kjh@pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson N8DGN) (02/07/90)
I am going to upgrade my version of DOS (despite how poor the O/S is), in order to use 1.44 MB floppies. (Only version 3.3 and up supports this). I would like comments on these questions and related issues: 1) What bugs in 3.3 or 4.0 have been found? Have they been corrected? Are the patches available? 2) What significant advantages does 4.0 offer over 3.3? What disadvantages does version 4.0 have compared to 3.2? 3) I understand that some of my existing software won't work under 4.0. I am speaking specifically of the Norton Utilities; the FAT is allegedly different on 4.0 than previous versions. Does anybody know if the Norton Utilities version 4.5 (Advanced Edition) works with DOS 4.0? Is there other software which won't work correctly with DOS 4.0? If you have information that is relevant, but not specifically requested here, would you please share it? Thank you. Additional Note: I will also be runing minix on my PC. Minix will probably be my primary operating system, except where I want to use some DOS applications. Minix is a Unix version 7 operating system written by Andy Tanenbaum, and is available very cheaply (~$100). Source code is included for this price! For more information, read comp.os.minix. "Before Abraham was born, Kenneth J. Hendrickson N8DGN I AM!" Jesus of Nazareth 1709 S. Bonnie Brae St., LA, CA 90006 Internet: kjh@usc.edu UUCP: ...!uunet!usc!pollux!kjh
jmerrill@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Jason Merrill) (02/08/90)
In article <22708@usc.edu> kjh@pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson N8DGN) writes: >3) I understand that some of my existing software won't work under > 4.0. I am speaking specifically of the Norton Utilities; the > FAT is allegedly different on 4.0 than previous versions. Does > anybody know if the Norton Utilities version 4.5 (Advanced > Edition) works with DOS 4.0? Is there other software which > won't work correctly with DOS 4.0? I use the Norton Utilities Advanced Edition 4.5 with MS-DOS 4.01 (not an OEM package, the one from Microsoft), and have no problems whatsoever, except that NU doesn't seem to like 50-line mode (it loses the bottom line of the display, which contains the F-key menu). -- Jason Merrill jmerrill@jarthur.claremont.edu "I believe in peace and bashing two bricks together." --Archbishop Gumby
otto@tukki.jyu.fi (Otto J. Makela) (02/09/90)
In article <22708@usc.edu> kjh@pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson N8DGN) writes:
I am going to upgrade my version of DOS (despite how poor the O/S is),
in order to use 1.44 MB floppies. (Only version 3.3 and up supports
this). I would like comments on these questions and related issues:
1) What bugs in 3.3 or 4.0 have been found? Have they been
corrected? Are the patches available?
There are bugs in all DOS versions, luckily MicroS*t has a reasonable good
record on these. For example, on most versions of DOS 3.30 the CONFIG.SYS
command DRIVPARM won't work (MicroS*t issued a fix for this, but most OEMs
haven't applied it). Some major bugs have been found in DOS 4.0, for which
patches are available (actually, you probably will have your DOS already
patched if you buy it now). These had to do with the new disk I/O routines
(see below).
2) What significant advantages does 4.0 offer over 3.3? What
disadvantages does version 4.0 have compared to 3.2?
The one major advantage in DOS 4.0 is the ability to make disk partitions
greater than 32Mbytes. The major drawback (in my point of view) is that
DOS 4.0 is significantly (about 40k) larger than DOS 3.30, thus taking up
valuable lowest-640k-memory. Also the large disks get slow, since the FAT-
based file system is hardly ideal for these capacities.
3) I understand that some of my existing software won't work under
4.0. I am speaking specifically of the Norton Utilities; the
FAT is allegedly different on 4.0 than previous versions. Does
anybody know if the Norton Utilities version 4.5 (Advanced
Edition) works with DOS 4.0? Is there other software which
won't work correctly with DOS 4.0?
Yes, Norton Advanced 4.5 will work correctly on DOS 4.0, as will PC Tools V5.
Most of the major packages now available have been upgraded to work with it.
The main cause for non-operation (my view, again) is software that can't cope
with a disk drive larger than 32Mbytes.
Additional Note: I will also be runing minix on my PC. Minix will
probably be my primary operating system, except where I want to use
some DOS applications. Minix is a Unix version 7 operating system
written by Andy Tanenbaum, and is available very cheaply (~$100).
Source code is included for this price! For more information, read
comp.os.minix.
A word of warning: Minix is NOT intended to be a "real" operating system,
but simply a teaching aid for Mr. Tanenbaum's course for operating systems
(since he couldn't share AT&T code) -- this means that it is not very
robust, operating-wise. If you are used to Unix, you will be disappointed.
The last I heard, it could only support "small-model" (code+data <64k)
programs, is this currently true ?
--
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