---> Rumors of the death of DOS are greatly exagerated <---


Even in the new millenium, the Disk Operating System (DOS) continues to 
remain a viable alternative, and there is a healthy infusion of new 
software and hardware drivers continuing to be offered.  Unfortunately 
there is an 800 pound gorilla that, in order to protect its software 
monopoly, has spread misinformation about what DOS can actually do, and 
the ability of DOS to function with newer hardware or the Internet 
(due to contractual agreements with Microsoft in the late 1990's, many 
commerial entities are not even allowed to OFFER DOS products)!

One of the biggest misconceptions is that DOS is the suite of utilities 
that was originally shipped on a set of diskettes called "DOS".  In 
truth, DOS consists of -ONLY- two files, IO.SYS (or IBMBIO.SYS) and 
MSDOS.SYS (or IBMDOS.SYS), along with some kind of command interperator 
(usually a Command-Line Interperator such as COMMAND.COM).  All other 
utilities can be replaced or expanded upon, and these are where DOS 
gets its power.  

To function with todays hardware and software, DOS MUST be coupled with 
an equally modern and/or powerful set of extension utilities.  
Unfortunately, these products are often difficult to locate.  The 
DOS_Lives directory is an attempt by me to provide a central location 
for important DOS utilities and drivers that will turn your computer 
into a powerful, stable, and safe tool for work and play. 

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NOTICE:
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All the programs in this and the following sub-directories are already 
pre-configured for your system.  All you have to do is decompress the 
ZIP file to get a folder containing the program files.  Place the 
folder wherever you like and (with at most only minor adjusting) the 
program is ready to run.  

Please read the documentation, make any tweeks, and then enjoy!  


WARNING: These utilities, drivers, and programs are intended for a PURE 
DOS environment.  Do -NOT- attempt to use them under Microsoft Windows 
(they MAY however work quite well under OS/2 WARP)!  

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