21.   Call the toll-free line before buying a machine and ask for advice.

22.   Consumers buy machines based on price, performance and compelling applications.

23.   Consumers gladly sacrificed costly excellence and bought machines that were cheap and adequate.

24.   Consumers who bought non-MMX machines should be satisfied with them, he said.

25.   Consumers are less interested in buying machines with fewer programs, and software writers are less interested in writing programs for machines with fewer users.

26.   Compaq is calling the overall program Customer Choice,emphasizing that customers can choose to buy the machines directly, or through traditional resellers.

27.   Consumers also find that they often cannot buy the machine they want without a long wait.

28.   Dubna wound up buying two machines, and sending operators and technicians to La Crosse for training, while a La Crosse expert helped set up the Dubna site.

29.   He installed storm windows, rigged up indoor fountains, and bought white noise machines.

30.   He said people who normally would have bought machines from IBM came to Dell instead.