• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here
  • From now on we will require that a prefix is set for any items in the sales area. We have created regions and locations for this. We also require that you select a delivery option before posting your listing. This will hopefully help us streamline the things that get listed for sales here and help local people better advertise their items, especially for local only sales. New sales rules are also coming, so stay tuned.

Looking For Dos for my IBM 5160 XT

PeterNY said:
Illegal is illegal my friend!
Click to expand...

Doesn't mean it shouldn't be done or they will sue you if you do. That's just a technicality. They have to protect all copyrights or they will lose them. There are a thousand sites with DOS disk images online. Microsoft doesn't care one little bit. However, if you ask directly they will always give you the standard response.
 
leaknoil said:
Doesn't mean it shouldn't be done or they will sue you if you do. That's just a technicality. They have to protect all copyrights or they will lose them. There are a thousand sites with DOS disk images online. Microsoft doesn't care one little bit. However, if you ask directly they will always give you the standard response.
Click to expand...

That's exactly right.

If one needs DOS just to boot a machine there are so many choices, and ways to get them, that it shouldn't really take very long to get a machine going, regardless of one's ethical stance.

Chuckster_in_Jax :
I just did a search on eBay and couldn't find any auctions for MS-DOS or PC-DOS earlier than version 3. Most of the items for sale are 3.5" disks. There are some for sale in 5.25" format that he needs.I damn sure wouldn't pay anymore than $25 USD including shipping for it.
The OP is trying to get a 27 year old machine to boot. I don't see it being helpful to recommend software that is unobtainable or that he will have to wait 3 months (or longer) for it to come up at auction.
Click to expand...

According to the original post, he put a lot of effort into this machine already. If he is willing to do that, then presumably he is willing to get the most suitable (from whatever point of view) software. He did say that he prefers original floppies, so he is obviously not just "trying to get a 27 year old machine to boot."

Yes, I'm being snarky.
Click to expand...
hehe, that's OK. :)
 
mmm so much discussion on this, I just want to get a version of dos that will work best on my machine. Some people say 3.3 and some people also say 2.1. But I guess also I want it to be correct with it time. I don't want to be running dos 6.22 on a machine that was made for dos 3.3 or dos 2.1. So which one was the IBM XT made for and if they are multiple versions that it had, which would work best.

MY specs for my 5160 XT are:
ATI VGA WONDER
640kb RAM
20mb HARD DRIVE
NEC D8088D
5.25 in floppy drive (which is half the size of the one on a 5150)
 
leaknoil said:
Doesn't mean it shouldn't be done or they will sue you if you do. That's just a technicality. They have to protect all copyrights or they will lose them. There are a thousand sites with DOS disk images online. Microsoft doesn't care one little bit. However, if you ask directly they will always give you the standard response.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, that's not true. It may be true of trademarks, but not copyrights. You can be sued out of the blue at the holder's whim. I've seen it happen. The Library of Congress has some very useful information of copyrights, as do quite a number of the law school web sites.

Also be aware that copyright violation in the form of piracy is currently a criminal offense under US law. And the FBI has requested that certain provisions of the Patriot Act be extended toward wiretapping of known copyright violators. And that the US copyright term in most cases is life+70 years or 95 years (pre-1978 ).

All in all, not something I'd want to be mixed up in. Nor would I want to advocate that others violate the law.
 
Last edited:
Without getting into a long, philosophical discussion, (I'll leave that to someone else) :) I would suggest a DOS version from 2.0 - 3.3 for this machine. I would further suggest that if you buy into this line of reasoning then just go right to 3.3 and be done with it. DOS 3.3 was one of the best, most stable versions of this OS and it's not too much for your machine to deal with. DOS 4 was just a dog and the 5 - 6 series is able to access more than 640k which is of no use to you since you don't have it.

In short, 3.3 is your best bet.
 
Which was a 5160 'designed' for - DOS 2.1. But clearly this machine has been upgraded and to use the 20MB disk in a single partition DOS 3.x would be needed. As already concluded, 3.3 is probably the most authentic upgrade as it was very widely used at the time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top