MS-DOS version (was: What's best to do?? classically speaking

On Fri, 22 Jun 2001, Richard Erlacher wrote: NO, Compaq was NOT "the source of v3.31". They were one of many. ALL OEMs were offered 3.31. Many did not want to pay the asking price. Compaq and Zenith were the most notable ones who did. There are minor differences in MODE.COM, IO.SYS, FORMAT.COM, and a few other files from one OEM's version to the next. 1.25?, 2.11, and 3.31 are the OEM versions that were most commonly customized, with changes such as support for 720K 5.25", 720K 3.5" (same, but a few messages altered), internal/external video, ... Whenever using 1.25, 2.11, or 3.31, ALWAYS keep track, AND IDENTIFY, which OEM it was. The customizations were different from one OEM to the next. Prior to 5.00, MS-DOS was, IN THEORY, available only from OEMs. Yes, there was such a giant gray market that nobody noticed the restriction. There appears to have been a 10 year non-competition contract between MICROS~1 and IBM, wherein MICROS~1 could sell to OEMs, but could not sell DOS as a retail product. 5.00 was the first version where DOS was available legitimately as a retail product. It was "NEW and IMPROVED!" The "NEW and IMPROVED" consisted mostly of bug fixes to 4.00, plus availability from MICROS~1. NOTE: 5.00 has met the 10 year rule for over a month now. Windoze 3.10 has 2 more months to go, even for BETA. OB_OT: NOT COUNTING bundling of additonal [third party] programs, who can name what the differences are between 5.00 and 6.00? -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com