Specifications
User Survey Final Results
The
User
Survey
was
a
huge
success
as
far
as
I'm
concerned.
It
really
hel~d
me
to
get a
good
idea
of
what
PEEK[65J
readers wanted
and
how
willing
you
are
to
part
with
your
hard-earned
cash
to
get
it.
40
~ple
mailed
in
responses. That's
about
the number I expected
considering the number
of
subscribers
and the summer computer doldrums.
Of
those,
some
16
entries listed
multiple systems
owned
by
the
submittor.
The
breakdown
by
model
went
as
follows:
8"
Serial:
18
8"
Video:
17
C4P-MF
(or
equivilent):
17
CIP-MF:
4
38
respondents
had
printers, and
25
owned
modems.
The
vast majority
listed ownership
of
OS-65U
V
1.44
and
OS-65DVJJ
OS-DMS
was far and away the most
frequently mentioned
commercial
software
package,
with
11
~ple
naming
it as their most often used
software.
Close
behind
was
DQFLS'
WP-6502
word processor
at
8.
OSl's
WP-2
and
WP-
3
came
in
third with 6
respondents,
Fourth
place
went
to
my
own
Term-Plus program. 9 people
mentioned various
accounting
packages
from
other
sources,
but
none
gained any significant
following
in
our
survey.
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Page
2
PEEK(6S]
Summer 1966
Amazingly,
interest
in
both
new
CPU
and graphics hardware waned
in
tne
final
weeks.
Much
of
that
can
be
attributed
to
the influx
of
a lot
of
serial system
o....mers.
The
final
tabulations went
as
follo\0'0'5:
New
CPU
$0:8
$15:3
$
100-$200:
15
$200-$500:
7
$500-$1000: 1
New
Grap-hics
$0:
18
$50-$100:
13
$100-$200:
3
$200-$500:
5
Not
all
entries voted
in
the above
figures and
many
~ple
made
ambiguous
comments that made
it
hard
to
put their vote
in
any catagory.
The
main
reason
for
the
confusion
was
that a lot
of
people weren't sure
why
they
would
want any new hardware.
Hopefully
the rest
of
this issue
will
clear up any such mysteries, 1
found
it
interesting that within the above
ta11ies,
some
18
people were
willing
to
commit
to
upgrading both their
CPU
and graphics capabilities.
The
heavy
NO
voting
was
almost all attributable
to
serial system owners,
which
is
more than understandable
in
the
OSI
world.
Toward
the end
of
tallying up all
of
the
figures,
it
became
clear that
~ple
's
software
wish
lists and their
suggestions
for
topics
for
articles
in
PEEK
were
closely
related,
It
is
abundantly clear that owners
of
all
OSI
systems are
clamoring
for
new
word
processing software,
Many
included
specific
features they wanted
to
see,
such
as
disk-based software,
interchangeable fonts/type styles, and
the ability
to
do
superscripts and
subscripts.
17
~ple
mentioned a
desire
for
a new
WP.
Second
place
went to a desire
for
an assembler that
would
be
compatible with the new
CPU
Chips
we're
all
discussing.
A
good
number
of
~ple
also
wanted better
terminal
software.
Hardware articles
dominated the
desires
of
the respondents.
Some
wanted articles about interfacing
various
peripherals.,
but a significant
number expressed
an
interest
in
ways
to
add new and better
disk
drives
to
their systems. I think the past 3
issues
of
PEEK
demonstrate that these
desires have been heard
for
a
long
time and something
is
being
done
to
help.
On
the software
side,
there
was
a
lot
of
interest
in
assembly
language,
which
1
was
pleased
to
see.
There
was
roughly a 50-50
mix
of
people
mentioning assembly
language
information
on
the new
CPUs
and
interests
in
modifying
either
65D
or
65U.
You
can
count
on
PEEK
to
be
a
steady
source
of
such
information.
One
area
in
which
PEEK
has been
weak
is
in
the area
of
OS-65U
articles
that deal
with hard disk management,
Level
3 operations, and specific·
OS-DMS
applications.
While
over the
years there have been a slew
of
patches
to
EDMAFL,
we
haven't really
gone
very deep. That situation
is
also
being
addressed.
It
is
clear
to
me
that
as
the
PEEK[65J
community matures,
they are
becoming
ever more
dominated
by
business users. There
is
no
doubt this trend
will
continue since
OSI
no
longer manufactures video
systems.
I was disappointed
by
the number
oJ
people
who
expressed a desire
for
software that
is
not
only
available, but
is
adVertised here
in
PEEK.
I'm
the
first
to
admit that the software
sold
here
could
be
improved, and
it
will
be,
but what
is
available often met the
specifications
mentioned.
So
take a
closer
look
at
those
ads,
folks!
Overall,
I think the survey
shows
that
both
PEEK[(5)
and the
commercial
vendors are
on
the right track. There
are
~ple
addressing
all
of
the
desires expressed
and that tells
me
that
we
have an
exciting
autumn
to
look
forward
to.
Thanks
once
again
to
all
of
you
who
responded
to
the
survey.