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From: woan@exeter.austin.ibm.com (Ronald S Woan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: IBM vs. MS DOS 5 (was Re: Why PC DOS 5.0 = $100 & MS 5.0 = $40)
Message-ID: <4008@d75.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jun 91 16:14:20 GMT
References: <1991Jun18.011419.5625@socrates.umd.edu> <8578@awdprime.UUCP> <1991Jun19.222610.21158@panix.uucp>
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Reply-To: woan@cactus.org
Organization: Austin School of Hardknocks
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In article <1991Jun19.222610.21158@panix.uucp> nina@panix.uucp (Nina Yuan) writes:
>OK, I guess the obvious question is: what's the difference between
>PC-DOS 5.0 and MS-DOS 5.0?  Is there a difference?  In previous
>versions, the only difference I can recall is BASICA vs. GW-BASIC,
>which shouldn't matter now that Microsoft is including a QuickBasic
>complier.  Any comments?  (btw, I have an IBM AT with PC-DOS 3.1).

Let's see, aside from the differences in the install process where
IBM's version allows you to take your chances and not backup your old
system and MS allows you to do a full backup of all of your data, IBM
PC DOS doesn't come with all the same third party drivers, i.e.
Ontrack and Speedstor (I learned this the hard way, as I have
Speedstor partitioned drives), and also all of the BASICs (including
the Quick BASIC, I believe) require the ROM hooks found in all real
IBM BIOSes... The bootup hidden files are stilled named differently
from those of MS, so MS can be used for OS/2 RIPL.

Also IBM PCDOS comes with an IBM warranty as well as 800 defect
support...
-- 
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+ Ronald S. Woan                woan@cactus.org or woan@austin.vnet.ibm.com +
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