A survey of operating systems among Federal Government users was a close run thing. Windows NT 3.1, SCO UNIX and OS/2 2.1 came out with 75 points each overall. Earlier Novell Unix systems, as you would expect, were lower down as was Sunsoft’s Solaris 2.3.
SCO UNIX won on the least-aggro-for-mangers front, topping reliability, standards compatibility, documentation and vendor support.
Windows won on the least-aggro-for-users front with 91 for quality of user interface (81 for OS/2 and 73 for SCO UNIX), and Windows won ease of installation.
Grain-of-salt warning: the survey questionnaire was mailed to 4000 readers of Government Computer News and 217 responded.
Incidentally, Microsoft’s Windows has now sold 50 million copies worldwide since May, 1990, and is now selling at a rate of two million a month. Frightening, isn’t it. Those people at Apple must be thinking: why didn’t we think of it first? _ the marketing strategy, that is, not the program idea.
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Nintendo has got a consent order from the Federal Court restraining the quaintly named Moonlight Pty Ltd from importing, distributing or selling unauthorised Nintendo video games, quaintly called grey goods.
Nintendo says it will vigorously hunt down people infringing Nintendo’s intellectual property. (In the days of the video game, the law has to find a more apt name than “”intellectual property”.)
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PC Users Group (ACT) meets tonight at the Manning Clark Complex Theatre One at 7.30pm. Free. Info on 2396511.
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Remember the big stink about Kodak being subsidised to stay in Australia and how all those economic rationalists thought subsidies were a Bad Thing?
Well, Kodak has just announced that software developed and supplied by Kodak engineers in Melbourne is to be used in the US Internal Revenue Service’s document handling system. It is part of an overall $1.7 billion contract to image documents for computer retrieval. There theory is that returns will be handled quicker and more returns will be audited.
About 250 scanners will scan 110 A4 pages a minute each. The Australian input will come from a groups of engineers in Coburg.
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Radio Australia has completed its $9.5 million high-power transmitters near Darwin to boost the signal into Indonesia, China, Pakistan and the Philippines.
And Hughes Aircraft has announced an agreement (amount not disclosed) to provide a satellite for television and other services in Malaysia. The signal will be received by home dishes on the ground. No date for first transmission has been announced. Will it be before the white trash of Asia muddles through the bureaucratic bungling to get satellite pay-TV downunder, we wonder?
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Intel, the big US chip producer, has agreed with half a dozen US companies to deliver interactive services for home computers, such as travel planning, shopping on line, personal finance, educational databases and so on. It will be via cable, about 1000 times faster than via a modem over the phone lines.
It comes as Optus and Continental Cabletelevision in Australia agreed to explore similar services and pay-TV via cable.
The earthworks are starting for the superhighway.
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Remember the Australia Card over which we had a double dissolution in 1987 but which got defeated through a lawyer’s technicality. Never mind, we have got the tax file number instead, and it is just as effective in curbing social-security fraud. Data matching technology and requirements that claimants provide a tax-file number have resulted in the Department of Veteran’s Affairs saving $6 million in 1992-93 and $2.8 million in 1993-94, the department reported last week. The fall is because recipients knew the game was up.
The department did 8.1 million data matches, found a discrepancy in 0.2 per cent of cases and of those only 5 per cent resulted in action being taken, the other 95 per cent presumably resulting in voluntary compliance.
As long as the cash retrieved goes back to the deserving Diggers that’s not a bad result.
Other departments do similar data-matching. The Privacy Commissioner checks the process and it seems to work on the basis of, “”Okay, we accept you are innocent; just don’t do it again.”
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Enticements: NEC is offering the MacPack of 100 fonts with every Silentwriter laser printer and Compaq is offering up to $3000 trade in on any 286 or better computer on its 486 Concerto notebook range. (For more info 1800 060800)
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Speaking of Compaq, the Wall Street Journal reports it has taken top market share for the first time in the US for the first quarter this year with 488,000 units or 12.4 per cent against Apple’s 410,000 (10.4 per cent) and IBM’s 398,000 (10.1 per cent). Worldwide, the journal, quoting Dataquest said Compaq was ahead on 980,000 units, IBM on 955,000 and Apple on 865,000. The figures show that the US market is about 50 per cent of the world market for computers.
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Now that Windows can no longer offer DoubleSpace compression, which in effect doubles the space of your hard disk, users will be looking of alternatives. DoubleSpace was withdrawn because of copyright infringement of a program owned by Stac Electronics which markets its compression software separately.
Users running out of hard disk space should look compare the price of bigger disk against Stac’s compression program and a new program, Infinite Disk 2.1 that compresses and archives little used files. Infinite disk automatically works out which file shave not been used for a while and compresses or archives accordingly. Further info on 02 8887965.
Warning: Always back up data before using compression technology of any kind.
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Microsoft’s database program FoxPro 2.6. FoxPro is Microsoft’s answer to dBASE. As in the word-processing wars, each vendor provides compatibility sub-programs to encourage users to change product. FoxPro is offering a automatic migration of dBASE files to FoxPro. And it is a market-share war. Until June 30 the price is $149; after that $745. (Both DOS and Windows). Mac and Unix versions will be out later in the year.
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Aldus’s cheap, easy but limited desktop-publishing program Pagemaker Classic for Windows is out with a recommended retail price of $199. It is a clear challenge to Microsoft Publisher which is in a similar price range.
These are not for the serious desktop publisher dealing daily with regular large publications, but they are handy for fliers, the odd newsletter and so on. The blurb says you need 286 or higher and 2MB RAM. Well, it may work if you have a monthly deadline. If you want to do graphics of any kind you need a 486 with 4 or 8 MB. Further info on 02 9062144.
While on desktop, Corel will not include the Ventura 5 desktop publishing when it releases Corel 5 because it is not satisfied with its reliability. Corel took over Ventura last year. That is probably good news for Aldus which markets Page-Maker 5.
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The business mapping program ithink is now available for Windows. Previously only available for Mac, ithink is used by Tax, BHP, Finance, CSIRO among others for modelling and diagrams. Price $1150. For more info ring 02 4176227.
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The Harvey Norman computer superstore has opened in Fyshwick (corner of Barrier and Ipswich Street) as part of a wider store. If you can’t take the computers to the masses bring the masses to the computers.
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Canberra Strategic Marketing was runner up in the Kyocera national dealer awards. The Canberra company, formed by Steve Doszpot, sells only Kyocera laser printers which are marketed with a green image because they do not have environmentally unfriendly cartridges.