Goodday to you all, Just like Brian I kept Geoff Worboys list as well. It's now 3 years later and I have bought my first Windows 7 (64bit) PC.
Should I reinstall it with Win XP or did someone already find an *easy* way to run DP on Win7? By the way: I don't care about printing. The DP files are on a network drive. So, if someone knows an easy way please share it with me. Regards Gerard van Loenhout 2010/1/26 Brian Hancock <[email protected]> > Hi Geoff, > > Nice research, I will keep this posting as a good reference for some of the > options available. > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Geoff Worboys > Sent: Tuesday, 26 January 2010 5:53 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Dataperf] DP into the future > > Hi All, > > Some recent posts by Don Friedman inspired this essay and idea. > He said: > > It would seem that the "squeeze" we all anticipated a decade > > ago is starting to be felt. > and > > I miss the continuity of our DP efforts but I have to believe > > that the handwriting is on the wall. > > I agree with these sentiments, the push from Microsoft to leave > 16bit behind is beginning to really squeeze. This post is an > attempt to consolidate a list of some of the ways to keep DP > productive a bit longer. > > > I've been mostly silent on this list for many years... until a > few days ago when discussions relating to running DP on x64 > versions of Windows highlighted that I probably could not run > DP (directly) on my own system. I believe I had read about > this previously but because I no longer use DP on a regular > basis I had not thought to check it out. > > I got my clients away from DP over 10 years go; the old DP > application started only occasionally to retrieve very old > payroll data (and getting more and more rare). But this does > highlight that there may be several (many?) years after you > officially finish with DP that you (or your successors) may > still want to run old DP apps. Even now, when all the old > payroll data is out of date even of legal requirement, I would > be reluctant to have a system where I could no longer run DP > (one way or another). > > > I already use VMware for other reasons so my own situation is > fairly straight forward, but I can imagine, from what I have > seen on this list, that others have more sophisticated > requirements than my own. > > There are many possibilities, below are some that I know about. > I have NOT tried all the items in this list, they are simply > the results of my researches (now and in the past): > > > Free (DOS capable/compatible) operating systems (to be used > directly or combined with emulators or virtualisation): > > . FreeDOS - http://www.freedos.org/ > - Claims 100% compatibility with MS-DOS. > - Open-source; source and binary distributions > - Last update: v0.73 - May 2009 > > . DR-DOS/OpenDOS Enhancement Project - > http://www.drdosprojects.de/ > - Not exactly open-source, see the web-site > - Last update: v7.01.08 - Jul 2009 > > . ReactOS - http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html > - Replacement for MS Windows XP (still in alpha > and not feature-complete) > - Open source; source and binary distributions > including VMware and VirtualBox images. > - I read that it does not (yet) run 16bit apps (DOS) > but perhaps it can run DOSbox or other emulator > to allow execution of DP > - Last update: v0.3.11 Dec 2009 > > . Linux can run some of the DOS emulators below and > also has WINE (a Windows emulator) available that > may solve some situations. > > > Emulators: > > . DOSbox - http://www.dosbox.com/ > - A 32bit DOS emulation application > - Windows, Linux, Mac and others (will run > inside 64bit Windows) > - Can execute (at least some) 16bit DOS apps including > many of the utilities available with FreeDOS. > - Open-source; source and binary distributions > - Last update: v0.73 - May 2009 > > . DOSEMU - http://www.dosemu.org > - A 32bit DOS emulation application > - Linux systems only > - Can execute (at least some) 16bit DOS apps > - Open-source; source and binary distributions > - Last update: v1.4.0.1 - May 2007 (but some > activity showing in sourceforge through 2010) > > . Bochs - http://bochs.sourceforge.net/ > - A 32bit x86 PC emulator > - Windows, Linux, Mac and others (will run > inside 64bit Windows) > - Can execute many x86 operating systems > - Open-source; source and binary distributions > - Last update: v2.4.2 - Nov 2009 > > . JPC - http://www-jpc.physics.ox.ac.uk/ > - A (32bit?) x86 PC emulator > - Java (most operating systems) > - Can execute many x86 operating systems > - Open-source; source and binary distributions > - Last update: Jul 2009 > > > Virtualisation: > > . Microsoft - have several virtualisation solutions; > Virtual PC, App-V, Hyper-V etc. > http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/en/us/default.aspx > - Latest versions run only under Windows 7 > - Latest versions officially support only Windows 7, > Vista and XP guest systems > - Older versions can support a wider range of host and > guest operating systems - if you can get them. > - Commercial products with some free offerings > > . VMware - have several virtualisation solutions; > Player, Workstation, Fusion, Server, ESXi etc. > http://www.vmware.com/ > - (Where applicable) can run under several operating > systems including: Windows (XP thru 7), Linux > and Mac (see the Fusion product). > - Supports many guest operating systems including: > MS-DOS, Windows (WFW, 95 thru 7), Linux, Novell, > FreeBSD, Sun > - Provides additional tools to install on guests to > improve integration with the host, these include > support for guests: Win95 and later, Linux, Solaris, > FreeBSD, Netware > - Older versions can operate under (be hosted by) older > versions of Windows/Linux etc. > - Commercial products with some free offerings > > . VirtualBox - http://www.virtualbox.org/ > - Can run under several operating systems including: > Windows (XP thru 7), Linux, Solaris and Mac > - Supports many guest operating systems including: > MS-DOS, Windows (3.1, 95 thru 7), Linux, Solaris, > FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OS/2 Warp 4.5. > - Provides additional tools to install on guests to > improve integration with the host, these include > support for guests: WinNT and later, Linux, Solaris > and OS/2, > - Mixed licence options; includes an open-source/free > version (that excludes certain important features > like RDP and USB support) and a free for personal > use (or evaluation) edition with all features. > > > And as I noted on a previous posting there are many other > virtualisation/emulation products, some of which can be found > listed here: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_platform_virtual_machines > > > Idea: > > Where all this is leading is the idea that the community here > could put together instructions and/or installations to assist > users to migrate to some useful alternative DP configuration > and so offer an even longer future. > > . disk images (using FreeDOS and DP etc) ready to use in > one or more of the emulators listed above > > . installation/zip collections of tested configurations > (for example; DOSbox, FreeDOS and DP). > > . VMware and/or VirtualBox images with appropriate > installation/configuration: > - FreeDOS and DP > - Linux / WINE / DOSEMU|DOSbox and DP > - ReactOS and DOSbox and DP > > (It would have been neat to include TAME in some/any of > the above... maybe he would permit an evaluation version > to be installed.) > > The first two points I suggest would best be created as network > ready; waiting for the user to direct the configuration to > specific network paths and printers. Only the third option is > probably practical to create with it's own disk capacity for > databases etc. > > I don't actually have the time to try all these out myself, > these are just some thoughts to see what people think. If any > people here had time to experiment with some of these options > (or others that may be out there), then documenting the results > could help other people looking to solve particular problems. > > -- > Geoff Worboys > Telesis Computing > > _______________________________________________ > Dataperf mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf > > _______________________________________________ > Dataperf mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf >
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