Re: Partitioned drives, Win98 & other OSes

[Patricia M Godfrey pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

Note that a DOS app running in a DOS Window within Win 9.x CAN read from
and write to a Fat32 partition. My data partition, E:, was created using
the Win98 startup disk, as were all my partitions (total of 4), and XyW
(4.17DOS and Win) and dBase 5 for DOS read data from it and write data to
it all the time. When I right-click on that drive under My Computer, and
then choose Properties, I find that it is listed as a Fat32 drive. Of
course, it's not that big--about 1 G, and little of it used--because none
of my apps create very large files.
	If you do want to use XP, then, as Robert points out, trying to install
9.x can be problematic. I was suggesting ignoring GLG (and its INFAMOUS
activation) and sticking with 9.x, but getting the advantage of newer
hardware by buying a PC with NO op sys installed. (Isn't it a tad
inconsistent of us to damn Win 9.x as a "dead OS" while using a "dead"
application? If it works, it works.) Unfortunately, you cannot do that
and buy a name-brand PC, because the name manufacturers (Dell, Compaq-HP,
Gateway, IBM, etc) are FORCED by MicroSquish to install its latest (and
worse) OS on their machines. (I seem to recall a year or so ago the Linux
crowd making a to-do about this and demanding the right to send back the
CD and wipe the hard drive. Don't know the outcome, however.) That's why
I advise NOT buying from them. Three Geeks and a Goat can slip under MS's
radar, as can the mail-order houses, because they're primarily selling
COMPONENTs: if you happen to buy enought components to constitute a whole
machine, and have it assembled... And, if anyone is wondering about
reliability, I'm on my third no-name PC, and the only time I had a
component fail it was because I'm so clumsy that I damaged a board
forcing it into a slot. The components of these machines are often the
same ones you'd find in a name-brand one--or better.
	I've always used the OEM versions of Win9.x (chiefly because they're
cheaper) and have had no problems. I used a Dell and an IBM version of
Win95 OSR/2, and my current Win98 copy was for an HP. I'd steer clear of
Compaq OEM versions, however, as Compaqs, though good machines (I've used
a few second-hand for various projects) do tend to be tweaked and
customized beyond what others are. On the other hand, if you can find and
afford a full version, you are likely to get more drivers and better docs
and be in a more tenable legal position. (I consider it perfectly ethical
to use remaindered OEM software, just as I would buy a remaindered book,
but the legal picture is somewhat muddy.)
	I see that Robert mentions Caldera as owning DR-DOS. Very interesting.
Is it based only on Digital Research's old Dr-DOS (which went through
vers. 6)? Or the really nifty version that Novell created (Novell DOS 7)
when they bought DR-DOS from DR? That was what TTG always used to run XY,
and I still have it running on one of my old machines. It can run in DOS
protected mode, though its implementation is incompatible with Borland's
of the same vintage. And I'm still telling every Linux gearhead I meet
that there's this wonderful DOS word processor whose port to Linux would
be a marriage made in cyber heaven.
Patricia