[net.micro.pc] DOS 2.01 ?

stekas@houxy.UUCP (11/02/83)

 I think I read somewhere that yesterday IBM announced a new
version of DOS along with the PCjr (a.k.a. Peanut).   Is this
just for the PCjr or will it replace DOS 2.0 on PC and XT?
And how much will it cost and when can I buy one?

				Jim.

ark@rabbit.UUCP (11/03/83)

According to the literature I saw, DOS 2.01 replaces DOS 2.0 .
It is functionally equivalent, except that it incorporates
support for PCjr.  If you don't have a jr,  it appears that
there is no reason to bother with it.

DOS 2.01 will be the ONLY system supported on PCjr.

phipps@fortune.UUCP (11/03/83)

DOS 2.1 ("oh ... you mean the one just announced ?", asked the person
with whom I just spoke at the IBM Product Center in Sunnyvale (Cal.))
will be available in January 1984 at a cost of $65.      

She informed me that if I were a programmer, I would also want 
to order the DOS Technical Reference, which costs an additional $30.
While I'm not enthused about paying almost $100 for the DOS
and its complete manual set, I have some hunches about this new approach
to DOS manuals:

o   The audience for the PCjr is certainly less technically sophisticated
    (on the average) than that for the PC or XT.

o   These new masses of computer novices will need even more tutorial 
    text in the DOS manuals than was previously the case, 
    so the manual grows thicker.  Maybe the new manual with the really 
    technical stuff removed is as thick as the DOS 2.0 manual is now.
    I heard complaints that the DOS 2.0 manual already had too many pages
    for its binder.

o   Many PCjr prospective customers might be scared or otherwise turned off 
    by the diagrams of file descriptors and lists of interrupts,
    so IBM may have chosen to avoid their negative effects (i.e., lost sales)
    by hiding the intimidating stuff in a separate manual.
    In less cynical terms, why put stuff in a manual that its average owner
    can't use or even understand ?

o   With more pages, IBM's costs may genuinely have increased, 
    but in any event, I'm sure they will cheerfully accept this chance 
    to make some extra bucks.

-- Clay Phipps