As Microsoft Corp puts its weight behind Windows for Workgroups Novell Inc has unveiled details of Novell DOS (nee DR-DOS) 7 which includes both networking capabilities and pre-emptive multi-tasking (CI No 2,136). The package should ship in September and although the price has yet to be decided Novell says that it will be competitive. As reported in March, Novell has taken an approach and is now claiming that its version of the operating system will support Windows better than Microsoft’s own: it duplicates all of the utilities (including disk compression) found in MS-DOS 6.0 and then builds on top of them – one more reason for Microsoft to build MS-DOS seamlessly into Chicago, also known as Windows 4. Key to Novell’s ability to add the extras is its DPMS DOS Protected Mode Services which give developers an application programming interface that will enable pop-up Terminate and Stay Resident programs, device drivers and other system extensions be written to run in extended memory. Novell says that it has released the Protected Mode Services specifications to the industry for use without royalty. If DPMS were tied to Novell DOS, its importance would be marginal but the company says that the technology will work equally well with MS-DOS and is contemplating licensing the DPMS server at a nominal charge for developers to bundle with their software. Novell DOS 7 itself includes disk cacheing, compression, CD-ROM extensions and peer-to-peer server extensions that take advantage of protected mode services. The networking facilities are effectively those found in NetWare Lite, which now seems destined to disappear. Its place will be taken by Personal NetWare – due for launch about the same time, though Novell continues to be incredibly cagey about just what this package will offer. Most of the other features of Novell DOS 7 are aimed squarely at the corporate Network Manager. Topping the list is the news that it will incorporate an SNMP Simple Network Managment Protocol agent, Management Interface Base and diagnostic responder, enabling third party SNMP managers to reach right down to the desktop. The new regine also sees the operating system get NetWare-type security – the company says that it will include file and directory passwords and let the system administrator limit user access to specific hours or restrict access to the floppy drives, parallel and serial ports. Novell DOS 7 will also support a one-time log-in feature where the desktop machine and the server are protected by a single password.
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