Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tektronix!tekcrl!tekgvs!toma
From: toma@tekgvs.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: lotus chairman makes 26 million
Keywords: copy protection piracy
Message-ID: <3460@tekgvs.TEK.COM>
Date: 18 May 88 18:48:54 GMT
References: <9160@cisunx.UUCP> <1801@uhccux.UUCP> <807@netxcom.UUCP> <362@cf-cm.UUCP> <26421@clyde.ATT.COM> <4780@teddy.UUCP>
Reply-To: toma@tekgvs.UUCP (Tom Almy)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
Lines: 20

In article <4780@teddy.UUCP> jpn@teddy.UUCP (John P. Nelson) writes:
>>people whom actually NEED a piece of software usually end up buying 
>>it.  if for nothing else than to rag on the company who wrote it
>>when something goes wrong ;-)
>
>Gee, I don't know.  This isn't ALWAYS true.  A simple counterexample:
>MSDOS.  I'll bet that there are a LOT of pirate copies of this
>operating system out there.  And you NEED it, or your computer system
>won't run.
>
No you don't NEED MSDOS to run your computer.  The orignal IBM/PC could be
started in Basic (no DOS at all).  IBM orignally sold three DOSes, MSDOS, 
CP/M 86, and UCSD P-System.  These are still available as well as some others
multitasking DOSes (OS/2, Pick, PC/MOS, UNIX, many others) and programming 
enviroments (some Forths come to mind).  You may not be able to run the 
software you want, but you can run the computer!

Tom  Almy
A user of MSDOS and other operating systems
toma@tekgvs.tek.com