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Subject:Re: Screen-sized Web Pages? From:Matt Ion <soundy -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 2 Dec 1996 08:11:55 -0800
On Mon, 2 Dec 1996 14:47:32 +0200, David Wernick wrote:
>Matt Ion wrote:
>> Also, when you're talking about "most" computers, granted, "target
>> audience" comes into play a little it (if you know you're dealing with
>> a lot of graphic artists, you can safely assume most are running at
>> higher resolutions), but the majority of systems you'll find "on the
>> street" are still stuck at their default VGA settings (640x480x16
>> colors)
>This was true a year or two ago, but does it still hold with the move to
>Windows 95? In theory, Windows 95 Setup sets SVGA (or better) display
>capabilities automatically. In practice, I don't know how well this works.
There are two problems with this: one, not all hardware is created
equal, or capable of the same thing. An older VGA monitor or 256k
video card will handily preclude much beyond 640x480x4. Two, as spiffy
as Win95 may be at determining available video capabilities, the
majority of users in most cases are still computer-illiterate, and even
*if* they realize the resolution settings can be changed, may not
figure out how to do it. Enterprise installations will generally be
cookie-cutter systems with "default" setups and in most companies,
users won't muck with the settings for fear of breaking something and
incurring the wrath of IS.
>Does anyone know the statistics? At what resolution and number of colors do
>most users actually run their systems? Is there a difference in this
>respect between home users, business users, and computer professionals
>(other than graphic artists)?
Most users I come across, either casually or in a business sense, are
still running VGA. Win95 will automatically setup for 256 colors on
systems that support it, which is one short step above Win3x, but
640x480 still seems to be the most prevalent. Again, most people
apparently just don't realize that you can adjust the display this way.
Your friend and mine,
Matt
<insert standard disclaimer here>
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