
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993                   TAG: 9304280234
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LARRY BLASKO ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MICROSOFT'S DOS 6.0 IS A LOT FOR THE MONEY

PC owners who don't upgrade to Microsoft's DOS 6.0 should seek professional help - not about computing, but about refusing tremendous bargains.

That's a gushing review, especially from someone who characterized earlier DOS versions as user-hostile. DOS (for Disk Operating System) is the software that lets a PC deal with the world around it.

Early versions seemed designed for computer nerds whose pocket protectors wear pocket protectors. That changed with DOS 5.0 and now, with DOS 6.0, it's just about evaporated.

DOS 6.0 is an upgrade that lists for $49.99 and requires at least an Intel 8088 processor, 512 kilobytes of system memory and DOS 2.11 or later. In short, just about any IBM PC except very early models.

Here's what you get for your money:

Automatic disk-doubling software. That's software that compresses computer files by removing redundant information. There are stand-alone products on the market, but DOS 6.0 tosses it in at no extra charge. It just added more than 120 megabytes of capacity to the system this column is written on. Try buying a 120-megabyte hard drive for less than $50.

A memory manager that frees system memory for large applications. Again, there are stand-alone commercial products, but this one is painless and included in the price. The system used to write this review sports four hefty memory-resident programs, including a sound driver and support for a TV card, and still has 599 kilobytes of free memory. All of that was without tinkering, simply letting DOS 6.0 figure it out.

Backup and anti-virus software that's easy to use.

The features work whether you're running the system from the DOS prompt or working through Windows, and Windows itself seem peppier with the new DOS version.

If you don't want to work from the naked DOS prompt and also don't want to invest the time to learn Windows, the built-in shell program will handle most of the duties required to let you do some useful work on the computer.

Setup is simple but takes some time - especially if you're installing the disk doubler. Mine took about an hour and 20 minutes.

by CNB