LETTER:Words on windows

From Mr T. J. B. Saul

Sir: Your supplement on Microsoft's long-awaited Windows 95 (21 August) was balanced and informative. The key advice appears on page IX:

wait a month or two to let other suckers discover the problems for you ... it would be a good idea to persuade a friend to install it on their machine.

When, shortly, the first reports of catastrophic Windows 95 crashes appear, in which someone's half-finished novel or PhD thesis is destroyed or, thanks to the enhanced networking capabilities, a business's network server is destroyed by a newly empowered accidental hacker, I would rather have passed on the first piece of advice than the second.

And, when people start adding up the cost of the new hardware (because existing machines can't cope with Windows 95's demands) and all the new software (because Windows 3.1 programs will gain little from Windows 95) and the man-hours to be spent relearning tasks on top of the initial price of Windows 95, plus on-going technical support - I shall remain a smugly superior Apple Mac user.

Yours sincerely,

T. J. B. Saul

London, SE26