[svlug] Boot program

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Rafael Skodlar (raffi at kset.com):

> Not everybody owns a copy of MS DOG, i.e. people entering the computer
> world in the last few years don't necessarily have (a legal) copy of DOS.
> New machines come with W9x and nobody (almost) knows there is DOG with
> fdisk in there or how to use it.

Eh.  It's probably not a big deal to find a cast-off copy of MS-DOS
6.x for free -- even legally.  Businesses tend to be drowning in them.

About the only thing it's useful for is its FDISK.EXE, SYS.COM, 
DELTREE.EXE, UNDELETE.EXE, SCANDISK.EXE, DEFRAG.EXE, and FORMAT.EXE.  
For re-writing the MBR and creating FAT16 partitions, it's very simply 
the best, best-tested and most reliable tool.  When one is creating 
production filesystems, one does not want to take chances.  (Oh yes, 
MS-DOS is also handy as an environment for some games.)
 
If and when DR DOS or FreeDOS is as seasoned and well tested as MS-DOS
6.22 is, I'll adopt it -- like a shot.  With open source code, this 
actually _is_ likely to happen.  Until then, common sense says to
use the best tool for the job.

> "DR-DOS 7.02 is year 2000 compliant - The kernel will correct the 
> system date even if your BIOS does not support the Year 2000 " 

For the purposes I use DOS for, this isn't relevant.
 
-- 
Cheers,                Linux:  It is now safe to turn on your computer.
Rick Moen
rick (at) hugin.imat.com

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