jamie@dorsai.com (Jamie Lendino) (06/29/91)
It is incredibly discouraging to find that going Windows 3.0 costs MUCH more than the $90 or so necessary to buy the Microsoft program itself. Having given up on trying to come up with $300 just to buy Ami Professional, $490 to purchase Pagemaker, etc., I was wondering what alternatives there are to buying the "big names." I've already seen a few advertised or in stores that look promising. As far as word processors go, ProWrite Plus is $195 in a rather expensive local store (probably around $160 mail order, I guess), and it comes with a grammar checker as well. JustWrite is supposed to be a fast, simple word processor that costs only $79 (for a LIMITED TIME only, of course). For terminal programs, I've only seen Crosstalk for Windows ($125) and Dynacomm, though the latter seemed to disappear in all the mail- order ads. And I've only seen $450+ desktop publishers. Does anyone have any experience with the two word processors I mentioned? How about any other desktop publishers, terminal programs, or ANY seemingly wonderful program of yours for Windows 3.0 that didn't cost an arm and a leg (Nothing over $150-$200 mail order, please). I spent almost all available funds ditching my old computer for a color SVGA 386 screamer, and all it's doing now is animating a couple of flight simulators very well! :-) Thanks for any help, -JRL
oneil@zeus.unomaha.edu (06/30/91)
In article <NcNa52w163w@dorsai.com>, jamie@dorsai.com (Jamie Lendino) writes: > It is incredibly discouraging to find that going Windows 3.0 costs > MUCH more than the $90 or so necessary to buy the Microsoft program > itself. Having given up on trying to come up with $300 just to buy > Ami Professional, $490 to purchase Pagemaker, etc., I was wondering > what alternatives there are to buying the "big names." If you have access to ftp or even just a modem, there's quite a bit of decent shareware and freeware out there. You just have to put forth some effort to find decent stuff. > I've already seen a few advertised or in stores that look promising. > As far as word processors go, ProWrite Plus is $195 in a rather > expensive local store (probably around $160 mail order, I guess), and > it comes with a grammar checker as well. JustWrite is supposed to be > a fast, simple word processor that costs only $79 (for a LIMITED TIME > only, of course). You're probably best off just buying a decent word processor like Microsoft Word for Windows (or whatever else seems to suit your fancy) since I haven't seen any word processors out there in modemland. > For terminal programs, I've only seen Crosstalk for Windows ($125) > and Dynacomm, though the latter seemed to disappear in all the mail- > order ads. And I've only seen $450+ desktop publishers. But if you want terminal programs, there are some decent shareware ones out there, depending on what you want. There's Unicom and WNQVT which both are very good. WNQVT will let you use various protocols like xmodem, ymodem, zmodem, and kermit. There are other shareware terminal programs out there. It just depends on what you want -- find a windows bbs or a good ftp site like cica.cica.indiana.edu or wuarchive.wustl.edu and grab a couple and compare them and register whatever one suits your needs. > Does anyone have any experience with the two word processors I > mentioned? How about any other desktop publishers, terminal programs, > or ANY seemingly wonderful program of yours for Windows 3.0 that didn't > cost an arm and a leg (Nothing over $150-$200 mail order, please). > I spent almost all available funds ditching my old computer for a color > SVGA 386 screamer, and all it's doing now is animating a couple of > flight simulators very well! :-) I recommend getting ahold of a decent bbs list or ftp site list (if you have access to ftp) and working from there. You're probably going to have to spend some money to build up a decent selection. I don't know where you're from, but if you're in a city or near a city you can probably find a decent local bbs, in which case you might have to lay out money for a term program, modem, and maybe registration on the bbs -- if you haven't done this already. If you aren't near a decent bbs for windows, you might have to pay some long distance charges. Try looking around to see if there's a deal for folks who call bbs's often -- something like PC Pursuit. Or try joining Compuserve -- if you call during off hours, you may be able to find some decent stuff. Sure, you have to pay online time and all, but it still beats paying $450 for a commercial product. No, you're not going to find stuff like CorelDraw in the ShareWare or Public domain, but there is stuff out there for use on Windows. Some of it is excellent and some of it is garbage. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sharon Lindsey O'Neil "I could be happy/I could be quite naive/ Bitnet: oneil@unomai1 It's only me and my shadow/Happy in our Internet: oneil@zeus.unomaha.edu make believe/Soon." -- Tears for Fears ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~