Mail Archives: opendos/2002/09/28/05:43:43.1
On 2002-09-27, Leonard Erickson wrote:
> The versions get a bit weird. I think it went something like this:
>
> Digital Research sold DR-DOS to Novell, resulting in Novell DOS 6.
> I think Novell released Novell DOS 7.
> Caldera bought it from Novell.
> [...]
> And if I've missed details, it's because they were even more
> convoluted.
OK, I'll try a brief overview over the whole single-user family and
its origin here.
The first version which came with a (very limited) PC DOS 1.0
emulation was Concurrent CP/M-86 3.2 (with a BDOS kernel level 3.2).
The "PCMODE" component, that is the emulator, could be retrofitted
to Concurrent CP/M-86 3.1 (BDOS 3.1), so this was the first
Digital Research version to support some flavour of PC DOS.
The latter DOS Plus 1.2 - 2.1 series on the Philips :Yes, the
Amstrad/Schneider PC1512 and the Acorn BBC Master 512 was nothing
but a stripped down release of Concurrent DOS 4.1 - 5.0. It already
emulated PC DOS 2.11. Of course, it could also run CP/M-86 and
Concurrent CP/M-86 programs and had (light real-mode) multitasking
capabilities.
The single-user DR DOS 3.31 - 6.0 series originally derived from
Concurrent DOS 6.0 (hence the reported BDOS level 6.0), and was
co-developed alongside the Concurrent [PC] DOS [86/XM/286/386] and
the Multiuser DOS family until 1991 - 1992, when the multi-user DOS
family was abandoned by Novell and licensed to three Master VARs,
Intelligent Micro Software, which developed IMS Multiuser DOS
into REAL/32 (7.93) and now REAL NG, Concurrent Controls, Inc.,
which still sell their CCI Multiuser DOS 7.22 Gold, and Datapac
Australasia, which developed their Datapac Multiuser DOS into
System Manager 7, now owned by Citrix but no longer available.
DR DOS reported itself as IBM PC DOS 3.31 and emulated a mixture
between Compaq MS-DOS 3.31 and PC DOS. In contrast to DOS Plus,
the changes were much more significant and it could *not* run
any CP/M programs.
Finally, the "new DR DOS series" starts with the advent of the
BDOS 7.0, a completely revised kernel, which was no longer
a heavily modified CP/M kernel coated with DOS compatible APIs
and some emulation layer, but a genuine DOS kernel with DOS
compatible data structures. BDOS 7.0 was introduced with "Merlin"
alias NetWare PalmDOS 1.0, which still reported as PC DOS 3.31.
Merlin also introduced PCMCIA card support, ROM based file systems,
and a special ROMable issue of the task switcher TASKMAX, called
"MiniMax", to run XIP and PIM applications.
Two products "Panther" and "StarTrek" were never released,
unfortunately. "Panther" was the first DR DOS version which had
the *optional* 386 Protected Mode kernel and pre-emptive multitasker
with virtual machines ("Vladivar"), at this time still in KRNL386.EXE,
not EMM386.EXE. It also introduced DPMS (DOS Protected Mode Services),
had a DPMS enabled version of AddStor's SuperStor (not Stacker,
as in later versions), it had a multi-user security module,
and came with ViewMAX/3. "StarTrek" built on "Panther" and ran
an Intel port of Apple's MacOS 7.1 on the DR DOS multitasker.
There also was a 1993 DR DOS 6.0 version to utilize this new
kernel (actually BDOS 7.1 already).
Novell DOS 7 (BDOS 7.2) no longer had any of these two GUIs, had
a single-user security module, had Stacker instead of SuperStor,
and added Personal NetWare 1.0 (the successor of NetWare Lite).
Novell DOS 7 and higher up to DR-DOS 7.03 all report themselves
as "PC DOS 6.0", but since the actual IBM PC DOS version which
reported 6.0 was marketted under the name IBM PC DOS 6.1, some
sysinfo tools report these DR DOS versions as PC DOS 6.1 as well.
