[WEB4LIB] RE: Patron Internet Machines

[Dan Lester]

Tuesday, September 12, 2000, 10:59:28 AM, you wrote:

KS> Tasmin,
KS>         Are your computers locking up, or is Netscape crashing?  At
KS> Minneapolis Public Library, we use Compaq computers with 64MB of RAM and
KS> Netscape Navigator has been our browser for public and staff machines.  In
KS> the last 6 months or so it became obvious that even the latest version of
KS> Navigator was crashing too frequently for us to continue to use it, and we
KS> have decided to migrate to Internet Explorer because of that.

The library at Boise State has made a similar decision.  We pulled the
last copy of Netscape off of public machines a number of months ago.
Staff may continue to use it if they wish, but we don't support it.
(In much the same way, we have a couple of staff who still use WP6.1,
which we've not supported in years.  If it breaks, it isn't our
problem...they're supposed to use Word2000, the only thing supported
on campus).

With public computers that have 32, 48, or 64mb, and range from
Pentium 200s to P2-333s, we almost never have crashes, except for
occasional patrons who lock them up with spawned pornsite windows.
They're protected with WinSelect and DeepFreeze.  Staff who have frequent
crashes in Netscape are encouraged to use IE...but some won't, and
would rather whine to us.  Their problem, not mine.

The public computers mentioned above run Win9x.

dan

-- 
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.postcard.org  www.gailndan.com