Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!iuvax!bobmon
From: bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Why Can't Microsoft Write Protect Their Distribution Disks?
Message-ID: <9257@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 31 May 88 19:04:25 GMT
References: <101@dcs.UUCP> <696@holos0.UUCP>
Reply-To: bobmon@iuvax.UUCP (RAMontante)
Distribution: na
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Indiana University
Lines: 21

Just one more thought, lest the flames die down...

All of the arguments _against_ the vendor applying write-protect tabs
work even better as arguments against the vendor supplying some infernal
SETUP program.  Creating those little monsters takes _skilled_ labor,
and is a waste for people who have to adapt to different situations.
Even skilled people need write-protects, possibly they need them even
more because they are more likely to "skip past" the low-level stuff and
rush on to the conceptually interesting parts; a real novice, who generally
knows he's a novice, will follow the step-by-step procedures.  (I'm assuming
that a well-written novice procedure will include write-protecting the disks
and/or _not_ include overwriting them.)

My Zenith release of MS-DOS _did_ have write-protect tabs, by the way -- and
the stupid SETUP program had one redeeming feature, namely the option to
not proceed with it.  (None of the previous DOS releases had an autoexec.bat,
let alone a setup program.)

~~
bob,mon
"In this position, the skier is flying in a complete stall..."  -M.S. Holden