Hi, On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 8:31 PM, Felix Miata <mrma...@earthlink.net> wrote: > On 2012-11-11 20:01 (GMT-0500) Karen Lewellen composed: > >> Eleni wants to leave windows behind for a >> variety of reasons. She will have to decide what is more important for her, >> multitasking, as indeed Dr dos 7.03 includes as a part of its structure, >> or a large hard drive, which cannot be achieved with it. > > Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen proof 7.03 cannot coexist with a > "large" HD. Is it a lack of FAT32/>2GB partition support? That's her obstacle? > > If not, it could be that the only obstacle is her installation methodology. > What size HD does she have in that Dell laptop? What partitioning would she > prefer to have? Possibly I could do what she ultimately wants, then describe > how to do it. I too have a Dell laptop with a PIII CPU. And, if I can find > the floppies and they still work, I have Novell DOS 7 also.
I would think DR-DOS could still work, but it will only see "part" of the entire drive. Though it's unlikely to be a big problem unless she has lots of data. Keep in mind that most DOS installs aren't very big (comparatively). Heck, even XP seems lean and mean compared to its successors! I think you could use DR-DOS for multitasking work (FAT16) and "dual boot" to FreeDOS if needing to access the rest of the physical drive (FAT32) and copy between partitions if needed. (No idea about the stability or capability of EDR-DOS, esp. with DR-DOS 7.03 tools like DR-EMM386 and/or TASKMGR.) > Maybe what could meet her needs is OS/2 or eCS. Last century at least they > were always better at multitasking DOS apps than DOS ever could hope to be. > OS/2 as eComStation is currently available to run on modern hardware, though > the license is anything but cheap. A laptop old enough to be running a PIII > is likely to function with an old Warp 4 version off eBay or Craigslist. Win2k or OS/2 would probably be lean and good, esp. for DOS compatibility. Though if she hates XP, 2k is probably not a good choice. While XP is far from perfect, it was (comparatively) very very good (esp. DOS support) compared to its successors. http://www.ecomstation.com/news.phtml?action=fullnews&id=3698 Seems that eCS 2.1 is out now (as of 18 months ago). " The Home & Student version can be used by any private or small office user. As a private or small office user, you are allowed to have up to 5 licenses installed for production usage. " So that rings a bell with what I'd already heard. So the price isn't as high as it seems (esp. if you already have Warp4 and can buy upgrade only). But I've not got nor used it, so I can't give personal experience here. (At least it comes with some nice software goodies.) > The other responders may be right. The easiest route may be Linux and > VirtualBox and/or DOSEMU. Yes, depending on how savvy you are and what you need. I'm far from a pro, but those at least work loads better than Win64. (And yes, DOSEMU x86-64 actually exists and [mostly] works.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_nov _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
