>At some point I will probably transition from my beloved 486 to some
>kind of pentium with some kind of winblows. The answer to ``Why?'' is
>complex, and I wont bore you with it. However, PC prices seem to be
>down to about $500. US now, due to declining sales.
>
>I believe windows 95 and 98 still run on top of a real DOS, whereas later
>versions simulate dos to run dos programs. Is this correct?
>
>More important, is the dos 7 (equivalent I assume to a version of
>command.com and the files io.sys and msdos.sys) that comes with
>win 95 and 98 really capable of running 99% of the programs written for
>Dos versions 6X and earlier? I have heard that DOS 7 can not, in fact,
>run various ``real'' dos programs, but I do not know how extsensive the
>problem is.
>
>If Dos 7 is not adequate, I would need to create a separate partition
>for my dos 6.22 with all the programs I have come to depend on and
>enjoy.
>
>Thanks for any input,
-------------------------------
>Howard Schwartz
-------------------------------
You don't have to run winblows just because you transition from a 486 to Pentium
or comparable AMD chip. There is Linux and the BSDs (http://www.freebsd.org,
http://www.netbsd.org, http://www.openbsd.org). When I buy that new computer
I've been thinking about, I don't intend to let any of my money go to MS and
support their monopolistic practices; besides, I find the winblows GUI very
confusing; I prefer the DOS or Linux command prompt. I might run DR-DOS 7.03,
Linux and NetBSD. I would go for a built-to-order computer rather than a brand
name.
I notice RAM getting cheaper. I might go for 256 MB RAM as a hedge against the
growing software bloat.
Windows 95, 98 and ME run on top of a real DOS, while NT is its own OS, and
Win2000 is based on NT. WinME makes it difficult to boot into straight DOS. I
am not familiar with MS-DOS 7.x, but the Win 98SE emergency boot disk would not
read a 5.25" diskette that is readable to MS-DOS 6.22 and 5, DR-DOS 7.03 and
OS/2 Warp 3 and 4. I know OS/2 Warp runs a simulated DOS, think Win NT/2000
does the same though not as well as OS/2 Warp.
MS-DOS 6.22 and DR-DOS 7.03 handle only FAT16, not FAT32. I believe MS-DOS 7
can handle FAT32, but there are others on this list who know better than I do,
since I never ran any MS-DOS later than 6.22.
