
These are perfectly valid points and I agree. I'm glad we (MS) are starting
to remedy this situation with DOS 6 (and it will get better in future 
releases). You do need to be aware of some history, however. In the 
mid-late 80's, MS's point of view was that OS/2 was going to take over
the world and DOS would be phased out. As such, resources for DOS
(and windows, for that matter) development were mostly redirected to OS/2.
The theory was to keep just enough resources on DOS to support people
until they started using OS/2, so utilities and such for DOS fell by the 
wayside.

Then Windows 3.0 hit the market, OS/2 flopped (1.x, at least...2.x seems to
be doing a little better, but its future is still cloudy), and people either
stayed with their DOS (3.x and 4.x) apps or moved to Windows. About that
point in time, MS made its decision to drop OS/2 for DOS/Windows in the
short term and Windows/NT in the long term. DOS 5, much improved over DOS
3.x and 4.x, was the first result of MS's refocussing on DOS and Windows.
Version 6 takes things somewhat further and I suspect future versions will
offer even more in terms of "real" OS features (I work on NT and have no
real clue about what my coworkers over in DOSland are doing, but I do
know that there are a heck of a lot more of them than there were a
few years ago).

	...Dave