Larry@sri-unix (07/19/82)
Consumers Union is interested in several issues regarding personal
computers that I think the "experts" are most able to answer.
Some examples are frequency of repair, quality of documentation,
capabilities (how zippy is the execution, does it have good mass
storage, etc.) Nonexperts ("consumers"), who probably have experience
with only one type of personal computer, will do a bad job at answering
these questions, I think. I would encourage anyone who has a
computer at home (I don't, alas) to get the questionaire and fill it
out, keeping in mind that what a consumer wants from a personal
computer is not quite the same as what most of us want. After all,
Consumers Union solicits auto experts to judge the automobiles they
review (and audio experts for the low cost audio equipment), so
why shouldn't they have the benefit of our opinions?
Larry Seiler
-------bch (07/19/82)
The reason we should not bestow our "expert" (term used advisedly) opinions on personal computers is that expert opinions were not asked for. Simply, we know too much. We would not send our machine in for repair for a software problem, for example. A novice user would and it is a useful piece of information for CU if some ripoff company tries to make a novice user who does so pay for hardware repair. In other words, let experts evaluate the questionaires (hopefully they will do so to weed out such as us) and let consumers submit them.... Byron Howes