Re: OT: Mac utility for splitting files (text files)

On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 10:01:30 GMT, {$PW$}@womar.co.uk (Paul Womar)
wrote:
>Chris <Chris.Holland16@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> I thought: windows runs on top of dos
>
>It did once, arguably since WindowsNT it doesn't, I'm never quite sure
>if that's 100% true.

So you can be sure:

The Win95 variants (95, 98, ME) boot through DOS, but then discard
almost all of the DOS and BIOS 16-bit lowlevel code once they're up,
except when you boot in Safe Mode or you don't have drivers for some
BIOS-accessible device. The dosbox in Win9x is a virtualised 386
running real MSDOS7. Hideously complicated, and it's no wonder they
are all so flaky.

The NT variants (NT3.50 to 4, Win2000, XP, 2003, Vista) never used
DOS. They boot straight into the somewhat VMS-modelled ntkernel. They
have a virtual 386 DOS emulation ("command.exe") as well as a native
command line ("cmd.exe"). If MS had designed decent context-switching
rather than allowing the device drivers into Ring0 (most priviliged
execution level), it'd be a decently designed OS - with a hideous
crufty UI. As it is, it's a bit of a mess, but not as much as Win9x.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
Anyone who has had a bull by the tail knows five or six more things than someone who hasn't.
- Mark Twain
.

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