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This FAQ contains information and answers to common questions about the non-Wintel computer user group Convergence International. This FAQ is also available in plain text format.
Unfortunately we are coming increasingly close to a single platform dominating the computing world, Microsoft Windows running on an Intel CPU. More and more people are simply unaware that there are any viable alternatives, and so use the so called industry standard platform.
And so we formed Convergence, to provide information to re-educate people and show that there is more to computing than a single operating system and a single processor, and to support users of alternative platforms.
We would rather not use the phrase "non-Wintel" to describe what we support, but short of listing all the platforms we _do_ support every time we currently say "non-Wintel", it's the only option.
We also believe Java is an important development in allowing diversity of computer platforms by providing a common language to allow maximum portability of applications. However as Java is well supported by the mainstream computing community and news providers, and the Java Lobby do an excellent job of supporting Java users and developers, we do not feel we need to concentrate of it.
As a member you will receive a regular newsletter containing news relating to Convergence International and non-Wintel platforms, as well as priority access to future developments such as the non-Wintel search engine.
There are individual news pages for the following platforms: Acorn, Amiga, Apple, ARM, Be, Network Computers (NCs), Psion, and a section for miscellaneous news which is relevant to Convergence.
Also the news summary page gives a brief rundown of the current important news for all the supported platforms. Convergence places the most relevant items there for quick reference, and the page is updated nearly every day - for the latest non-Wintel news check it often! It is also possible to register to receive an e-mail when a news page is updated. The non-Wintel news service from Convergence is totally FREE and there is NO advertising on the news pages - it is part of our voluntary mission to make people aware of the advantages of non-Wintel platforms. The non-Wintel news service is at http://www.convergence.org/news/
We are currently collecting links and reviewing non-Wintel web sites to create a database of quality non-Wintel links with independent descriptions. To beta test CIhoo go to http://search.convergence.org/ - there are currently over 1000 non-Wintel web sites listed.
If alt.comp.convergence isn't available on your local news server ask them to carry it. If all else fails alt.comp.convergence is available on the web at sites like http://www.dejanews.com/ and http://www.feedme.org/
Note: as with all alt.* newsgroups alt.comp.convergence can receive inappropriate mass postings which have nothing to do with the topic of the newsgroups (ie "spam"). As soon as the new mod.* hierarchy is available we will create a moderated newsgroup for Convergence topics.
E-mail : enquiries@convergence.org
Web : http://www.convergence.org/
Written and maintained by James Sears <js@convergence.org>.
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