berlin@bucsb.UUCP (David K. Fickes) (03/13/86)
I haven't heard any comments on the Leading Edge Model D or the NCR PC family... I am interested in any comments/horror stories that person's might have. The primary use of the model D (as I see it of course) is as a home machine not as a business model. But according to LE's info they've got the greatest machine since Saran Wrap was invented... I've also heard some nasty stories concerning "personality conflicts" between people and LE salespeople. As an alternative for home/business use I've looked at NCR machines anyone have any comments???? thanks, david
gst@talcott.UUCP (03/15/86)
In article <172@bucsb.UUCP>, berlin@bucsb.UUCP (David K. Fickes) writes: > I haven't heard any comments on the Leading Edge Model D or > the NCR PC family... I am interested in any comments/horror > stories that person's might have... Well, I don't personally have any experience with the Model D, but the machine received a fairly good review in the December 16, 1985 issue of "Infoworld" (pp. 43-44): performance / documentation satisfactory ease of use / serviceability very good setup / value excellent However, in subsequent issues, there were some critical comments by readers in the "Review Responses" section. In the January 13, 1986 issue (p. 46), one reader found several programs which did not operate properly on the Model D, including some educational software by Designware of San Francisco and a Word demo disk from Microsoft (he says "Microsoft informs me that the full program may not run either, although other reviews have stated that older versions will run."). Other packages that he found would not run include Superkey and Reflex, and he said that Borland had been getting problem reports with Turbo Pascal. (Leading Edge planned to provide a patch for Reflex in mid-December, but another reader claimed a patch was currently available from the Borland Compuserve Users Group.) Someone else was still waiting to have his monochrome monitor returned from Leading Edge's service facility five weeks after sending it to them, and yet another reader still hadn't gotten DOS and BASIC manuals six weeks after sending in a card (early November) that was supposed to produce them (one wonders why they weren't included with the machine originally). This latter reader also complains about having to *ask* for a word processing program that was supposed to come with the machine, and says that the Hardcard and other internal hard disk drives will not work with the Model D. Further, Leading Edge guarantees only two brands of external hard drives. As of that writing, L.E. was working on a ROM chip to enable the Hardcard to work. "Infoworld" responds collectively to these letters by admitting that, though they did test "literally hundreds of software packages on the Model D," they did not try Reflex, Superkey, or the MS-Word demo disk. I hope I have not mis-quoted anybody here, or misconstrued their intent. Anyone wanting to get the facts as straight as possible, should of course, consult the issue. Further, since it is fully two months since these comments were written, I would imagine some or all of these problems may have been corrected. At least it might be worth asking your local sales representative or Leading Edge about the current situation. I hope this information helps. -- Gary Trujillo (harvard!talcott!gst)
gst@talcott.UUCP (Gary S. Trujillo) (03/18/86)
In article <578@talcott.UUCP>, gst@talcott.UUCP (Gary S. Trujillo) writes: > In article <172@bucsb.UUCP>, berlin@bucsb.UUCP (David K. Fickes) writes: > > I haven't heard any comments on the Leading Edge Model D or > > the NCR PC family... I am interested in any comments/horror > > stories that person's might have... > > Well, I don't personally have any experience with the Model D, but > the machine received a fairly good review in the December 16, 1985 > issue of "Infoworld" (pp. 43-44)... > As a possibly-interesting postscript on the Model D, I just came across a comment made by Infoworld columnist John C. Dvorak in the January 20 issue: If you have a Leading Edge Model D (probably the hottest- selling clone in the country), you should note that Kahng designed it so the video display is HERCULES COMPATIBLE. "Nobody wrote the software drivers for the Hercules screen, though." Kahng told me. I'm sure some user group hack will take note. So... take note! -- Gary Trujillo (harvard!talcott!gst)