Though I do remember trying Windows 3.0–for about two days.

I don’t understand this at all. I loved windows 3.1 (never ran 3.0, went straight from DOS to 3.1). Never had any problems, for sure. Of course, at the time I wasn’t using it for more than Word, Mine Sweeper, Solitaire and some really old games.

I’ve been using free dos for some time now, and I love it! Being able to pull out some of those sweet old PC games (hyperspeed!!!). I like it better than DOSBox, which is a more of an emulator than an actual OS.

Thanks Jim for keeping DOS alive – Ignore those who don’t see why this is a really great thing you’ve done.

Oh, and if anyone wants to find some old DOS games, I’d suggests googling “abandonware” there’s tons of old games that you may remember and are essentially free.

Answer, from my standpoint anyway, is it’s the easiest way to do simple hardware control. No hardware abstraction layers to fight with, no weird security things to fight with, and really simple programming.

Plus you can play the original X-Wing when not running a machine with it….

(Again, Thanks Jim, your efforts have been a great service on many levels).

Although I mentioned wp, it is true that I now use a word processor for my own material very little. I write everything in text with a markdown or html. I am still wavering between emacs and enhanced gedit in that regard.

That’s right–in the 70s there was a proliferation of pc systems, and some were CP/M, but many had their own proprietary DOSes, frequently attached to a Microsoft-written BASIC interpreter. Like Nathan says, I don’t quite understand why anyone would consider these things worth preserving other than as museum pieces (though once in a while I make mumbly noises to the wife about setting up a VAX/VMS system in the basement). Today, if you want command-line you can use some Unix variant; even a Mac will let you have the Terminal window.

Though I do remember trying Windows 3.0–for about two days. To this day, I am amazed that Windows didn’t die right then and there.

http://gesare.com/uploads/DSCN0219.jpg

Sometimes the simplicity of DOS is the correct answer.

Nathan, you can look back fondly if you were able to put better error handling into the FreeDOS kernel so it could work around little problems to avoid most A/R/I errors. Unlike MS-DOS.

You youngsters may think so, but actually DOS is far older than that. Before IBM PC there were numerous other DOSes. One of them was called Unix. Also PC didn’t mean Politically Correct, it meant Program Counter.

IBM’s marketing department was notorious for coining its own terminology that conflicted with everyone else.