Message-ID: <37D5E630.660CC961@unb.ca> From: Endlisnis X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp,comp.os.msdos.programmer Subject: Re: WARNING: DOS is about to die. References: <7quo1t$94k$1 AT solomon DOT cs DOT rose-hulman DOT edu> <7quqfr$sr4 AT acme DOT freenet DOT columbus DOT oh DOT us> <37D35CDF DOT 4317 AT earthlink DOT net> <022eeae0 DOT e55837f4 AT usw-ex0102-011 DOT remarq DOT com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 67 Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 05:30:04 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.164.188.102 X-Trace: news20.bellglobal.com 936768604 198.164.188.102 (Wed, 08 Sep 1999 01:30:04 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 01:30:04 EDT Organization: Sympatico To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Johan Venter wrote: > > The only thing that is correct here is that the new Windows > > will probably again become the most widely used OS in the > > world, but that leaves everybody completely free to choose > > any OS they want. There is nothing new here, it has also > > happened with previous versions of Windows. > Right, and why has Windows become the most popular operating system / GUI in > the world? One word: marketing. If it hadn't been for Microsoft furiously > plugging its products, we might see a lot more use of things like MacOS, > OS/2 and Linux. I don't think it is really exclusively marketing. It is that all new machines come with Win9x preinstalled. I've heard that Dell will preinstall RedHat Linux now. But things won't change until the day when most PC's come with Linux preinstalled. > And does anyone really believe Microsoft will not provide, at least at a > basic level, some support for DOS? At the end of the day, Microsoft is > nothing more than a coporate giant with a lot of money and a pretty GUI :-)) I think that if paid, MS will provide support. But, I also think they will do everything in their power to remove DOS from their OS. Especially if they have to do a complete Kernel re-write (which they will for Win64) > This is very true. Average John Doe knows absolutely nothing about > computers, doesn't want to learn anything and needs Windows to get a basic > understanding of how to point-and-click. While we're on this topic, I watched a CTV (a Canadian network) news report which was talking about memory. They had this to say: 1 bit = 1 character 1 byte = 8 characters (like an 8 character word) 1 kilobyte = 1000 bytes 1 megabyte = 1000000 bytes. I can't believe this made it to broadcast. The man whom they interviewed and who said that specific information owned a computer retail store. If we are buying computers from people who don't know what a byte is, it is no wonder that so many people need a mouse to run a computer. > If he were presented with a > white-on-black terminal like back in the glory days of DOS, he would be > forced to buy a good book and actually learn something! This is unacceptable > in today's world, as people just want to get there work done faster without > worrying about the details. I know people that only ever use the word > processor (I'm sure you do to), who break out into cold sweats if you ask > them to do anything besides double-click on the pretty icon with the big > blue W :-) I knew someone who doesn't understand the idea of keyboard-shortcuts. They use the mouse for everything except literal typing. The worst part of this, is this person is a professional C programmer! To copy/paste text, they will select the text with the mouse, the click on "Edit" then "Copy". The move the cursor with the mouse, then click "Edit" then "Paste". This person has been working for years as a programmer, and is so slow with the mouse that it is silly. -- (\/) Endlisnis (\/) s257m AT unb DOT ca Endlisnis AT HotMail DOT com ICQ: 32959047