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==={{anchor|Caldera|Lineo|OpenDOS|DRFAT32|WINGLUE|7.01|7.02|7.03|7.04|7.05|7.06|7.07}}After Novell=== When Caldera approached Novell looking for a DOS operating system to bundle with their [[OpenLinux]] distribution,<ref name="Caldera_1996_OpenSource"/> Novell sold the product line off to Caldera on July 23, 1996,<ref name="Caldera_1996_Suit"/> by which time it was of little commercial value to them. Between the Caldera-owned DR-DOS and competition from IBM's PC DOS 6.3, Microsoft moved to make it impossible to use or buy the subsequent Windows version, [[Windows 95]], with any DOS product other than their own. Claimed by them to be a purely technical change, this was later to be the subject of a major [[Caldera v. Microsoft|lawsuit]] brought in [[Salt Lake City]] by Caldera with the help of the [[Canopy Group]].<ref name="Caldera_1996_Suit"/><ref name="Caldera_Fullstory_Tech"/> Microsoft lawyers tried repeatedly to have the case dismissed but without success. Immediately after the completion of the pre-trial deposition stage (where the parties list the evidence they intend to present), there was an out-of-court settlement on January 7, 2000, for an undisclosed sum.<ref name="BBC_CalderaMicrosoft"/><ref name="Gomes_2000_Settlement"/> This was revealed in November 2009 to be $280 million.<ref name="Groklaw_2009_NovellWP"/><ref name="Microsoft_2009_Memorandum"/><ref name="Caldera_Microsoft_2000_Settlement"/><ref name="Gomes_2000_Settlement"/> In August 1996, the US-based Caldera, Inc. was approached by Roger A. Gross, one of the original DR-DOS engineers, with a proposal to restart DR-DOS development and to make Windows 95 run on DR-DOS which would help the court case. Following a meeting in September 1996 in [[Lindon, Utah|Lindon]], Utah, USA, between Gross, [[Ransom Love|Ransom H. Love]], [[Bryan Wayne Sparks]] and [[Raymond John Noorda]], Gross was hired and tasked to set up a new subsidiary in the UK.<ref group="nb" name="NB_Office-Locations"/> On September 10, 1996, Caldera announced the coming release of OpenDOS (COD) and their intent to also release the source code to the system,<ref name="Caldera_1996_OpenSource"/> and Caldera UK Ltd. was incorporated on September 20, 1996.<ref name="Caldera_1996_UK"/><ref group="nb" name="NB_Office-Locations"/> Gross hired some of the original developers of the operating system from the Novell EDC as well as some new talents to continue work on the operating system in a converted barn at the periphery of [[Andover, Hampshire|Andover]], Hampshire, UK,<ref group="nb" name="NB_Office-Locations"/> nearby the former Digital Research and Novell EDC.<ref group="nb" name="NB_Office-Locations"/> Besides other improvements and enhancements all over the system, a string of new key features were added subsequently over the course of the next two years, including a [[TCP/IP]] stack (derived from [[LAN WorkPlace for DOS]] / [[NetWare Mobile]]), a graphical 32-bit DOS Protected Mode [[HTML 3.2]] web-browser [[DR-WebSpyder]] (originally based on source code from the [[Arachne (web browser)|Arachne]] web browser by [[Michal Polák (programmer)|Michal Polák]]) with LAN and modem dialup, a [[POSIX]] [[Pthreads]] extension to the multi-tasker by Andy T. Wightman, [[long filename]] (LONGNAME) support by Edward N. Hill Jr., as well as [[Logical block addressing|LBA]] and [[FAT32]] support (DRFAT32) by Matthias R. Paul. Gross also hired Andrew Schulman (who had been, with Geoff Chappell, instrumental in identifying the AARD code in 1992) to work as a consultant and, in Andover, assist Paul in his work on "WinGlue", a secret project to create a version of DR-DOS compatible with Windows 95, [[Windows 98|98]] and [[Windows 98 SE|98 SE]] and replace its MS-DOS 7.xx component.<ref name="Cebit_1998_Winglue"/><ref name="Lea_1998_Satellite"/><ref name="Schulman_2000_Dossier"/> This was demonstrated at [[CeBIT]] in March 1998,<ref name="Cebit_1998_Winglue"/><ref name="Lea_1998_Satellite"/> and later, in a small team, developed into "WinBolt", both versions of DR-DOS, which remained unreleased {{As of|2023|lc=on}}, but played an important role in the [[Caldera v. Microsoft|court case]].