95 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
95 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 6-15-2003
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^ Best Viewed With Dos Edit or Windows Notepad ^
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^ ^
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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*******************************************************************
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* I first would like to quickly say that this is my opinion and *
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* I am not wanting to force it on anyone, just say my what I *
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* think. *
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*******************************************************************
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The Death Of Dos
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I write to express a concern of mine. I see what may be the slow
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disappearance of the DOS community. The DOS OS to me has turned into a
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hobbyist operating system I grant you, but hobbyists are abundant in
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the world and I see no reason for it to be snuffed out.
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Now I know what is about to be said. What about FreeDOS, or PC-DOS,
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or whatever flavor you choose. I will respond with this. How many new
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freeware or shareware applications have you seen for DOS lately?
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Games, or Word Processors, or any type of utility that is of real
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use to the public.
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Since Microsoft has abandoned MS-DOS and went the way of Windows, the
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programming community has logically followed. This I do not hold
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against them. I do understand that businesses must make money, and
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with Microsoft having the control they do on the computer industry.
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(Just look at the results of the lawsuit filed where they were
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declared a monopoly and no real punishment was given, and
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now IBM being sued over Linux)
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Software makers have no choice. Though it is saddening to see that
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the power over what we do with our computers may be disappearing at
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an alarming rate. That they are being turned into outdated pieces of
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junk so Microsoft can sell more software.
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Know this, I do not support the warez and abandonware community in
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there efforts to simply copy and distribute the software how they see
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fit without permission. I do however support the idea that such a
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distribution method may be called for with permission of the copyright
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holders.
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Consider this, that we DOS users call, write, or email a business
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and ask if they will release the software that they have wrote
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for DOS to the public as freeware on a no support basis. Then after
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a time period they remove the software completely from the website
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and then it is up to the DOS community to keep it alive on freeware
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sites. Lets truly be serious that Microsoft (and I keep using them
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as an example for the control reasons mentioned above) has dumped
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support for MS-DOS and even Windows 95. Given that DOS is the first
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of two OS's to lose support and that has far reaching effects, there
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can be very little if any money to be made in the DOS community now.
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What is to happen then? The software just die? That seems wrong. And
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none of us can wait for a copyright to expire given the outrageous
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amount of time that a copyright lasts now. It would do no damage to
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Microsoft to release MS-DOS as freeware and Give a little back to
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the people that they have charged so much. And the same lack of harm
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would come to companies and people that have wrote software that
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they no longer sell or support. There is no profit to lose due to
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the fact that they are not selling anything in the first place.
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So I ask this, think of a program you liked that was for DOS, write
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the company and ask, politely of course for them to consider this
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type of proposal. Let us tend to the Operating System that we love,
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and they can write Windows programs without any interruption by the
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DOS community. Lets make abandonware LEGAL and support each other.
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People still do use computers that could only run DOS and finding
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programs for them to make the computers useful and fun are difficult.
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I hate to see computer after computer that would run DOS just fine
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being thrown into a dumpster. Its just not right and it is truly a
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waste.
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*********************************************************************
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I would Like to thank you for reading my little rant here. And no
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matter what, may the DOS community last. Comments are welcome,
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but no emotional outbursts. (Basically no swearing)
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While everyone is entitled to there own opinion, presentation
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is everything.
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Count Tigris
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count_tigris@yahoo.com
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