Where I used
to work, there was an IBM PS/2 model 80 that was installed
in a closet to do coordination of manufacturing equipment status and
utilization reports when it was new. It ran DOS. It was deinstalled in
May 2001. It had been running continuously without a crash, except for
losses of power, and that only happened twice in the same year, in 1992.
i wouldn't doubt it, i used to run DOS on my 386 many moons ago, and it never
gave me any trouble. it's great. it's almost entirely useless for doing more
Back in the old single application days it wasn't uncommon for a program to
load and basically totally take over the computer entirely or as much as
the programmer cared for it to, bypassing the OS and talking directly to
the hardware etc. If you do that, other than some hardware compatibility
issues you can make the system as rock solid as anyone would desire, as
long as hardware works well. Some games are still that way a little.
Ultimately I think this is why open systems will grow in popularity.