<ref name="Caldera_Fullstory_Tech"/><ref name="Romano_1998_Winbolt"/><ref name="Schulman_2000_Dossier"/><ref name="Schulman_2000_Undoc"/><ref name="Paul_2002_W4"/><ref name="Paul_2002_RMD"/><ref name="Paul_2002_HMA7"/> Caldera UK officially released Caldera OpenDOS 7.01 on February 3, 1997,<!-- this was still called a pre-release, followed by an "official" release a few weeks later --> but this version was just Novell DOS 7 update 10 (as of December 1994) compiled only with the necessary adaptations to incorporate the new name in display messages as well as in [[environment variable]]s and file names. It was missing a year's worth of patches which had been developed for the Novell DOS updates 11 (January 1995) to 15.2 (January 1996).<ref name="Paul_1997_NWDOSTIP"/> This was due to parts of the Novell DOS sources having been lost at Novell meanwhile.<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/> Consequently, this version still reported an internal BDOS version of 7.2, identical to Novell DOS 7. The new suite also lacked the [[SETFIFO]] command, which had been added with one of the Novell DOS updates, as well as [[Fifth Generation Systems|Fifth Generation]]'s [[Search&Destroy]] virus scanner and [[FastBack Plus 2.0]] utility, which previously came bundled with Novell DOS. Instead it came bundled with a newer version of [[PNUNPACK]] and brought a much advanced version of [[Advanced NetWars|NetWars]].<ref name="Paul_1997_NWDOSTIP"/> Parts of OpenDOS 7.01 were released as [[open-source software|open source]]<ref name="Caldera_1996_OpenSource"/> in form of the M.R.S. kit (for Machine Readable Sources) in May 1997, but with [[software license|license]] terms mostly incompatible with existing [[open-source license]]s.<ref name="Caldera_1997_DOSSRC"/> The source was then [[proprietary software|closed]] again as Gross felt this would undermine the commercial aspirations of the system. After beta releases in September and November 1997, the next official release came in December 1997, with the name changed to Caldera DR-OpenDOS 7.02, soon followed by a further release in March 1998, when the DR-DOS name returned as Caldera DR-DOS 7.02,<ref name="Caldera_1998_Doctor"/> now for the first time written with a hyphen. Version 7.02 (now reporting itself as BDOS 7.3) incorporated improved BIOS and BDOS issues, developed by Paul,<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Brown_RBIL"/> adding many new boot and configuration options, integrating many compatibility enhancements, bug-fixes and optimizations for size and speed, and re-implementing all fixes of the missing Novell DOS updates.<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Brown_RBIL"/> The BIOS improved the coexistence of DR-DOS with [[Windows 9x]] and its support for third-party disk compression drivers such as Microsoft's [[DriveSpace]].<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Paul_2004_YESCHAR"/><ref name="Paul_2004_COMMAND"/> It introduced a diagnostics mode (activated by [[Scroll Lock]]),<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Paul_2004_YESCHAR"/> integrated debugger support (with [[DEBUG (CONFIG.SYS directive)|DEBUG=ON]] and a debugger loaded before or from within CONFIG.SYS)<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/> and more flexible CONFIG.SYS tracing capabilities via the {{keypress|F5}}/{{keypress|F6}}/{{keypress|F7}}/{{keypress|F8}} hotkeys<!-- NB. partial {{keypress|F5}} and {{keypress|F8}} support existed earlier. --> and the [[TRACE (CONFIG.SYS directive)|TRACE]] and [[TIMEOUT (CONFIG.SYS directive)|TIMEOUT]] commands<!-- NB. TIMEOUT was not new, but significantly enhanced with this version. -->,<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Paul_2000_CONFIG"/><ref name="Paul_2004_YESCHAR"/> thereby also improving the integration of alternative command line shells such as [[4DOS]].<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Paul_2004_YESCHAR"/><ref name="4DOS_8.00_HELP"/> Together with LOADER, SYS /DR:ext and the [[CHAIN (CONFIG.SYS directive)|CHAIN]] directive, it brought enhanced multi-configuration support for [[DCONFIG.SYS|DR/D/CONFIG.ext]] files<!