Posted on 05/04/2003 11:51:32 PM PDT by Computer Central
Welcome to FreeRepublic.com's unofficial "Computer Central"!
The main purpose of FreeRepublic.com is to have discussions about government and politics. And culture, science, religion and about any subject in the 'news'. We use computers to access FR and there are articles that discuss computers. And continually, there are vanity threads with technical questions about computer problems. I've noticed that these threads get a good response from FReepers who appear to be knowledgable about computers. There are also threads such as "HTML Bootcamp" and "HTML Sandbox".
I would like to suggest that FR needs a "FR Computer Central". If such a site already exists, please provide a link. If not, this "Computer Central" site can be a start.
I know there are websites that specialize in answering technical questions about computer problems. If someone wants to provide some links, I will post them.
There are individual FReepers who have a lot of knowledge about computers. If they were willing to be available to answer questions, that would be nice. If these FR profile homepages had some interactive features, we could have a way for a FReeper to list their name on 'Computer Central', and then click a box to indicate that they are online, and willing to answer questions about computer problems. Just an idea.
If FR were to develop a first class computer-help, it would be another reason for people to visit FR, and maybe stick around and learn something about FR. Of course, it would also be an additional load on the server and the bandwidth.
Exactly how this Computer Central develops and operates, remains to be seen.
For now, Computer Central will have just a few links, and, some technical questions that I have about computers.
Linux, FreeBSD, and most of the other UNIX lookalikes require a fair amount of memory and hard disk space to run, and are *very* tricky to configure on laptops.
For an operating system that will run WP 5.1, try FreeDOS.
No, he did not. He bought "Q-DOS" (what became MS-DOS) from a company called Seattle Computer Products when IBM came calling to license Microsoft BASIC, then the hot programming language for microcomputers. They mentioned they were also in the market for an OS, and would be talking to Digital Research, which then practically owned the OS market for micros with its CP/M. The rest is history. Bill Gates snagged the OS business by buying a CP/M knockoff and offering to IBM. He became the world's richest man, and Gary Kildall, who wrote CP/M and headed Digital Research, died at a relatively young age, probably from thinking too much about the day he allegedly pushed off the IBM meeting to meet with Atari instead.
CP/M-86 was in fact offered by IBM on the original IBM PC, but Gates' offering was the one that got the IBM-DOS moniker and became the standard.
Digital Research attempted a comeback with DR-DOS, a "better" DOS, but they'd lost market momentum and basically went down the tube. DR-DOS is owned today by The SCO Group. I don't know if they still offer it or support it as a product.
In its basic form it contains a firewall, anti-virus and a pop-up blocker. It can also offer a subscription based anonymiser service (shields your real IP address from web sites you visit).
The company's corporate site is at http://www.zeroknowledge.com
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