run multiple programs
at once and move data from one to another. But, Microsoft had the Name
Brand Recognition and Geo-Works soon vanished never to be heard of again.

Such are the Whims of the Software industry.

Grumpy Dave