-- NB. Neither of this was completely new, but the concept was significantly expanded with 7.02. --><ref name="Paul_2004_YESCHAR"/><ref name="Paul_2004_CHAIN"/> and came with enhancements to the BASIC-like CONFIG.SYS language<!-- NB. This configuration language already existed in previous versions of DR-DOS, but was significantly extended with 7.02, with added commands and parameters as well as behavioural changes. --> for more powerful boot menus, convenient user interaction<ref name="Paul_2004_YESCHAR"/> and programmatical acting upon conditions ([[CPU386 (CONFIG.SYS directive)|CPU386]]), return codes and error levels ([[ERROR (CONFIG.SYS directive)|ERROR]], [[ONERROR (CONFIG.SYS directive)|ONERROR]]).<!-- NB. ERROR and ONERROR were not new, but significantly enhanced with this version. --><ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/> It also allowed to change the [[SCROLLOCK (CONFIG.SYS directive)|SCROLLOCK]], [[CAPSLOCK (CONFIG.SYS directive)|CAPSLOCK]], [[INSERT (CONFIG.SYS directive)|INSERT]] and [[VERIFY (CONFIG.SYS directive)|VERIFY]] settings as well as the [[SWITCHAR (CONFIG.SYS directive)|SWITCHAR]], [[YESCHAR (CONFIG.SYS directive)|YESCHAR]],<!-- YESCHAR was not new, but was expanded with this release --> [[NOCHAR (CONFIG.SYS directive)|NOCHAR]] and [[RESUMECHAR (CONFIG.SYS directive)|RESUMECHAR]] characters.<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Paul_2004_YESCHAR"/> Various behavioural details could be controlled with new parameters /Q (Quiet), /L (Lowercase), /Y (Yes) and /S (Switch) for [[SWITCHES (CONFIG.SYS directive)|SWITCHES]].<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/> Further, it provided optional support for a LPT4: device and allowed to configure the built-in [[COM1 (CONFIG.SYS directive)|COMx:]] and [[LPT1 (CONFIG.SYS directive)|LPTx:]] devices as well as to change the [[PRN (CONFIG.SYS directive)|PRN:]] and [[AUX (CONFIG.SYS directive)|AUX:]] defaults.<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/> The handling of environment variables in CONFIG.SYS was improved and new load-high facilities included such as the [[HIFILES (CONFIG.SYS directive)|HIFILES]]/[[FILESHIGH (CONFIG.SYS directive)|FILESHIGH]] and [[HIFCBS (CONFIG.SYS directive)|HIFCBS]]/[[FCBSHIGH (CONFIG.SYS directive)|FCBSHIGH]] options to relocate file handles and FCB structures into UMBs, which typically gave between 1 and 4 KB (and up to 15 KB) more free conventional memory compared to previous versions, or the [[HISHELL (CONFIG.SYS directive)|HISHELL]]/[[SHELLHIGH (CONFIG.SYS directive)|SHELLHIGH]] SIZE directive to control the pre-allocation of HMA memory for [[COMMAND.COM]], which helped to avoid memory fragmentation and thereby typically gave between 5 and 8 KB more continuous HMA memory for HMA-capable third-party drivers<!-- such as ANSIPLUS --> to work with in conjunction with third-party command line shells<!-- such as 4DOS -->, which could not load into the HMA as COMMAND.COM with its /MH option.<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Paul_2000_CONFIG"/> At a reduced [[memory footprint]] version 7.02 also brought an enhanced [[National Language Support|NLS]] 4.xx sub-system by Paul to allow multiple, distributed and possibly user-configured COUNTRY.SYS files to be used by the system at the same time in a hierarchical model.<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Paul_2000_Enhancements"/><ref name="Paul_2000_CONFIG"/><ref name="Paul_2001_COUNTRY"/> This also gave dynamic parser support for MS-DOS/PC DOS COUNTRY.SYS file formats in addition to DR-DOS' own COUNTRY.SYS formats,<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Paul_2000_Enhancements"/><ref name="Paul_2000_CONFIG"/><ref name="Paul_2001_COUNTRY"/><ref name="Paul_2001_CPI"/><ref name="Paul_2001_CODEPAGE"/><ref name="Caldera_1998_NEW703"/> and it introduced support for the [[ISO 8601]] international date format<ref name="Paul_2001_COUNTRY"/><ref name="Paul_2000_CONFIG"/> (including automatic detection) and the then-new [[Euro currency]].<ref name="Paul_2001_COUNTRY"/><ref name="Paul_2000_CONFIG"/> Some DR-DOS files such as IBMBIO.COM, IBMDOS.COM and COUNTRY.SYS carried misleading file extensions for compatibility reasons; with DR-DOS 7.02 they were enhanced to incorporate a [[fat binary]]-style safety feature devised by Paul so that they would [[exit gracefully]] when called inappropriately.