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Finally have something that looks like it will make a viable DOSbook!

My Conturas didn't generally have problems with suspending (probably because they were so old). And (1) I don't really expect to do a lot of suspending with Ventura Publisher active (too much risk of crashing it, and a Ventura crash generally means going into Norton Disk Doctor to clean up a bunch of lost chains, which is a bit of a bother), and (2) if I suspend in DOSShell, it cleans up as soon as I launch anything and return to DOSShell, so all I really need to do is add a "no-op with immediate return" to the command list.
 
The F: and G: volumes have now made it onto the DOSbook, allowing me to work with Ventura Publisher chapters that reference stuff on those volumes. Together, they took only about 3 hours, but then again, unlike E:, they're both mostly empty space, even on my tower (and the DOS partitions on my tower are only about a quarter of the hard drive space, the rest being taken up by Linux volumes).

Now all it needs is an anti-theft sticker, something to the general effect of:DOSbook antitheft label.png
 
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Now all it needs is an anti-theft sticker, something to the general effect of:
.....
Do you know that in the beginning I completely misunderstood you? I thought you wanted to write a book about DOS or so. But that can happen if one isn't a native English speaker.

The idea is great and I have an IBM 486 laptop laying around (brand unknown, no access right now) doing nothing at the moment that looks like a nice target. In fact I have a 610 as that I use a lot in W98 DOS mode but is in fact dual boot: I use XP to access other computers over my network to exchange files, nothing more.

What are the "rules" for calling something a DOSbook?
- only MS-DOS, PC-DOS or FreeDOS?
- No Windows at all, not even 1.0?
- GUIs like GEOS or GEMs?
A list of what is allowed would be appreciated!
 
Well, if I were tasked with writing a definition of "DOSbook," it would be an extension of "DOS box." Just as a DOS box is a desktop or tower system that runs DOS, rather than WinDoze, Mac OS, Linux, XENIX, ChromeOS, other *nix, or OS/2 (or for that matter, TRSDOS, LDOS, OS-9, &c), a DOSbook would be a notebook that runs DOS. I hadn't even considered FreeDOS, but naturally that would count as DOS. (My DOS of choice is IBM PC-DOS 2000.) I wonder if anybody has successfully run Xerox Ventura Publisher under FreeDOS.

DOSShell is fine. GEM (desktop or a runtime version, as used in Ventura Publisher) is fine. GEOS/GeoWorks is fine. Hell, dual-booting to some other OS (as long as it's not WinDoze) is fine.

My biggest single objection to WinDoze (aside from it being upgrade-treadmill-laden bloatware, which is reason enough) is having to pay "The Bill." (As in Gates.)

BTW, I have nothing but admiration for The Netherlands and its people. Among other things, some of the greatest organs of recent memory (yes, I'm an organ geek) are from there (especially from Flentrop Orgelbouw, in Zaandam).
 
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And I now have the last two pieces of the puzzle:

1) a pair of dual-mode mice, to be shared between my DOSbook and my Chromebook, with their PS2 adapter dongles chained to their USB plugs, to make them harder to lose (note: drilling a PS2 adapter dongle so that the chain can be screwed to it is a BAD idea: it works fine for some dongles, but ruins others)

2) a USB memory card reader for my Chromebook, so that it and my DOSbook can use old CF cards to exchange files. (After all, DOS knows how to mount a PCMCIA drive, and CF is basically just mini-PCMCIA.)

One thing to note: for some reason, a C610 doesn't lose the mouse if you unplug it: you can plug it back in and use it. Maybe something to do with the track-pad being active.
 
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