letter to the editor.
| Chris' Rant | - by Chris Wenham |
You can't sum up Windows 95 as "Sucks" and OS/2 as "Cool" and expect an unsavvy computer user to instantly see the light.
What's more likely is that they'll distrust our grassroots efforts and listen to the popular media--a channel bombarded with Microsoft dollars.
I'm pretty sure nobody made their choice of software because the people on that side of the fence were busy lobbing rocks over to the other side. The only impression they'll get is that one side is pretty sore about something and hoping to drag as many as they can down with their misery. "Oh yeah sure I'm going to buy that product, hey you just threw that rock on my lawn!"
But people keep at it, somehow they're convinced that "sucks" is a power word that affects the same braincell that controls wallet-opening reflexes.
How about trying a different method? How about... oh I don't know... maybe forgetting about Windows 95 for a bit and detailing a few good things about Warp?
Tell you what, I'll start you off. Try some of these:
"I couldn't install my new app because I didn't have quite enough hard disk space. Then I discovered for about the same price as Stacker I could get Partition Magic instead, convert my VFAT drives to HPFS, gain 200 megs back from my Gig partition, AND a performance increase instead of a hit!"
"My boss wanted me to print out everything relating to the Jones account. I opened the Jones folder, pressed ctrl-/, and dragged everything to the printer. I'm done!"
"HiJaak95 puts thumbnails in the icons eh? Oh that's like the shareware PMView for OS/2 or the Light Tables that come free with the Warp Bonus Pack. What, HiJaak costs $59.95? Oh gee..."
Don't tell me you can't write short, snappy, to-the-point soundbites like these. They're easy and they're a heck of a lot more effective than shouting "Windows suuuuucks!" We should not be trying to put down anybody else's operating system like it was the scum of the Earth (and I know some of you like to think it is), we should be trying to seek out the people who really would benefit from Warp, but don't know it yet.
Think about when you made your first platform shift. What concerned you the most? For me and for most other people considering a new operating system it's, "Can I do my work in this?" or, "Can I use my hardware with this?" and the final shove is really the answer to the question, "Am I going to work better with this?"
We're all going to do a lot better answering these questions for new users if we stop the shouting, stop the infighting, and work together as a team. Only a team can pull together the kind of information needed to persuade unsavvy users, and a unified team looks more attractive than a sparse smattering of fanatics when that person is looking for support.
What I've seen from some "advocates" does nothing to promote OS/2 and in fact hurts it instead. Why bicker about whether or not Jason Perlow is on "our side" or not? What? Who? Where? Can't we get on with our work? I'm glad some people refused to consider inhaling marijuana as an issue against Bill Clinton's campaign. I mean, what's that got to do with the price of fish? Similarly enough, why should we have to second guess the intentions of someone who appears to be doing a lot of good for us and sacrificing his own time and resources to do it?
I think I'll be spending my time and energy showing everyone the great stuff you can do with Warp and giving them a banquet of food for thought. I wonder what others will be doing?
"Cough-cough. Do-ray-me-fa-so-la-ti-do... ahem....
Very productive.
Our Sponsors: [Indelible Blue] [Mt. Baker] [ScheduPerformance] [Shenandoah]
Contents | 
Previous Article | Next Article 
Copyright © 1996 - Falcon Networking