Having been a Mac user for 12 years and only on the rare occassion using a windows pc, I am now curioius about windows partly because I am begining to share a responsibilty in selling them.
I am wanting to know which versions of windows operate on top of Dos and which don't and how and why etc.
Largely for the information of our customers, is it true that one cannot run pirated or cracked software thru the XP version ?

Windows 95/98/98SE and ME are all windowing subsystems based on DOS. That is, you can boot in DOS, setup paths an whatnot then start windows by invoking WIN.COM. WinME is bad, really bad. Don't even bother with it.

Windows NT is not DOS based. It has it's own bootstraps and loader programs. Win2000 is NT V5 but with support for many modern (sort of) tools and tricks. Again, it has it's own bootstraps and is not DOS based. XP is Win 2000 V2 in a way. It has rudimentary process control and prioritisation.


Is that enough?

Actually I thought it went more like this:

DOS a "Plagurised" Operating System by Microsoft. (Plagurised by License)

Microsoft moves on from ties with IBM and develops Win3.1 (don't ask me about the Win's before then, haven't the foggiest, but it could be worth a look from a historic point).

Win3.1 (and 3.1.1 Workgroups) developed to allow companies to utilse methods of running spreadsheets and wordprocessing far different from that of the programs that had to be entered via the commandline. Microsofts first real steps into GUI (but not the first GUI OS)

[GUI= Graphics User Interface]

Windows 95 appears, a new interface allowing point and click but not totalling littering the environment with icons.
The first version of Windows 95 was stocked on floppy diskettes, but a large number had to be withdrawn due to CRC errors.
Windows 95 had to have a re-release on CD-ROM.

(During the time of 95, DirectX began to raise it's head, The idea was to put together a driver package that could allow programmers to utilise commands to allow the interfaces to be used properly, rather than having to pack their own drivers like they had done so previously.

On another front the world was starting to get hip to the internet in a big way, and people needed new ways to access the data.
So Internet Explorer began it's "Standalone" development.)

Windows 98 had all the functionalities of 95, plus a few "Millennium bug patches" or should I say "The bug that didn't happen". Windows 98 included Internet Explorer 4.0 as apart of it's package, the browser started to become intergrated.
[This is a point that people have classed as the major flaw in the OS)

Windows NT was produced as a strengthened server, built to be more administrative but not the same coding as Windows.
Where windows was using FAT for it's drives, NT was using NFTS.
(The encoding of the datachunks) This resulted in the different boot-straping. (boot sequence)

NT although the best for running as a server in the windows to date, was flawed by a few things, usually systems operators not 100% able to configure it. (NT was more of an Office machine that something to take home)

WindowsMe, a few changes for a windows system in the method the drivers where used. Denotibly the most appauling of the windows, mainly for the absence of support and drivers when it was first released. People who wanted to upgrade would find themselves either uninstalling it or having to buy new hardware.

Windows2000, Is basically NT5, the last in the NT series. Again still a problem child, but using the same NT encoding method.

WindowsXP is supposedly a Windows/NT hybrid, with the whole code re-written. I don't personally know much about it but at first call, before the release of it there was a lot of hype about having to ring up hotlines and reel off numbers to get it working, and some silly rule about how many times you could put new peripherals in before you had to do it all over again.

Those people that could at that point would run the Beta version of the OS and a crack was developed from the Beta that patch the full version to bypass the need to call anyone.

If it was up to me, I would be lending a hand with the Linux Distributers and selling machines with linux builds (or Windows/Linux dual boots) but thats my choice. Also if you did chose a linux boot, You might be able to sell a computer to an American.

My version (well, sort of)

Windows 95 is no longer being sold, and ME is junk, so I won't really discuss those 2 OS'

Windows 98 evloved into 98 SE (or, Second Edition - which supposedly had some bug fixes over 98 original). SE is rather easy to use, and is compatible with almost all software (mostly except those requiring specific OS).

It does however, have a few problems. It is not very stable (especially when doing alot of intensive work). Also, it suffers from memory leaks (which basically means things accumulate in your RAM which don't need to - if you do alot of work, and don't restart your computer, it can drain your RAM into nothing). It also uses some 16-bit modules. It was just not very well written code. It is decent however, and can be improved with tweaking.

2000 (which former versions were NT, until the last service pack came out making it 2000), is more stable and does not leak memory. It is however, harder to use (especially for computer illiterate people), and more taxing on your system. So it is not for people who just want to send chain e-mails to their relatives, and type little notes on word processing. It was mainly designed for networking, and people who are serious about computers and willing to invest money into the area.

It will allow you to do some things that 98 SE won't, it is however incompatible with some older programs (so if you are a fan of some classic games for example, that were designed for Windows 95, you might not be able to run them on 2000)

I wouldn't bother with any versions of XP, unless XP 64-bit edition is altered to support 64-bit instructions from AMD's upcoming Opteron (Hammer CPU) 64-bit processor.

I have a Lindows thread in here, I woudl like opinions there. FOr the benefit of our Mac user, Microsoft does not make Lindows.