DOS Based Applications in 2006

I didn’t think I’d have to still mess with these but I have a client with three company-wide DOS based applications that are mission critical shared amongst 30+ users. DOS – in 2006, what the heck? Haven’t any of these products moved to new technologies? The applications I’m stuck with are AMSI for DOS from Geac, HUD2000, and Dash-29. One of them actually dials up a modem number and then transmitting SMTP traffic to a government agency.

The hardest part was dredging out the tricks for managing these beasts. I started out with DOS but that was in stand alone systems. I didn’t get into serious networking and tech support until the Windows 95 era so I’m a bit rusty. Network printing from DOS apps got me all twisted around until I dug through all of the existing logon scripts. I never did find a decent DOS reference site – just had to Google my way through it. Any suggestions - feel free to post a couple?

What is an SMB?

As a Seattle area consultant, I swim in a sea of Microsoft-centric software. Software that is, unfortunately, not really designed for my small business clients. This blog is just my space to moan, complain, and highlight some of the tricks and best practices that I’ve found that work for small companies.

I do have to be a little specific in my description of “small business”. In the Windows 2000 development days, Microsoft defied “small” as less than 200 computers but now the use a better description of up to 50 computers. I view “small business” as less than 25 users, with a manageable size of roughly 10 employees. the vast majority of software is not written for companies of this size. I spend a lot of time forcing things to fit.

For a good description of the small business issues check out The SMB hype cycle: http://www.it-director.com/article.php?articleid=13395