30 Jan
2008
30 Jan
'08
2:51 p.m.
MS-DOS was
NEVER sold retail until 5.00.
> Any copies that you bought before that were either developer support,
> through a computer OEM, or gray market. (grey market outside of USA) I think you meant to say "NEVER sold retail under
the Microsoft brand
name". You could certainly find "branded" MS-DOS on store shelves
well before MS-DOS 5. I've got a copy of "Phoenix MS-DOS 3.31" in
retail packaging, complete with way to hang it from a pegboard hook.
I don't know if Phoenix (the BIOS makers) were violating an agreement
in packaging it this way, or if the store I bought it from was doing
something shady. No computer purchase was necessary to buy a copy.
Just grab it and bring it to the register. I think that counts as
retail.
Gray market IS often retail.
Valid, legitimate copies from a user perspective, but NOT explicitly
authorized as retail.
Those "branded" copies were not sold under the MICROS~1 brand.