CompuServe Messages

If I may jump in here: I'm an Amiga user, and I just recently bought an IBM-compatible laptop for work. BIOS problems: these days, it's rare to find a BIOS that causes any problems. Compatibility issues between various IBM clones were ironed out a few years ago, and the differences between BIOS' these days mostly relate to custom power management features, arcane RAM/ROM remappings and so forth. If you buy a name brand, don't worry about it. Transfer: There's a shareware program available on CServe called Twin Express. You need two programs: one runs on the Amiga, one on the clone. Connect the two with a null modem. You can then transfer files from one to the other painlessly. Alternatively, if you're using AmigaDos 2.x or later, or have a copy of CrossDos, you can transfer files on 720K diskettes without problems. Except, of course, file format issues. Most IBM-clone word processors can read and write a number of different formats, including Word Perfect (which used to be supported on the Amiga). I've had most success with RTF, Rich Text Format, for inter-machine wp file exchange, but I don't know that any of the Amiga WP programs support that. Anyone? In the spreadsheet world, DIF files are a sort of lowest common denominator. Again, IBM-clone programs are pretty capable with different formsts; I've imported straight ASCII comma-delimited files into Excel without a hitch, and you can generate those files almost by just printing your spreadsheet to disk. Database: a lowest common denominator here is either ASCII delimited or maybe dBase format, which most everything reads and writes. I'm not really up on Amiga db prorams, so I can't say much more. Resources on the laptop: if you're running Windows, then your requirements match those you listed in your post. If you're sticking with DOS, you can get by with much less. It really depends on what you want to do with the machine, but to run current-generation WP, SS and DB programs generally means Windows, especially if you want to move data between them. I got myself a Toshiba T1900, which has just been replaced by the 1950 (!) It's considered a "budget" model, '486, monochrome, 4Mb RAM, big hard drive. It works really well, no complaints. They have international service, it's very well made and supported. I went with a brand name because I thought that the engineering requirements for a good laptop were probably a little more demanding than just slapping a desktop clone together, but you may feel differently. If you're still looking, PC magazine had a review of forty-something different systems in their August '93 issue. Hope the info above helps – let me know if you have more specific questions. –rbt