rauscher@topaz.rutgers.edu (Richard Rauscher) (11/10/89)
PRODIGY:
I used Prodigy for several months; I also sold prodigy to several
customers, and have listened to thier feedback about it...
Personal Experience: (Yawn....) If you don't have a 2400 bps modem,
forget it. It's slow.......slow.....................slow...It
doesn't seem to matter much how fast your processor is...the
tranmission of the boring graphics and advertisements take
time; it also writes to disk everytime you enter a new graphics
area so that it doesn't have to download the graphics again if
you decide to return to that area...this takes more time; The
print options are few and far between (only an ASCII dump to
printer is allowed is SOME areas; this option is not offered
in some of the more useful places [ie mail]). The mail system
is alright, but if you are used to a UNIX system, you will be
disappointed. There is no way to check if other users are logged
on; nor is there any chat option. It really is too commercial.
I'm interested in finding out what type of machine it's actually
running on.
Good Things: I use it now to check stock quotes. It's got a
greater than fifteen minutes minimum delay, but you can beat
it for the price (not too mention I got the startup pack FREE).
If you want to write letters to friend who don't have an
account on a *real* machine, this can be useful
Customer Experiences: Here's too extreme cases; both of these
people were extreme computer novices. The first bought Prodigy
and was extremely pleased with the graphics and ease of use. (It
IS easy for people with relatively little experience to learn
in a couple of hours.) He did have some trouble with line noise.
Case 2: Same area, same modem. He called Prodigy service
because he kept losing the carrier. They told him that his
line noise was too high and he needed a new system version. He
was really frustrated and rather upset...
What it boyels down to, is ... I would go to a vendor and check
to see if it has what you want....at worst, you'll lose about $50
... Have fun
RR
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rauscher@topaz.rutgers.edu THESE OPINIONS ARE MINE
rauscher@gauss.rutgers.edu AND RUTGERS CAN'T HAVE THEM.
SO THERE.
rauscher@cancer.bitnet
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