DOS 5 Upgrade Video

Every now and then I stumble on something so ridiculous that I have to share it. This is a promotion video to upgrade to DOS 5 obviously made in a different era. Promoting features like mouse support, a graphical shell, and freeing up at LEAST 45k of memory, well, Gimme 5! Did I mention that it's all set to a hip beat? You'll love it. And by "Love" I mean "Stick forks in your eyes".

Re:News?

[Aladrin]

Because CmdrTaco posted it and IT'S HIS SITE. Go make your own site so people can complain about what you post on it.

Back when people could actually code..

[onion2k]

Coders today are right lazy bastards. 45kb was a lot. You had to think about organising things properly. Today I write code in languages (PHP mostly, some Perl) that hide all manner of management away from you. I'm certain that someone of my Dad's generation who wrote software in the olden days (1960s/70s/80s) would have a fit at some of the stuff I get away with.

We shouldn't laugh at the idea of freeing up 45k, we should thank our lucky stars it's no longer something we have to care about. We have it easy.

Re:News?

[TheOldSchooler]

Hey it's better than the 12, count 'em, 12 consecutive non-stories posted by kdawnson that are on the frontpage right now.

Just remember

[flynt]

20 years from now, people are going to be laughing as hard and reminiscing at our current technology and ads for it.

"4 GB of memory, lol, amazing they could do anything with that!! Coders must have been gods back then to get any performance out of those machines. I miss those days! Sigh...."

Re:Back when people could actually code..

[Anonymous Coward]

We have it easy and we do more than ever before. Call it lazy all you want, all that extra power is going towards greater levels of abstraction, increasing security and flexibility (in theory).

Highly complex software goes to market faster than ever, thanks to the base we're building on. Don't pine for the glory days when that base wasn't even there. We're in an age where Microsoft has to be able to write a real server OS, where Apple has a real multitasking/memory management system, where Linux does everything plus 2 kitchen sinks (one written in GTK+, one in QT), where IBM is plugging Java and fostering cross-platform solutions. We don't have to build everything from the ground up. Does that come with a serious amount of overhead? Hell yes!

Just don't wish too hard for the days where you had to build your whole base before you could even start to build an application.

Re:Forget Vista!

[Hokie06]

Suspect? It originally shipped on a single 3.25" floppy.

Thats why I never upgraded to DOS 5, it required me to upgrade my floppy drive.

Re:Just remember

[Dunbal]

20 years from now, people are going to be laughing as hard and reminiscing at our current technology and ads for it.

+++++++++++++++IMTF++++++++++++++++
      The scary thing is, 20 years from now people might look back and envy us being able to do whatever we wanted with our computers:

      Dear citizen, due to your recent visit to the following website: 208.195.75.5, on 9-12-2027 at 0154 UTC according to our logs, your internet privileges have been withdrawn. This website has been flagged by the government for promoting and inciting unpatriotic behaviour.

      Please report to your local police station for processing within 72 hours of this notice, or you will be considered a terrorist sympathizer.

      This is an automated message generated by the Internet Monitoring Task Force. Please do not respond.

Re:News?

[_xeno_]

Funny - I'd consider this story to be "classic Slashdot." Stories like this one are what Slashdot is all about! If you want only serious tech news, well, I'm sure there's a site out there for you. Slashdot isn't it.

Re:News?

[catbutt]

The possessive does not only refer to ownership. I do not own my mom, but she is still my mom.

Being the founder/creator of something makes the term "his site" appropriate.

Re:Hey, DOS 5 was cool

[penix1]

Much better than 4. And the memory management did help. I remember with the help of QEMM I was able to get something like 633K free, which was incredible.

The problem with your statement is that QEMM was made by Quarterdeck not Microsoft. Microsoft had emm386 as their memory manager. It was far below the capabilities of QEMM.

Re:It's not the same

[TheAwfulTruth]

Wow, did you actually just say "4 Gig should be enough for anybody"?!?!?

Dud you have NO IDEA where computers will be in 20 years, but one thing that is sure, 4 gig will be NOTHING.

Re:News?

[notthe9]

The point stands...he's the one who operates it.

Re:Back when people could actually code..

[Anonymous Coward]

How did idiotic nonsense like this get modded up??? You do not have to write crap just because your memory is limited. It you had actually written code in that era, like some of us, you'd know that!

Re:Forget Vista!

[King_TJ]

It was just last year, I did an on-site service call for a small business owner. He said his printer quit working and he wanted it repaired. It turned out, he had an old Epson dot-matrix printer, and the reason he wanted it repaired, rather than just replaced, was because it was paired up with a 386 class desktop PC running MS-DOS. (I think he was actually "current" with version 6.22 though, not 5. Heh.)

The only thing he did with this PC, since it was new, was business-related work, including Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets and printing address labels from some address label software. (MyMailList Pro I believe)

It was amazing how functional and productive this arrangement really was for him. As he pointed out, the old dot-matrix printer ribbons were FAR cheaper than inkjet cartridges, and he didn't need better print quality for address labels or for reports generated from spreadsheets.

He could pull up his software and start working in less time than it takes Windows to boot, even on a really fast, modern PC. With no Internet connectivity, he had almost zero worry about a virus or spyware messing things up -- and running DOS, he didn't even have to mess with regular software updates, requiring reboots and all.

(We actually did managed to fix his printer, by buying another broken one off eBay that had a different issue. His just had a dead power supply board in it.)

Re:News?

[phoenixwade]

Do you always take your dick off before you offer a rebuttal?

That should have been modded "Funny"... Oh, well, too many people with no sense of humor. I plan on filing this one away, that remark will become a classic.

On topic:

    Yeah, this article is news or, rather, it's appropriate for slashdot. It's a bit of classic nerd stuff, a walk down memory lane, if you will. And it serves to remind us of a time when Microsoft wasn't hiring pro marketing companies to do slick ad campaigns. (Although some companies were, Apple used Chiat \ Day for the famous 1984 Macintosh Superbowl commerical.)

Re:News?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

You're right about that, but then, I still don't see why people shouldn't be allowed to say that the story is lame.

Re:News?

[demonbug]

Since comments are a valuable part of the site, no, this is not "his", or "their" site now. It's ours.

So that's why there are so many pointless and inane comments on here... it's not that people are boring and uninteresting, it's just that they're trying to raise their ownership stake in the site by increasing their percent share through posting whatever pops into their head!

Re:News?

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one think kdawson cracked CmdrTaco's password.