From: Daniel Barker Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: FreeDOS (was: Re: DJGPP: the future is... ?) Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 09:43:50 +0100 Organization: Edinburgh University Lines: 51 Message-ID: References: <7fu6la$cqs$1 AT nnrp1 DOT dejanews DOT com> NNTP-Posting-Host: holyrood.ed.ac.uk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Trace: scotsman.ed.ac.uk 925202443 1723 129.215.38.17 (27 Apr 1999 08:40:43 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet AT scotsman DOT ed DOT ac DOT uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Apr 1999 08:40:43 GMT In-Reply-To: <7fu6la$cqs$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com X-Mailing-List: djgpp AT delorie DOT com X-Unsubscribes-To: listserv AT delorie DOT com Precedence: bulk On Sun, 25 Apr 1999 walt121 AT my-dejanews DOT com wrote: [snip] > Windows 2000, > according to the magazines, will not have DOS capability. Therefore, unless > DJGPP evolves to work under Windows 2000, it is dead. [snip] But not immediately. In the UK academic environment (which is the one I know about), Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11 are still heavily used. There is a healthy "if it ain't too bust, don't fix it" attitude, and hardware dating from the time of Windows 3.1 still tends to run Windows 3.1. With what seems to be a recent increase in home ownership of PCs, some students are surprised at the obsolete hardware running this obsolete system. But, once we have wasted time explaining 8.3 file names and why you should "switch to" rather than (Mac-like) repeatedly double-click the Excel icon, they can still do their work.(*) Among staff, if Windows 3.1 is familiar, a move to Win32 will waste at least some time. Excel and Word are still Excel and Word, and few of the differences between the last 3 versions seem important for most purposes. The millenium might present problems. However, the following solutions will be widely applied: (1) move the computer system clock back so it never hits the millenium; (2) use (perhaps unofficial) patches or replacements for components that fail. Both (1) and (2) have problems. For example, (1) could cause outgoing e-mails to have the wrong date on. But that can be avoided by running Pine (via telnet) on an up-to-date central Unix service. This is very possible, and indeed happens, at many universities. If either or both of these approaches works in practice, Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11 systems will be with us in significant numbers for at least several years. "Several" is vague, I know. My guess is about 6 years. ("Significant" is also a vague term ... Every such system will be significant to its user.) (*) Another serious problem I have noticed is in trying to save copies of a file to several floppy disks, e.g., when several students are collaborating on some work. For no good reason that I can think of, this remains difficult and fraught with danger when using Microsoft Office, whether under Windows 3.1 or Windows NT. Daniel Barker.