From: bpmurray*STUFFER*@socrates.cgl.ucsf.EDU (Bernard P. Murray, PhD) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: DJGPP: the future is... ? Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 18:17:24 -0700 Organization: University of California, San Francisco Lines: 27 Message-ID: References: <199903260517 DOT AAA32193 AT envy DOT delorie DOT com> <36FBE6A6 DOT D1407A64 AT cableol DOT co DOT uk> <3 DOT 0 DOT 1 DOT 16 DOT 19990405165122 DOT 258fc61a AT shadow DOT net> NNTP-Posting-Host: mac-daddy.ucsf.edu To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com In article <3 DOT 0 DOT 1 DOT 16 DOT 19990405165122 DOT 258fc61a AT shadow DOT net>, djgpp AT delorie DOT com wrote: > At 03:54 PM 4/5/99 +1000, you wrote: > Can you go out and buy DOS now--not an upgrade, but I mean the real thing > to start up. I don't think you can. Can you? Yes, IBM DOS 7 is available commercially (I saw it in CompUSA recently). However, it is almost impossible to pursuade any of the computer assemblers to omit a Microsoft Win* OS from their current systems so you'll always have something to start with. I assembled my own and installed Novell DOS 7 (and Windows 3.11 (!)) from scratch (and this is a PII/350). Thankfully the original diskettes were still functional. Has anyone asked IBM how much longer they will maintain plain 'ol DOS? Will this only be done on a par with whatever Miicrosoft is offering? Will they let it go the way of OS/2 (supported but no longer developed)? Maybe we can pursuade IBM to release DOS as Open Source (I doubt it as they are still tied to Microsoft). Bernard -- Bernard P. Murray, PhD Dept. Cell. Mol. Pharmacol., UCSF, San Francisco, USA