Hi,
Not only it's a waste of resources for someone who
doesn't launch Windows on a regular basis but it's
just inaccessible to people who, like me once, run
their favourite "Real Mode" DOS applications on an
XT, an AT, or even an early Pentium. Of my twenty
some PCs, the four ones that i keep firing up from
time to time are DOS-friendly and yet the main one
only sees W32, i'm afraid; my Grid (XT) LapTop is
nice for testing stand-alone diskettes but there's
no motivation for such minimalistic goals anymore,
my old IBM ThinkPad-500 (386) LapTop stands beside
the DSL MoDem for those rare events when i require
a terminal to do maintenance/monitoring and my P-1
200 Mhz, which is my actual plain-old-DOS station,
was marginally usefull after i got involved into a
sudden Linux CDs testing frenzy during the summer.
The only PC i use on a regular basis happens to be
the one that's XP/2K compatible; i can switch the
hard-disks thru the CMOS SetUp utility to load DOS
from the 2nd unit but i must admit i don't even do
that these days. In the BBS era i used to promote
DOS to a point where the SysOps started calling me
a "priest" or an "evangelist" for pushing too hard
while, in fact, one could have argued it was those
guys who did push on their favourite technology...
The hobby that is responsible for making me a die-
hard DOS user, or lets say a former one by now, is
gone into oblivion and i've become like those i've
fought: a multi-media consumer who's sucking more
content than he would be able to produce in a life
time. Lets face it, the fight is over as everyone
who can afford to spend some money on computing is
going to end up with an XP/2K compatible PC unless
he prefers Linux. The future of DOS is the Legacy
hobby that one will base on continuously improving
DOS box emulators and it's where SWSVPkt comes in.
We can't agree more: the SoftWare Systems Virtual
Packet-Driver is a waste of resources to those who
have an old, often ISA-based, DOS-friendly machine
available but the point is i made this post to the
attention of those who don't, whatever the reason.
I view the VMWare, SoftWare Systems SoundFX 2000 &
Virtual Packet-Driver, or similar tools as allies:
these are capable of extending the DOS experience;
Windows/Linux once meant "no-man's land" for a DOS
enthusiast because peripheral deprivation made the
migration impossible but things have changed and i
can't ignore the SoftSys FreeWare now that i found
it - it's all my WatTCP applications will require!
Once it's installed and working, i could play with
my fetish "Pure" DOS InterNet applications and you
would never know looking at my screen or reading a
post about it. But yes, it's still for W32 users.
So, what do we do about it? Ask a DOS enthousiast
to keep two PCs around or acknowledge that there's
room for guys who can only afford SWSVPkt, etc?...
Salutations,Michel Samson
a/s Bicéphale
