Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!SYSD.SALFORD.AC.UK!KEITH From: KEITH@SYSD.SALFORD.AC.UK (Keith Wolstenholme) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: To fix or not to fix. Message-ID: Date: 26 Aug 88 07:48:27 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 32 Atari already went down this route once, when the XLs were introduced they weren't 100% compatible with the older machines but they did have RAM located "underneath" the OS ROMS. Various translator disks were produced that turned off the OS in ROM and loaded the older OS into RAM. When the ST was introduced the OS was on disk but was moved to ROM to save memory in the limited 512K available. With larger memories perhaps its time for a move back to this system at least for intermediate fixes/upgrades and to enable users to load older ill-behaved software. I, owning a MEGA ST2 with blitter, could use a disk based, pre-blitter OS that would turn off the blitter and give the option of booting other software before attempting to initialise the desktop. Would the original OS do this ? If so how can I get hold of a copy ? (I haven't seen it in any PD lists). Maybe only a small patch would be needed ? Releasing new upgrades/fixes this way would have benefits for Atari too. They would have the best chance to sort out any bugs before taking the expensive step of commiting yet another buggy OS to silicon !! JANET keith@uk.ac.salford.sysd ARPA: keith@sysd.salford.ac.uk UUCP: ..ukc!sysd.salford.ac.uk!keith PHONE: +44 61 737 7010 POST: 3-S, Computer Centre, Salford University, Salford, M5 4WT, U.K.