Message-ID: <37D2ECE3.9BB2B63E@unb.ca>
From: Endlisnis <s257m AT unb DOT ca>
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Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer,comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: WARNING: DOS is about to die.
References: <7quo1t$94k$1 AT solomon DOT cs DOT rose-hulman DOT edu>
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Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1999 14:20:28 GMT
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Damian Yerrick wrote:

> RUMOR that may have quite a bit of fact to it:
>
> Windows Millennium is Micr0$oft's last 9x kernel based Windows version. I
> have heard rumors that Micr0$oft will be switching to an NT kernel with its
> inferior DOS box. So how will DOS tools such as DJGPP, Allegro, etc.
> continue to survive?

Well, DJGPP does work on NT.  It doesn't have LFN support, and it can't use
SVGA graphics modes.  And I find it very annoying how slow the screen-updates
are on an NT machine running something like RHIDE.  (it's no fault of the
program, it's NT waiting too long).

    Either way, the 64-bit intel chips will go mass-market in late 2000/early
2001.  And many other companies will follow suite, so I expect a 64-bit version
of GCC will be born.  Word from Microsoft is that they will not be able to get
a 64-bit version of Windows out until ~2003, and it will be a complete re-write
(because of the large penalty for executing 32-bit code on the Merced
processor).  From what I've heard, the Merced won't support 32/16-bit code at
all, but will ship with a 'Pentium' style processor which will handle the 32/16
bit code.  Because of this, 16/32 bit code will run 10 to 100 times slower than
the 64-bit code.  This means that the Win9x/WinNT kernels will need a complete
re-write anyways.  I suspect that the underlying DOS will be replaced with a
ActiveX scripting language like the one shipped with Win98 now.

    The point being:  MS has been threatening to get rid of DOS for a long
time, and they even said after 98, that Windows2000 would be a merger of Win98
and WinNT5, but they changed their minds.  I doubt that DOS will dissapear
altogether, but I do suspect that DJGPP will change _dramatically_ in the next
5 years.

    And, even if what you say did come true, that Windows2002 is just NT and
won't run LFN's and SVGA in a dos box, then DJGPP would live on with
98/95/3.1/RealDOS users.


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