The Planning Process - Page 3
 
• Operating System:
  Problem:
      I needed an OS that can boot up and shut down fast, is stable as a rock, easily configurable, small, and something relatively simple to use and easy to understand.
  Solution:
      The first OS that came to mind, and went out just as fast, was Windows. If you are running Windows on this system, you're an idiot. (Gutter sez: I pity the sucka fools that use Windows!) I wouldn't offend the almighty Stubby by running Windows inside of her.
      So next I moved to Linux dreaming of some sort of embedded linux system. It will work for this application, but I wouldn't recommend it. There is a lot of setup involved and it's too much of an OS for simply playing MP3s. I still haven't seen anyone be able to get Linux to boot up in a decent amount of time. It just wasn't right.
      The third OS I considered (and used) was MSDOS. I already knew MSDOS very well and it's perfect for the purpose of playing MP3s. For a while, I ran DOS 7.1 and it booted without the CDROM in about 14 seconds! If anyone else knows of an OS that can beat that, email me and tell me about it. DOS is very configurable and can be shut off at the flick of a switch without worry. It was nearly perfect.
      My final (hopefully) move was to DR-DOS 7.03. It's everything that DOS is, but it multitasks and has networking built into it. And as for compatibility issues, any MSDOS program will run on DR-DOS. But best of all, it's still being developed and improved! Features such as long file names are planned in future versions. With competitors like this, maybe MSDOS will fade off into the giant software pit also occupied by such classics as Comword and Wordstar.
 
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