<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Paul_1997_NWDOSTIP"/><ref name="Caldera_1998_NEW703"/><ref name="Paul_2001_COUNTRY"/> DR-DOS 7.02 was fully [[Year 2000 problem|Year 2000]] compliant and provided special support to work with buggy system BIOSes. It also came with an updated [[FDISK]], which could partition and format FAT32 volumes (but not yet work with LBA). The sources of the Novell patches for the external tools and drivers had meanwhile been found in Germany and could thus be retro-fitted into the system as well, so that DR-DOS 7.02 finally not only caught up with Novell DOS 7, but was a true step forward. The release was followed by various updates in June, August and September 1998. The updated internal BDOS version number introduced a new problem: some legacy third-party applications with special support for Novell DOS, which were no longer being updated, stopped working. [[SETVER]] already allowed Novell DOS to disguise itself as DOS versions by file name and globally and, specifying a magic sub-version of 255, it would even disable its own internal BDOS version check in order to cope with programs specifically probing for "DR-DOS".<ref name="Paul_1997_NWDOSTIP"/> The modified kernel and SETVER driver by Paul would, in an hierarchical model, also support load paths in order to distinguish between multiple executables of the same file name, and it introduced an extended mode, in which SETVER could not only fake DOS versions, but also BDOS kernel versions.<ref name="Caldera_1998_NEW703"/> Sub-versions of 128 to 255 would be reported as DOS sub-versions 0 to 127 to applications, but with the BDOS version check disabled, while sub-versions 100 to 127 could be used to fake different BDOS versions,<ref name="Caldera_1998_NEW703"/> whereas the DOS revision number (typically set to 0 in a static, pre-boot patchable data structure) would be taken as the reported sub-version instead, so that SETVER /G /X 6.114 would allow versions of DR-DOS since 7.02 to still report themselves as a "DOS 6.0" and with a faked BDOS version 7.2 (114 decimal = 72 hexadecimal), thereby masquerading as Novell DOS 7 / OpenDOS 7.01.<ref name="Caldera_1998_NEW703"/> While otherwise beneficial, the new HIFILES triggered a compatibility problem in the DOS-UP feature of the third-party memory manager QEMM 8, which was hard-wired to expect a [[chunking (computing)|chunk]] of five handle structures in conventional memory under DR-DOS (as with previous versions up to 7.01), whereas version 7.02 by design left eight handles in low memory when loading high files in order to maintain full compatibility with older versions of Windows 3.xx.<ref name="Paul_2000_CONFIG"/><ref name="Schulman_1994_Undocumented-DOS"/> Compatibility with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 had not been affected by this. A maintenance fix was devised to patch a single byte in IBMBIO.COM in order to switch the behaviour and optionally re-invoke the old chunking. This freed some 150 bytes of conventional memory and enabled full compatibility with DOS-UP, but at the same time broke compatibility with older versions of Windows 3.xx when using the HIFILES feature, and vice versa. The patch named IBMBIO85.SCR continued to work with newer versions of DR-DOS.<ref name="Paul_1997_OD-A3"/><ref name="Paul_2001_IBMBIO85"/><ref name="Paul_2001_IBMBIO85_106"/><ref name="Paul_2003_IBMBIO85_108"/> In August 1998<ref name="Jones_2004"/><!-- NB. Caldera Thin Clients was incorporated in August 1998, and Caldera Systems on 1998-08-21. Press release was on 1998-09-02, but contracts date 1998-09-01. --> the US-based Caldera, Inc. created two new subsidiaries, [[Caldera Systems]], Inc. for the [[Linux]] business, and [[Caldera Thin Clients]], Inc. for the embedded and thin-client market.