Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!think.com!mintaka!bloom-beacon!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!pshuang From: pshuang@athena.mit.edu (Ping-Shun Huang) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Subject: Re: DOS 5.0 reseller protection? Message-ID: Date: 19 Jun 91 01:21:43 GMT References: Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system) Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 30 In-Reply-To: elund@graphics.rent.com's message of 18 Jun 91 05:19:33 GMT In article elund@graphics.rent.com (Eric W. Lund - Subop) writes: > and what he meant by Microsoft taking steps to stop resellers from > including pirated copies of DOS 5.0 with their systems. Can anyone > explain what he was talking about? Many of the less scrupulous hardware manufacturers have in the past sold their systems with some version of MS-DOS pre-installed on the hard disk, even though they did not pay Microsoft a licensing fee to provide you with a copy. I have not read the Computer Shopper magazine, but I'm pretty sure this is what the author was talking about. The more reputable companies, by the way, who provide you with DOS pre-installed, do pay Microsoft their blood money {grin} and the proof is usually that you get the original DOS manual and diskettes with the system. > Also, the article featured the DOS Shell, and didn't discuss the changes to > the command.com. What changes have been made to the line prompt, internal > and external commands, etc? Changes to command.com include aliases and command recall, providing a *SMALL* but useful part of the kind of functionality available in 4DOS and the various UNIX shells, if you're familiar with them. Changes to internal and external commands include adding lots more option switches (i.e. DIR is much more flexible now) and online help. And of course you've heard lots and lots about changes in memory management. {grin} -- Singing off, UNIX:/etc/ping instantiated (Ping Huang)