From: <bgardner@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 89 13:54:06 -0400
Message-Id: <8908291754.AA00354@PINK.MIT.EDU>
To: beth@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: users reaction to the release -- so far
Cc: staff@ATHENA.MIT.EDU

   I've experienced similar comments from users.
Most of them were totally in the dark as to why their old .cshrc
file (& .login) stoppedf working or how to fix it.
(They've just started using Athena again, and after they get annoyed enough
at not having their customizations and aliases preset, they will
do the old, "When all else fails, read the documentation".)
   All in all, though, they generally like the new release.
They feel that both the loggin and logout are terribly slow.
But they really like the new look of it. (The loggin screen and
the new logout button.)
   As for mwm...there are two major comments:
(1) It has a much nicer look and feel (and reminds them of a Mac
or other PC windowing system),
(2) They are upset that many of their old programs won't run under
mwm (specifically, anything that uses "override shells", HP menu widgets,
or most of the Athena Widget pop-up menus...this is alot of programs).
There were also afew comments about the mouse movements not being
tracked fast enough, resulting in typin to go to the wrong window...
and afew users were upset that any typin being done when a new window
comes up (outline) gets lost.
   Personally, I like the new release on the whole and think everyone did
a fine job. My only comment (though it IS a strong complaint) is the new
swap-space blackhole bug. (On small disk workstations, this bug makes the
workstation virtually useless to anyone for sessions longer than 4 hours.)
   As for mwm, I like it and have a customization file already and am
generally happy with it. Unfortunately, every non-Athena supported
program I commonly had used under uwm, breaks under mwm because of
mwm's bug in dealing with override widgets (the most common shell
widget for pop-up menus out there in user-land). So, I often find myself
having to kill off mwm, to start up uwm so I can run a program, and
then kill off uwm to go back to mwm.
Fortunately, most of the athena-widget based programs I use either
don't have pop-up menus, or will hopefully be motif-ized eventually.
   So, while mwm isn't quite there. The new Athena 6.3B release
seems to be going over fairly well.
   Good job !
      -- Brian