[Reaganesque]

Even the latest Windows version, I believe, runs on top of DOS. So, all PCs have DOS on them. Another reason to buy a Mac.

[Mr. K]

Windows has not run on top of DOS since WinNT i believe (maybe even windows 95, but certainly 98)

[Leisler]

The Shuttle still or until recently ran off floppy disks. A tool is a tool. If it does it's assigned task, move your attention, time and money to other things.

Mac's run over DOS too. Apple was just first with the easy user interface applied over DOS. All pc’s run off UNIX. 99% percent of Apple physical parts are common with Windows/Linux machines, and can be used by either/or.

[old-ager]

> Even the latest Windows version, I believe, runs on top of DOS

No, no, no. That is totally false. Current versions of Windows are derived from Windows NT, which was a total rewrite, was a real operating system, and went into beta about 1992 or so.

One program that ships with Windows is cmd.exe, which looks and works a lot like command.com, which most people think is “DOS”.

[tacticalogic]

Even the latest Windows version, I believe, runs on top of DOS. So, all PCs have DOS on them. Another reason to buy a Mac.

I think we're getting pretty close to the point where that may not necessarily be true anyomore. A DOS is basically a program for accessing data stored on rotating magnetic storage. It translates the drive's sector/track/cylinder geometry and indexing. Computers like the ASUS Eee's don't really need it. Their SS disk drive interfaces are translating linear memory addresses into drive geometry, and then the processor's DOS is translating the drive geometry back into linear memory addresses for the CPU. Theoretically, you should be able to streamline that arrangement considerably by removing the drive geometry translations, but then it won't be a DOS anymore.