Mail Archives: opendos/2000/10/29/00:56:56
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I want to tell you what Paul O. Bartlett <opendos AT delorie DOT com> said
about "Public Buying (was: Re: DRDOS FDISK" on 28 Oct 2000, at 20:29
> All I really want to do is install DR-DOS, so I can use all
> my old DOS programs instead of bowing and scraping to Windooozy, but I
> don't want to wipe Windooozy clean off the box. (For one things, there
> is one site I want to access from time to time which will refuse to
> work with anything but Internut Exploder >=4.5 or Nutscrape >=4,
> requiring that Java be enabled, and my company's intranet is set up so
> that it simply will not work with anything other than Exploder >=4.)
Is this your only computer? If you have an old clunker ("Vintage
PC") lying about you could try an installation of DR-DOS on it to see
how it goes, and get yourself some experience in partition management
before trying to add a DR-DOS partition to your Windows box.
> I am not a hacker
Keep learning about computers, and you will be... In fact, the mere
act of learning about computers qualifies as hacking, whether or not
you have ulterior motives (like a practical use for what you learn ;-
)
> and all this talk about boot records and what not is 100% perfectly
> legitimate but of little interest to me.
Since you have a need to use DR-DOS on the same computer as Windows
you DO have an interest in boot records and such. Keep reading, and
eventually you'll come across something useful.
> I recently bought Partition Magic and downloaded DR-DOS (7.02) but
> have not tried to use them yet. (Partly lack of time and partly
> trepidation.)
Once you've got the time the best way to learn is to fool around with
the software on an old computer so that you're not in danger of
damaging your production equipment. If you do want to work on your
production equipment make backups! Then make another set of backups!
You need to make a risk analysis -- is the extra functionality of DR-
DOS worth the risk of damaging the stuff on the computer? If the
risk outweighs the benefits then hire someone to do it for you --
that is, if the benefits outweigh the cost of hiring someone to do
the work...
> First I think I need to get a new modem, as what came with my box
> was apparently one of those cheesy "Winmodems." (BeOS would not
> use it, and somebody on a BeOS list called it a Winmodem.)
Some WinModem manufactures (USR, aka 3Com) have come to realize that
Open Source is where it's at, and are releasing the programming specs
for the WinModems to the Open Source community. Mostly, this is
being used to create modem drivers for Linux, but nothing should
stop an enterprising programmer from writing a driver for other OSes
(like DR-DOS). And no, don't look to me...
> But beyond that, I do not want to play with the computer as an
> end in itself.
Nothing wrong with that. But _some_ of us do!
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