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Subject:RE: Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 From:"Connie Giordano" <connie -at- therightwordz -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, "'Paul Hanson'" <phanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com> Date:Mon, 3 Nov 2008 14:03:08 -0500
I recall Win 95 as being nearly as traumatic as Windows... pretty much
everyone I knew had significant problems switching either home or office
computers, it gave help desk people nightmares for months. I remember it
taking three tries with overnight timeframes to get it installed properly
and even then we had to hire a predecessor to the Geek Squad to help us get
it done.
MS seems to never have investigated the concept of version
fatigue--customers get REALLY tired of having to relearn software they've
already learned multiple times. Instead MS just keeps changing things to
try to market a "new and improved" version. There is a lot I like about
Office 2007, but I always manage to forget where they put one or two
functions, and some less frequently used functionality is buried even more
than it was during the "upgrade" from 2000 to 2003.
YMMV
Connie Giordano
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+connie=therightwordz -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+connie=therightwordz -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Peter Lewicke
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 1:44 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com; Paul Hanson
Subject: Re: Windows 3.1 to Windows 95
There were very few complaints about the introduction of Win95. 3.1 was
known to be buggy. Things looked a lot different with Win95, but it was much
more reliable.
It is unreasonable to compare the switch of an operating system from Windows
3.1 to 95 with the introduction of of a new version of an application:
Office 2003 and 2007.
Ignoring the difference in the type of change involved and just considering
the kinds of comments, the switch in versions of MSFT Office involved things
being changed in ways that made the application less useful and
user-friendly. There was simply no reason to change most of what was
changed. With the change from 3.1 to 95, the changes were necessary for the
utility of the operating system. Although some learning was necessary, the
users of 3.1 were sophisticated users who could use DOS, and most of us knew
that change was necessary.
Peter
--- On Mon, 11/3/08, Paul Hanson <phanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com> wrote:
> From: Paul Hanson <phanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com>
> Subject: Windows 3.1 to Windows 95
> To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Date: Monday, November 3, 2008, 12:41 PM
> Microsoft likes to change things up. Prior to the Office
> 2003 to Office 2007, I can point to Windows 3.1 to Windows
> 95 as a shift in the UI that moved things around.
>
> I'm wondering... were any of you on a list back when
> Windows 95 was released on users that were used to Windows
> 3.1? Was there an outcry of complaints from users? Or do
> people think that 3.1 ==> 95 was not as big of a change
> as Office 2003 to Office 2007?
>
> I didn't know email even existed when I made the switch
> from 3.1 to 95 so I really don't know.
>
> Paul Hanson
> Technical Writer
> RoboHelp ACE -
>http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/team_macromedia/robohelp.html
> Quintrex Data Systems http://www.quintrex.com
> email: phanson at quintrex.com
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>
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You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as connie -at- therightwordz -dot- com -dot-
ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. http://www.doctohelp.com
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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