(Excerpts from a message dated 08-29-99, Will Honea to Rich Wonneberger)

Hi Will--

RW> *** Quoting Jeffrey J. Counsil to Ian Singer dated 08-28-99 ***
RW> > IS> Not true at all.  Some software is provided in such a way that the
RW> > IS> licence fee is paid, and its installed on the hard drive by the 
RW> > dealer
RW> > IS> but that there are no original CDs or floppies.
RW> > 
RW> > Does Packard Smell ring a bell? ;-)
RW> 
RW> Even they provided a restore CD which install'd the orig apps..  

WH>Not the ones I saw from Walmart - all they provided was a program to
  >copy the install data from the hard drive to floppies:  Too cheap to
  >even supply a CD!

    In 1993, I bought an 8MB-RAM IBM PS/VP 433DX directly from IBM.  It
arrived (as ordered) with OS/2 2.00.1 installed.  I soon discovered that
factory (or most dealer) preinstalled software is useless: I hadn't been
able to live with one big partition since the days of the 10MB HD on my
PC/XT.  So, as soon as I discovered this useless configuration, I needed
to reconfigure and reinstall.  I had two choices:  I could use the
furnished application to download the installed software from the HD to
a flock (IIRC, 30) of floppies, or I could use the enclosed coupon to
order the OS on floppies from IBM, for a reduced price which wasn't much
higher than the cost of bare floppies in those days.  Being lazy, I
ordered the set of floppies and installed from them.  There was no
CD-drive on the machine (I added one later) and OS/2 2.0 was never
furnished in any way other than on floppies.  At present, that machine
(now with 32MB RAM and a second HD) is being used by my wife, running
under Warp 4.0 installed from CDs!

    My most recent hardware (a ThinkPad 365XD, vintage 1997) arrived
from IBM with Win95 preinstalled.  I think there was a way to get it off
to floppies, but I never tried.  I started over with Warp 4 and the
ThinkPad utilities that came with the Warp 3 Device Driver Pak CD.

    IMO, mass-produced preinstalled software is for the Average Idiot
Home User, and is essentially useless (unless configured to order) for
any serious PC user.  Since IBM was unable to convince the AIHU to learn
to use OS/2, there really isn't much inducement for any reputable dealer
to furnish it preinstalled, other than as a customized service.  After
all, the dealer (or hardware manufacturer) is supposed to pay the vendor
a fee for every copy of "licensed" software furnished with any hardware
system sold.

    Regards,

        --Murray

___
 * MR/2 2.25 #120 * You rarely get what pay for; never what you don't pay for.

--- Maximus/2 2.02