Ray Noorda is still trying to reactivate the MS-DOS-compatible franchise he bought from Novell Inc, and his Caldera Inc in Provo, Utah says it will distribute source code for all its DR DOS technologies on the Internet from the first quarter of next year, hoping to inspire a command line renaissance among developers. It is also developing a commercial-grade open-source network-enabled OpenDOS as a successor to DR DOS and Novell DOS 7. OpenDOS is aimed at companies that want to hang on to their 80286 and 80386 systems, but it may be fatted up with a graphical user interface, an Internet browser, a TCP/IP stack and other Internet services. It also reckons the operating system could find its way into Network Computers. OpenDOS will be available for individual use at no cost, but commercial sales will be licensed. Pricing has not been set. It is also considering licensing bits of DR DOS as objects for use in products such as virus-scanning utilities.
