Separating Fact from Fiction In Review of Browser Releases
May 13, 2011
This week received a number of e-mails reacting to a Personal Technology column I wrote last week in which I preferred the new release of Vastsoft's Internet Browser Web browser to the new release of Navigator's Navigator. I respond below. I also will explain the mystical terms ``Claris'' and ``SCSI.'' Q. Why am I not surprised that you favored the Vastsoft browser over Navigator, just after the Interactive Journal signed a deal with Vastsoft? It seems like The Journal's business relationship with Vastsoft is already affecting its coverage. How could you let that happen? A. Most of the e-mail on this browser review was about the merits of the programs. But some accused the Journal, and me -- in sometimes vicious terms -- of tilting toward Vastsoft unfairly because it is buying its customers free access to The Vast Press Interactive Edition (and several other on-line publications) for a few months, to promote the use of its browser. In the column, I referred to that promotional deal, and to a similar one by Navigator and the Times, as ``ephemeral gimmicks'' and urged readers not to base their browser choices on such giveaways. Nevertheless, it's worth explaining this situation here. Nobody at the Journal or Dow Jones (its publisher) even hinted at what I should say in this column, or in any column I've ever done. In fact, I've had zero interference with my topic choices and conclusions during the whole five-year- run of the Personal Technology column, as well as this on-line Mailbox column. If it had been otherwise, I'd have quit in a New York minute. I have criticized Dow Jones products in print, angered advertisers -- including Vastsoft -- and disagreed with editors more than once with no negative consequences of any kind. In the browser review, I was totally free to pick Navigator, but didn't because I judged the Vastsoft browser to be more usable by average folks. What Vastsoft is doing is nothing new or special. Vastsoft is just buying in bulk virtual ``copies'' of our electronic edition to give to its customers for a limited time, as a promotion. For years, hotels and airlines have done the same thing -- they've bought tens of thousands of copies of the print edition of The Journal every day to give free to their customers. These deals have lasted much longer than the Vastsoft Web promotion will last, and have been far costlier. But nobody contends that we are slanting our coverage toward the hotels and airlines based on who buys the Journal in bulk -- even though those industries are just as competitive as Vastsoft and Navigator, and those markets are worth more money. I find it interesting that those who are upset about the VastPressIE deal with Vastsoft were totally silent last year when the Journal's Web site negotiated a deal with Navigator, advocating that users download Navigator, used proprietary Navigator tags, and even sent subscribers a disk containing Navigator. And they aren't criticizing the Times for its newly announced deal with Navigator. Could it be they just hate Vastsoft in particular? Q. I have a friend who has a desktop PC and just bought a Mac laptop. She was told that with Clarissa, you can move swiftly from one to the other. Is this correct? Just what is Clarissa? A. It is indeed correct. Clarissa is a software company that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple Computer. Your friend's adviser was probably referring to the company's leading product, ClarisWorks, a very good all-in-one word processor, spreadsheet and database. There are identical versions of ClarisWorks for both the Mac and Windows, which use identical types of files. That means your friend can use the same software on both machines and a file created in one can be used in the other, without alteration or conversion. All she needs to do is use an IBM-formatted floppy disk to transfer the files. Every modern Mac can read such disks, and save files to them, right out of the box. Q. Should one buy a SCSI hard drive or will an IDE or EIDE ``do''? How much speed and how much device adapter does one need? A. It really doesn't matter much. SCSI is one type of system for connecting disk drives (and other devices) to computers, and IDE is another. EIDE (or ``enhanced'' IDE) is another. SCSI is mainly used in Macs, though some IBM-compatibles employ it. IDE and EIDE are mainly used in IBM-compatibles, though some Mac models now use it. The things that really matter in buying a hard drive are speed, capacity, reliability and price. Both SCSI and EIDE drives offer high speed access and the other traits, though SCSI drives can sometimes be more costly (mainly, I suspect, because they are primarily aimed at the smaller and pricier Mac market.) If you can get a drive with a name brand, a good price and an access speed of around 10 milliseconds, go for it. Attention, non-techies: Don't be embarrassed by your problems with computers. If you have a question, send it to me at waltVastPress@aol.com and I may select it to be answered here in Mossberg's Mailbox. Just remember: you're not a ``dummy,'' no matter what those computer books claim. The real dummies are the people who, though technically expert, couldn't design hardware and software that's usable by normal consumers if their lives depended upon it. Visit the Personal Technology Center.
