Our report on user rating on installed microcomputer systems in the previous issue has led to an inquiry about similar ratings for minicomputers. Datapro Research Corporation, the organization that conducts annual surveys of computer users, announced its most recent survey of minis this past Spring. Datapro contacted over 2,100 users of more than 2,800 systems and asked them to rate their systems on several criteria on a scale of zero to 4, with 4 being the highest. The highest ratings went to BTI, Point 4 and Tandem computers--each scoring between 3.7 and 3.8. Of the minis used by more than 100 respondents, the order of user rating by manufacturer was Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation and Data General. IBM was criticized for late delivery, poor software support, and for proposing initial configurations too small to handle the user's requirements. Data General users were particularly critical of the small Nova computers because the machines could not do what was expected of them. In all, less than 10% of the users of the major manufacturer's systems were unhappy enough to recommend against anyone purchasing the same machine. This is a substantially lower figure than the percentage of users that are unhappy with software they have purchased, but still a significant number.
