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MS Dos 3.31

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Malc

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Was there a retail version of MS Dos 3.31 in it's day ?, I thought MS Dos went from 3.3 to 4x and 3.31 was a Compaq version, I found an image of MS Dos 3.31 amongst all my junk and installed it on an XT 5160 with 128Mb CF card and on boot up it says " MS-DOS Version 3.31 ".
Anyone know the difference between 3.3 and 3.31 apart from larger Hard drive support, My google fu ain't working today.
 
Microsoft released MS-DOS 3.30A with various bug-fixes and small updates in 1988, but MS-DOS 3.31 was only released by some OEMs (notably Compaq and Zenith), not by Microsoft itself as a retail product.
 
Thanks, I seem to have acquired a few dos versions, If i get the urge one day i'll have a play.
 
Malc said:
Was there a retail version of MS Dos 3.31 in it's day ?, I thought MS Dos went from 3.3 to 4x and 3.31 was a Compaq version, I found an image of MS Dos 3.31 amongst all my junk and installed it on an XT 5160 with 128Mb CF card and on boot up it says " MS-DOS Version 3.31 ".
Anyone know the difference between 3.3 and 3.31 apart from larger Hard drive support, My google fu ain't working today.
Click to expand...

Microsoft didn't sell MS-DOS 3.30 as Retail Package.
It was avaiable with New PC.

Microsoft began to sell MS-DOS as Retail version from 5.00 (Only Retail Upgrade version.)
 
vwestlife said:
Microsoft released MS-DOS 3.30A with various bug-fixes and small updates in 1988, but MS-DOS 3.31 was only released by some OEMs (notably Compaq and Zenith), not by Microsoft itself as a retail product.
Click to expand...
Did Zenith really have 3.31? I always thought that was Compaqs baby.

Ahh Zenith MS Dos 3.3 Plus is what you are referring to http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=...wBA#v=onepage&q=zenith ms dos 3.3Plus&f=false

Doesn't seem to be quite the same as Compaq MS Dos 3.31 looking at that article. Mentions drive table info is stored in unusual place on 3.3Plus. Can anyone who has used it give any further insight at all?

I know Compaqs offering plays nicely with most drive utilities of the era and installs nicely on any old clone box. It was the first dos variant I had on my first x86 box, a 286/16 cone(naughty me I know) to get full access of its 40meg hdd without the need to partition it, before I got DrDos 6.
 

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fs5500 said:
Microsoft didn't sell MS-DOS 3.30 as Retail Package.
It was avaiable with New PC.

Microsoft began to sell MS-DOS as Retail version from 5.00 (Only Retail Upgrade version.)
Click to expand...
And that was a reaction to DRI releasing DrDos 5.0 to the retail chain.
 

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Read the little sticker on the top left of the package: "Not for retail sale except with a computer system." Classic OEM only packaging. Microsoft would print the manuals and create the disks so that the small builders can affordably toss an OS at the customer. MS-DOS 4.01 was available for retail sale (possibly as an upgrade) not that very many bought it and DOS 5 got the prettier packaging that MS standardized for stores.
 
I believe MS-DOS 3.3 was the first version that was available in a generic Microsoft package (as shown above) which any PC builder could sell with a computer, even little mom-and-pop computer stores. Prior to that it only existed in licensed OEM versions.
 
A good move too with the amount of clones coming on to the market. Probably the most widely used MS Dos variant until 6.x as well I'd imagine. With the wide reluctance to move on to 4.0x and the long wait till 5.0 came out. Certainly an interesting times.
 
In US at least there were many IBM customer centers and Nynex, etc where you'd go to buy a boxed IBM DOS 3.3, but who actually *bought* DOS? Why? Even in corporate environments it was routine to use the anonymous version of DOS from "where ever" to make master builds for a new hardware rollouts as I recall it. IBM/MS did not get serious about enforcement until the Windows 3.1 / 95 transition. I remember seeing unopened piles of IBM DOS boxes stacked in the hallway for a week or so...take one please...so your office would be compliant with "new" enforcement policy for software. No one paid much attention at the pharmceutical and chemical co's I worked in the early 90's. I remember next seeing stacks of IBM DOS manuals in the trash pile, no one needed them. I always took a reference copy just because I was a tech.
 
billdeg said:
IBM/MS did not get serious about enforcement until the Windows 3.1 / 95 transition.
Click to expand...

No one cared because the market for DOS was not competitive. If you had an IBM, you used IBM's PC DOS. If you had a brand-name PC-compatible, you used your OEM's version of MS-DOS. And if you had a generic white-box PC-clone, you used a generic copy of MS-DOS (or you just made yourself a copy of IBM DOS or whatever OEM version of MS-DOS you could find, and ignored the OEM-specific programs like BASICA that wouldn't work on your machine).

That didn't change until MS/PC DOS 4 sucked so bad and DR-DOS 5 came out with better features and better memory management. Then Microsoft responded with MS-DOS 5, and IBM introduced a retail version of IBM DOS 5.02, the first version of IBM DOS which was designed to run on all brands of PC-compatibles, not just IBMs.
 
vwestlife said:
I believe MS-DOS 3.3 was the first version that was available in a generic Microsoft package (as shown above) which any PC builder could sell with a computer, even little mom-and-pop computer stores. Prior to that it only existed in licensed OEM versions.
Click to expand...

I randomly came across a set of MS DOS 3.2 (unusual to see in itself), in full Microsoft branding with Microsoft floppy jackets and no OEM references. Just thought it was interesting, maybe it started a tiny bit earlier than 3.3.

(p.s. $3 for 50 360KB disks including MS DOS 3.2, good trip to the recycling store!)
 
dr dos was not even a blip on the radar. ms was not paying any attention. the driver for improved dos was ram and peripheral manufacturers t hemselves.
 
billdeg said:
dr dos was not even a blip on the radar. ms was not paying any attention. the driver for improved dos was ram and peripheral manufacturers t hemselves.
Click to expand...

Functions like DOSKEY and the improved MEM were added to MSDOS to match DRDOS in those aspects. The memory functions and disk cache in DOS 5 had previously been bundled with Windows but DRDOS had those as well. DRDOS wasn't selling much until Novell took over but MS wasn't about to concede the market. MSDOS 6 caught up to DRDOS 6 by including disk compression and Interlnk.

Caldera's lawsuit claimed that MS's addition of features to MSDOS to match DR-DOS was anticompetitive, an unusual reading of law.
 
vwestlife said:
I believe MS-DOS 3.3 was the first version that was available in a generic Microsoft package (as shown above) which any PC builder could sell with a computer, even little mom-and-pop computer stores. Prior to that it only existed in licensed OEM versions.
Click to expand...

I think that was from MS-DOS 3.2 (3.20)
Of course, it couldn't be sold as Retail package separately tool.
 
krebizfan said:
Read the little sticker on the top left of the package: "Not for retail sale except with a computer system." Classic OEM only packaging. Microsoft would print the manuals and create the disks so that the small builders can affordably toss an OS at the customer. MS-DOS 4.01 was available for retail sale (possibly as an upgrade) not that very many bought it and DOS 5 got the prettier packaging that MS standardized for stores.
Click to expand...

MS-DOS 4.0x was Not available as Retail Package. (It was prohibited as Retail selling without New PC by Microsoft.)
It was available with New PC, not single package.

If MS-DOS 4.0x were Retail package, there would be No reason to sell with New PC together.
Also MS wouldn't prohibit to sell.

It was impossible to buy on Retail Market without New PC.
 
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