What ever happened to manuals?

I'm sitting in front of my trusty Dell with an old digital Pentium 11 laptop sitting beside me running a CD version of Damn Small Unix (DSL) trying download a copy of open office to try and run on the laptop from a pen drive.

I got to thinking "Whatever happened to manuals?

Anybody know? Back when I first got started in CADD with and Intergraph VAX and Clipper workstations everything had a manual. The hardware manuals for the VAX and Clippers were volumous. So were the original manuals for IGDS, MicroStation and Autocad. Now, if it wasn't for windows help there would be no help at all ( which there isn't).

Now it seems that everything is either available on-line or in .pdf format. What are you suppose to do if your network connection isn't working or you don't have one? How about getting adobe to work properly these days?

Is it to much to ask that every program come with a least ONE Reference Set of Manuals? I mean when you are paying $4000.00 a copy for CADD software is that to much to ask? No one has any trouble printing and including a EULA inside the box -- Do they? If it is a matter of cost pass it along. Since manuals have vanished from the packages I haven't notice any decrease in price to compensate for the omission -- Have you?

Just something to think about the next time you have CADD problem....