Re: Note to IBM: Bulk email about End Of Support

On 3/25/26 12:41 PM, Rob Berendt wrote:

Don't just give me some
generic IBM link listing all IBM stuff approaching EOS.

Hmm. End or support. I have a vague recollection of the last time one of our boxes reached EOS. It's still in service. Along with two older ones.

I have a much clearer recollection of when a digital typesetting system I use on a regular basis very abruptly went EOS, even though that was much longer ago. Decades ago, Corel (infamous for its reverse Midas touch: everything they tuch turns to bloatware) bought the enire Ventura Software operation off of Xerox, and promptly ended support of the *real* Ventura Publisher, the one that runs on DOS boxes, in a runtime version of DR GEM, and oh, yes, they also discontinued all support of the Macintosh port. I got a letter from them. A physical letter -- this was before email was at all common -- "offering" me an "upgrade" to their new WinDoze version. I fired back a letter, quoting an old tobacco tagline: I told them "I'd rather fight than switch." I never heard back from them, and while outfitting a true DOS machine is not exactly easy these days, I've still got Ventura running on 2 different boxes. Oh, and if you have a hardcopy Questview manual that's more recent than 1994, guess who did the typesetting (in addition to a substantial rewrite, and all the screen shots), and on what software?

--
JHHL
"Luddites of the World Unite! You have nothing to lose but your upgrade-treadmills!"