<ref name="Caldera_1998_Subsidiaries"/> Another version, DR-DOS 7.03 (still with BDOS 7.3 and reporting itself to applications as "PC DOS 6.0" for compatibility purposes), was pre-released at Christmas 1998 and then officially released on January 6, 1999, by Caldera UK. It came with significantly improved memory managers (in particular enhanced DPMI support in conjunction with the multitasker) and other enhancements, such as added DEVLOAD and DRMOUSE utilities, but a changed [[FAT OEM label|OEM label]] in the boot sector of volumes formatted under DR-DOS could also cause problems under other operating systems (which can be circumvented by NOVOLTRK).<ref name="Paul_2002_OEM"/><ref name="Paul_2004_OEM"/> DR-DOS 7.03 would become the last version of DR-DOS also tailored for desktop use.<!-- so far, 2023 --> Caldera, Inc.<!-- or Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. --> wanted to relocate the DR-DOS business into the US and closed the highly successful UK operation<ref name="Richardson_1999_Ball"/><ref name="Collins_2000"/> in February 1999<ref name="Lea_1999_UK"/> after Gross resigned and set up iCentrix to develop the [[MarioNet split web browser]]. Development was then moved into the US (which never worked out due to a total lack of expertise in this field at Caldera US),<ref name="Lea_1999_UK"/> and the DR-DOS line fell to its branch company, Caldera Thin Clients, which was renamed [[Lineo]], Inc. on July 20, 1999.<ref name="Caldera_1999_Lineo"/><ref name="Richardson_1999_Ball"/> DR-WebSpyder was renamed [[Embrowser]] and was said to be ported to Linux.<ref name="Caldera_1999_Lineo"/> Lineo re-released DR-DOS 7.03 in June and September 1999, still branded as "Caldera DR-DOS"<ref name="History"/> and without any changes, but otherwise focussed on Linux for embedded systems, based on a stripped-down version of OpenLinux named [[Embedix]].<ref name="Caldera_1999_Lineo"/><ref name="Richardson_1999_Ball"/> Among the latest and independently developed versions of DR-DOS were OEM DR-DOS 7.04 (as of August 19, 1999)<ref name="Paul_2001_IBMBIO85_106"/> and 7.05 (as of November 30, 1999), still branded as "Caldera DR-DOS".<ref name="Moriy_autoexec"/><ref name="moriy_config"/> These were variants of the system consisting only of the kernel and command shell. With a specialized native implementation of FAT32 and large hard disk support they could be found bundled with [[Ontrack]]'s [[Easy Recovery]] 5 in 2000, replacing the dynamically loadable DRFAT32 redirector driver, which still came with Easy Recovery 4.<ref name="ct_2000"/><ref name="OnTrack_1999_ER"/> They were also used for [[Seagate Technology]]'s [[SeaTools]]<ref name="reimagery"/> and the CD imaging software [[Nero Burning ROM]]. While still reporting a BDOS 7.3 internally, these were the first versions to report themselves as "PC DOS 7.10" to applications in order to indicate integrated FAT32 support. Designed to be mostly backwards-compatible, the DR-DOS 7.04/7.05 IBMBIO.COM could be combined with the DR-DOS 7.03 IBMDOS.COM in order to give the desktop-approved DR-DOS 7.03 kernel LBA capabilities and work with drives larger than 8 GB. For specific OEM requirements, DR-DOS 7.06 (as of December 14, 1999)<ref name="Paul_2003_IBMBIO85_108"/> by Wightman combined the kernel files into a single binary executable, so that, similar to [[IO.SYS]] of [[Windows 98]], it could be booted by MS-DOS 7.10 [[boot sector]]s (but no longer by DR-DOS boot sectors). DR-DOS 7.07 (with BDOS 7.4/7.7) by Paul introduced new [[Booting|bootstrap]] loaders and updated disk tools in order to combine support for [[Cylinder-head-sector|CHS]] and LBA disk access, the [[FAT12]], [[FAT16]] and FAT32 file systems, and the differing bootstrapping conventions of DR-DOS, PC DOS, MS-DOS, Windows<!-- dual-boot -->, [[REAL/32]] and LOADER into a single [[NEWLDR]] [[Master Boot Record|MBR]] and boot sector, so that the code would continue to load any version of DR-DOS down to 3.31 (and since DR-DOS 7.04 also with FAT32 support), but could also be used to launch the PC DOS or MS-DOS system files, including those of Windows 9x and PC DOS 7.10. At the same time the kernel could not only be booted by the new sectors, but also by any previously DR-DOS formatted disks, as well as off disks with existing PC DOS or MS-DOS boot sectors and a variety of other boot-loaders, thereby easing the coexistence and setup of [[multi-boot]] scenarios in conjunction with other operating systems.
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