PB DOS

[Brice Manuel]

I just recently ordered a new 386SX mini laptop system. Running DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11. Lovely little beast. 40Mhz, 8MB RAM, and an IPS screen. It is capable of running Windows 95, but I do not want to at this time.

I am going to be working on some DOS & 16 bit Windows software.

PB DOS is still getting use from me.

[Albert Richheimer]

I am going to be working on some DOS & 16 bit Windows software.

What is the point of using ancient hard- and software? Are you curating a computer museum?

[Brice Manuel]

What is the point of using ancient hard- and software? Are you curating a computer museum?

To clarify, the laptop is actually new hardware, and includes newer technology. Considering all of my 386 laptops back in the day had grayscale screens, I am thrilled with 256 colors at 640x480 on an IPS screen and love the form factor.

The development software is old, which sadly I do not have much choice in. The only thing hard to track down was Teddy Matsumoto’s Diet 1.44 (freeware) which is a must-have for DOS/3.11 systems. Since you can load it as a TSR, you can use it for whole drive compression (it handles data as well as EXEs) and it was always far more reliable than DriveSpace.

As to the why? To understand my mindset, my vehicle is a 43 year old '84 Toyota 4WD Pickup. Still has the original transmission with over 240,000 miles on it and it is still going strong. 22 inch ground clearance will more than get me through the snow getting ready to hit. Newer is not always better.

I preordered a Commodore 64 Ultimate, and plan to develop for it. After spending 4+ years looking for a replacement HYDRA, I found one and ordered it and will be developing for it once again, as well as my Fuzebox and Meggy Jr. RGB. I will also be targeting Game Boy and NES, but will not be seeking publishing deals to get in cartridge form. Also use my Orange Pi 800 and Raspberry Pi 500+. Also have my old Palm M130 which is new and never been used and a Psion Series 3a, which is in excellent shape. Those may see some games as well.

I do appreciate newer. My daily driver is a maxed out M3 Air. Very powerful system, and allows me to run GPTs OSS 20B MXFP4 model locally. A powerhouse I can use for coding, audio & video production and literally replaced several Windows machines.

[Albert Richheimer]

Hi Brice

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! This brings back my memories to the early eighties, when I was developing software for the TeleVideo Personal Mini. Later on I have computerized a large medical laboratory by installing lots of Olivetti Personal Computers, all tied together by an early Novell NetWare server. And yes, I did develop all software on MS-DOS. I was writing a lot in x86-Assembler, mainly TSRs for controlling the medical analysis machines, attached by RS-232 and RS-422 interfaces.

Cheers,
Albert