Hi Roger,
<<Could the reason that printers don't support DOS be because of restrictions
by Micro$plit? Could it be that Micro$plit will not permit their "Winbloz
Compatible" label be affixed to printers that also advertise that they are
capable of DOS and/or *inx? (Rhetorical questions all --- Only M$ and/or the
printer manufacturers can truthfully answer them.) >>
Sorry, Roger, but that's incorrect. The requirements for getting the
logo are documented and there's a 3rd party lab involved.
The printer maker's can save money in their printers by putting
processing requirement burdens (and thus reducing their part count)
onto the PC and it's fairly easy to do with Windows.
There are some printers that still provide the ability to talk to a computer
under DOS, but not all of them have what's needed :) but printer makers
can and do add functionallity to their printers that has nothing to do
with Windows or Windows Logo certification.
<<M$, in bundling Word (and other programs) with Winbloze, destroyed the
WordPerfect user base. Why would a person buy a word processing program when
one comes "free" with the computer? >>
Rarely free, but it's true that many folks wouldn't have asked 'is it cheaper
without it?' <g>)
.
<<M$ bought Fox Software, creator of the fast, dBase compatible database
program, FoxPro, that could run on DOS and Winbloz, and then put it out to
pasture leaving Access as the "defacto" database standard.>>
Nope. Visual FoxPro is very much alive and well. It serves a different
market user than MS Access. A lot of Fox folks participate in
http://www.universalthread.com/ , others on CompuServe's MSDevApps
forum and numerous other places.
Now, Microsoft's purchase today of another company that goes back into
and before DOS days, Great Plains Accounting Software ... <g>
Bob Buckland ?:-)
