Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!agate!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!yoo From: yoo@netcom.com (Young-Kyu Yoo) Subject: Re: disappointment vs. joy with CDROM Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) References: <2tkj1hINN3h9@oasys.dt.navy.mil> Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 21:03:41 GMT Lines: 58 > Remember, It's easy if you know what you are doing. IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, things MAY be easier. However, it is unconscionable to suggest a new computer user buy a PC for multimedia use, CD-ROM use included. And even the experts and pseudo-experts will bang their heads against the PC compatibility-problem wall time and time again. A story about a PC expert: Recently I watched a friend (he owns a company that configures and sells PC systems for DTP) spend 5 hours attempting to get sound and colors working for Microsoft's Cinemania CD on a PC. He eventually got it to work in color but threw up his hands with respect to the sound. Later, he drooled as he watched Cinemania run with the first click on my PowerMac. He plans to buy a PowerMac soon for his personal use. (He'll keep selling those PC's though to the unwary). A story about a PC pseudo-expert: If read Pournelle's column in the latest issue of Byte, you get a good taste of the many hardware and software compatibility frustrations a PC user experiences on a regular basis, especially if he/she is trying to do the multimedia thing with CD-ROM, SoundBlaster, et al. A story about a "typical" user (as opposed to an experienced power user): You might also check out the magazine section of this past Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner. It is a review of Myst on a PC. Well, it was supposed to be a review, the writer states. Unfortunately, he ran into all sorts of hardware and software problems and couldn't get Myst running in time to write his review . He did say that he's caught tantalizing glimpses of Myst and it "looks" like a great product. So, if , like the poor Myst reviewer above, you wish to do a lot of "window" shopping and admire the many titles available for PC's that won't actually run on your particularly PC setup, get yourself a PC to run CD-ROMs. If you want to use rather than be abused by your CD-ROMs, get a Mac. BTW, I have a PowerMac with SoftWindows and even have some CD-ROMs for DOS and Windows. However, I normally the run the Mac versions of my CD-ROMs because: 1) The interfaces and graphics tend to be better in the Mac versions of the same software product. 2) Mac versions run more reliably and with easier setup. - Young-Kyu P.S. I'm a software engineer with experience in assembly language programming, C, C++ and Objective-C on Unix systems and I've found very little more frustrating and more arcane than software and hardware setup under DOS and Windows.