On Apr 19, 2009, at 1:34 AM, Michael Robinson wrote: > Anything from the 90's or earlier qualifies as ancient > software. In the software world, anything that is 3 years old > can be considered ancient. Commercial DOS software hasn't been > supported since the 90's.
This statement is patently false. There are several companies who still sell and support dos software from the 90's and before even. http://www.powerbasic.com for one still sells and actively supports powerbasic for dos. Checking the usnet groups that post messages about software being posted to simtelnet still (periodically) show new versions of dos software. Embeded markets especially are still using dos for a lot of uses, and there are hundreds of software companies who still sell and support dos software for such use. Just because it's old doesn't make it automatically unsupported or abandonware. This is why you can't unilaterally assume that anything that is x years old is abandoned. Some programs are truly abandon, but more than you might think are still active. Semware still supports and sells qedit, the folks who make Vedit still sell and support dos versions as well, and these are just the few I can come up with off the top of mmy head, doing a few minutes of research on google or yahoo will turn up hundreds more. I'm fairly certain rar and arj (and possibly pkzip) still accept registrations for their dos versions of their software, and other companies will as well if you ask about it. Dos is by no means dead, though there are companies out there who would have you believe otherwise. Please, don't assume that because it's dos software it's abandoned. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and save $200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San Francisco. 300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today. Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