Both, the reported DOS version (and since DR-DOS 7.02+ also the
BDOS version) can be changed using SETVER [/X].
Caldera OpenDOS 7.01 is basically Novell DOS 7 update 10,
AFAIR the OpenDOS 7.02 Beta 1 added Y2K support and some
of the latter Novell DOS 7 updates, Beta 2 (BDOS 7.3) had
most of the updates up to 15.2 incorporated and introduced
my heavily modified DOS BIOS, which added about hundred
useability enhancements to the CONFIG.SYS parser and other
internal components, new load-high options and many fixes.
Beta 2 also had improved Y2K support and an improved INT 13h
handler which should work with virtually all BIOSes up to 8 Gb.
The DR-DOS 7.02 and 7.03 products added many other enhancements
and fixes, too many to list them all here.
The LBA/FAT32 enabled OEM DR-DOS 7.04/7.05 still have a BDOS 7.3
kernel but report a DOS version 7.0.
--- the DOS Plus series ---
- DOS Plus 1.0??? (1985) (maybe on the Philips :Yes)
- DOS Plus 1.2, 1.2e (BDOS 4.1, 1986)
- DOS Plus 2.1 (BDOS 5.0, 1987)
NB. I am still searching for the DOS Plus version in the ROMs of the
Philips :Yes, a 80186 machine. I assume this was DOS Plus 1.0,
but it could also have been the earlierst version of 1.2, I was
not able to find out so far. Also, I am still searching for any
issue of DOS Plus 2.x (which was used by the Acorn BBC Master 512)
for my DRI history research project.
--- the "original" DR DOS series ---
- DR DOS 3.31, 3.32, 3.33, 3.34, 3.35 (1988)
- DR DOS 3.40 Beta 1, 3.40, 3.41, 3.41T, EZ-DOS 3.41 (1989)
NB. Some sources list a DR DOS 3.42, but I have never seen this one
myself and have not met anyone who actually had it - anyone else?
It could well be that this rumoured 3.42 was the same as
"Leopard" Beta 1.
- DR DOS "Leopard" Beta 1???, 2, 2B, 3 (1990)
- DR DOS 5.0 (1990)
- DR DOS "Buxton" Alpha, Beta 1, 2, 3 (1991)
- DR DOS 6.0 (1991)
- DR DOS 6.0 various updates (1992)
--- the "new DR-DOS" series ---
- DR DOS "Merlin" Beta 1, 2, 3, Evaluation Release, Release Candidates 1, 2 (1992)
- NetWare PalmDOS 1.0 (1992)
- DR DOS "Panther" Beta 1, 1A (1992)
- DR DOS "StarTrek" (1992 - 1993)
- DR DOS 6.0 "Business update 1993"
- Novell DOS 7 "Smirnoff/Panther" Beta 1, 2, 3, 4 (1993)
- Novell DOS 7 (1994)
- Novell DOS 7 Updates 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15.2
(1994 - 1996)
- Caldera OpenDOS 7.01 (1997)
- Caldera OpenDOS 7.02 Beta 1 (1997)
- Caldera OpenDOS 7.02 Beta 2 (1997
- Caldera OpenDOS 7.02 Beta 2A (1997)
- (Caldera DR-OpenDOS 7.02)
- Caldera DR-DOS 7.02 (1998)
- Caldera DR-DOS 7.02 updates 1, 2, 3 (1998)
- Caldera DR-DOS 7.03 (1998 - 1999)
- OEM DR-DOS 7.04/7.05 (1999)
- ... ;-)
(I definitely missed some of the 7.02 and 7.03 issues in this overview.)
Hope it helps,
Matthias
--
<mailto:Matthias DOT Paul AT post DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>; <mailto:mpaul AT drdos DOT org>
http://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzs180/mpdokeng.html; http://mpaul.drdos.org
"Programs are poems for computers."
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