vifl@hou2f.UUCP (M.MEKETON) (02/21/85)
The reviews in INFOWORLD on PC products are some of the most ludicrous I have ever seen: o WORDSTAR 2000 gets panned because the reviewer didn't think it was a significant upgrade, that it runs slow, and is hard to convert old WORDSTAR documents. Actually, it is a nice word processing package that I found powerful and easy to use. It is slow, but still a great program. (I was not a prior WORDSTAR user.) o IBM PC-AT: Gets panned each week (in their capsule review section) for hard disk problems. I have not heard of any recent (i.e. within the past 4 months) problems. Get with it, INFOWORLD, update your reviews. o AT&T PC 6300: Got panned for (among reasons) that it had no on-line help facility for MS-DOS. NO MS-DOS COMPUTER HAS ON-LINE HELP. Why isn't this mentioned as a negative point for all MS-DOS computers. What right does the reviewer have to do product planning. I don't mind comparing one MS-DOS computer to another, but that reveiwer went too far. o APPLEWORKS: An integrated, 1-2-3 like product for the IIc, it is outselling Lotus 1-2-3 in retail outlets. Yet INFOWORLD panned this product because individual functions aren't fancy enough. Hasn't stopped 40000 users from buying it each month. o PC PAINTBRUSH: Panned for lack of error messages. Unfortunately, it was reviewed on an old version. I own this program, and find it quite easy & fun to use. o HP-150: (Touch screen computer): INFOWORLD loved this computer. However, retail sales are dismal!! Further, corporations buy this computer because, without the disk drives, it serves as a terminal and costs as much. I have seen hundreds of HP-150's, almost all of them without disk drives. No one uses the touch screen. Yet INFOWORLD loved this. Are they out of touch with reality? The reviews are inconsistent and shows the bias of individual reviewers. One reviewer's 'neat feature' could be another reviewer's bug. Another flame is that it seems as if every new innovative product that truly sets standards resets the grading level. Hence, computers that would be marked as 'excellent' for performance may be marked (after the introduction of the AT) as 'good'. But prior ratings never change. My last flame is with INFOWORLD's capsule reviews. They should be kept up to date, and when a manufacturer or software fixes a bug or adds a feature that the review panned, the capsule review should reflect the fact. If INFOWORLD thinks this is too much work, then take out the capsule reviews, because they are a disservice to their readers. END OF FLAME. (Don't send flames to me because I posted this in net.micro.pc instead of net.flame: this newsgroup probably can appreciate the above more than net.flame.) Marc S. Meketon, writing frankly.