That is correct. DOS runs under windows from ME on. You probably could use some boot manager to offer the choice of which OS to boot on startup. I've seen that done for various OS choices, but never looked to see if there is one that offers DOS as a choice.
I think your recollection is wrong.
It's questionable if this reduces or actually increases the wear and tear on the computer. There are those that believe the power up/down cycle is worse for the computer than leaving it on. The issues are the thermal shock to the components, as well as the startup wear on the disk drive being more than leaving it on for some reasonable period. With present computers using LCD displays, offering various power saving settings, (another thing lacking from Win98 and DOS), etc, I leave mine on most of the time. I think if you're using it occasionally during say the day, to turn if on and off each time doesn't make much sense.
No, but maybe with one of the multiple boot managers.
I've upgraded many times over the years. From Win98, to ME, to XP, etc. It never took me months to do any one of them, nor was "rebuilding everything" required. The install manager does it all for you and it took maybe a couple hours, including creating a backup for safety. The upgrades also had there on backup, that allowed you to return if the install was not successful. Even today, you can go from Win98 to XP using the upgrade, without rebuilding/reinstalling everything.
I've had it running on this machine for 6 years without reinstalling it. I did have to reinstall it recently, but that was due to a virus. Which brings up another problem with Win98. It's not supported now by Norton, McAfee, etc., they only support XP and up. There is probably someone still offering Anti-Virus support, but maybe not for much longer.
Also, you can not transfer a
You certainly can move drives from one system to another. If you mean you can't move the boot drive from one computer to another, that's true, because XP is tied to the system it is installed on to prevent copying. But for 99.9% of users, that isn't an issue. I don't know anyone that moves their boot drive around.
Yes, and Al Bundy's old 60's Dodge was easier to maintain than a new BMW, but it doesn't make the Dodge a better car.
XP is running just fine and with comfortable speed here on the 1Ghz system I'm typing on right now. How much memory did you have on the system you tried XP on? That is a big factor in performance.
Thats where I
Rebuilding every year or two being attibuted to the OS is a myth. If you looked into what causes a system to need to be rebuilt, I would say the top factors are:
1- Viruses or similar malware, most often due to not have anit-virus installed
2 - Installing lots of new software, add on tools, etc.
If you take any system like yours, get it running stable, and then never add anything to it, either intentionally or not, of course its going to be far more reliable than a system where you have the kids downloading and running God knows what from the internet, adding more and more apps, games, tools, etc. But most people are using computers more in the second mode, than in the first relatively closed system mode that you are in. So, if you hear reports of having to reinstall everything, you're not making a valid comparison.
And reinstalling has gotten easier. PCs for a few years now have had a backup image of the whole factory install on a seperate hard drive partition. To get it back to as shipped is a one step deal. Of course you still have to add back other apps, but it is a big help.
I would not recommend putting it on a 1Ghz system either.
Alvina says she only uses about 5 or 6 programs. How could that take "months to rebuild" even with a completely fresh install? On her slow machine, it might take hours, but most of those hours she could be folding laundry, washing dishes or reading a good book while her machine chugs away doing the installs. Just wander over every once in a while in case it stops on a window that she needs to click "okay" before it proceeds.
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