ometime this year, Microsoft will roll out Windows 95 and hopes
to phase out the DOS operating system. Novell has pretty much given up selling
the old DR-DOS, and I suspect that IBM will eventually port its OS/2 VDM code
and turn that into a DOS, but it, too, may just give up DOS as it moves into
the PowerPC realm.Essentially, DOS is dead.
There are probably 250 million or more machines running DOS, yet it's dead. But does it need to die just because Microsoft says so? How about letting the users control its destiny? I want to suggest that Microsoft, IBM, and Novell--individually or collectively--place the source code for DOS into the public domain so it can be further supported and improved by the users.
If Microsoft does this, it would generate more goodwill than anything imaginable. It shouldn't hurt sales because DOS is declining by the minute, and this is a good way to end the slide and turn support over to user groups that will work on the code. The fact is that older machines are still being used in developing countries, and the new benefits derived from an improved DOS would encourage people to eventually upgrade with a positive attitude rather than feel they've been let down by Microsoft.
If Microsoft won't do it, then Novell ought to. It would eliminate the vestiges of Microsoft's once-lucrative DOS cash cow, because only a moronic company would thereafter license MS-DOS for its low-end computers. And it would make Novell DOS the new standard since everyone would use the public-domain versions as they were beefed up by companies such as JP Software (4DOS) and others that would invariably improve the code.
Revenge and Goodwill If Novell won't do it, then IBM should--if only to avenge Bill Gate's constant and annoying comments that OS/2 is dead. Revenge aside, the real motive would be positive and would greatly benefit users. In fact, all companies with orphaned products should seriously consider releasing the source code to the public domain.
I dicussed this with Rober Carr, the talented developer of the PenPoint operating system developed for Go Corp. AT&T bought Go and folded its tent shortly thereafter. As far as Carr knows, AT&T has the code for the operating system in some file cabinet. When I asked if he would mind if his code were released to the public domain, he said it was a great idea. When code languishes too long in the file cabinet, it becomes worthless, he said. Whatever the case, AT&T has control.
A Plea AT&T should release the code to the public domain. Will someone at the company please make this happen?!
There are many examples of good products that have been abandoned for marketing reasons. Sales were sluggish, support costs too high. Whatever. Lotus's Magellan comes to mind. Again, here's an opportunity to do the public a favor without hurting company sales one iota. Lotus should also do the same with its oddball Agenda program, which seems to have disappeared. Magellan was an interesting fuzzy-search engine used to maintain a hard disk full of forgotten files. I've never fully understood what Agenda was, but people liked it. There's no reason Lotus couldn't release the code.
Companies create a lot of ill will when they market a product with a lot of fanfare, then bail out. The masses may not warm up to the software, but a few loyal users will always emerge. These people believed the company would maintain and improve the product. The company let them down and then didn't even create an alternative product or avenue for continued development. In short, the user is screwed.
Angry Customers I don't want to single out Lotus, but it seems to be adept at this. Besides Magellan and Agenda, Lotus Express, Improv, Symphony, and Jazz come to mind. Elsewhere, good word processors are left to die--spreadsheets (even Microsoft's MultiPlan), utilities, telecommunications programs, database managers (will Symantec ever do anything with Q&A?), graphics packages, you name it. Orphans. Angered customers. Lost code.
The work that went into original code is valuable and represents a resource for everyone. To let it languish in a file cabinet is an inexcusable waste. I beg all software companies to turn such code over to the public domain. Please. It will invigorate the industry and make you even richer. Let's start with DOS.