I don't see anything Vendex specific on that disk. They may have used the same binaries, but other vendors may have used them too. But that said, that generic disk image is crufty. Any better redumps and label scans would be much appreciated.
Compaq CP-DOS 3.31 was the version we all used back in the old days until MS-DOS 5 came out. It ran on all compatible hardware, and allowed larger HDD's. If i recall correctly, IO.SYS/MSDOS.SYS therein were renamed to the Compaq names but that caused no problems -- after all, if an app didn't run on a Compaq back then, the app was in big trouble. It's probably the same as the "MS-DOS 3.31 [Compaq OEM]" above, i suppose.
"Compaq CP-DOS 3.31 was the version we all used back in the old days until MS-DOS 5 came out. It ran on all compatible hardware, and allowed larger HDD's."
yup!
NOTE: at time, ComPAQ was best known for it's "luggable" PCs.
I don't see anything Vendex specific on that disk.
Funnily enough one can say the same about version 3.31 from all known vendors - Vendex, Emerson, Headstart. Unless you have the full disk set that was bundled with their PCs, there's no way to say - which OEM DOS is it.
And about Compaq DOS 3.31 rev.A on a 1.2M floppy. It's absolutely legit, but "handmade". In fact content of all 3 360k floppies was put onto a single image + a few files that never were a part of the original distro: EXMM.SYS from ZSoft (Compaq had it's own CEMM starting with DOS 3.10), HIMEM.SYS and SMARTDRV.SYS
Compaq DOS 3.31 was used internal at Microsoft. It is Recommend used Compaq DOS 3.31 to install Microsoft Windows 3.00.014 Alpha and Microsoft Windows 3.00.033 Beta according to Microsoft.
Comments
Is the "Microsoft MS-DOS 3.31 (3.5-1.44mb)" bootable?
It should be. Try finding Disk 1 and booting off of that first.
So it should be boot from 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive.
But it is not so stable on 3.3x than 5.x or higher.
VirtualBox - https://bit.ly/3vl5wAH
VMware - https://bit.ly/3hRBZLk
QEMU - https://bit.ly/3hSrV4G
86Box - https://bit.ly/3ujaPiL
PCem - https://bit.ly/3uj7joP
MESS/MAME - https://bit.ly/2RA2g65
DOSBox - https://bit.ly/3vnnm6m
See these screenshots:
https://oldcomputer.info/gallery.php?spgmGal=Museum/PC/HeadStart_Explorer&spgmPic=11#spgmPicture
https://oldcomputer.info/gallery.php?spgmGal=Museum/PC/HeadStart_Explorer&spgmPic=12#spgmPicture
yes it is bootable
but I think it seems to be unstable than version 5.0 or 6.x from reading real floppy drive.
If i recall correctly, IO.SYS/MSDOS.SYS therein were renamed to the Compaq names but that caused no problems -- after all, if an app didn't run on a Compaq back then, the app was in big trouble.
It's probably the same as the "MS-DOS 3.31 [Compaq OEM]" above, i suppose.
yup!
NOTE: at time, ComPAQ was best known for it's "luggable" PCs.
https://medium.com/geekculture/the-1983-compaq-plus-portable-when-computers-were-glorious-9ddcb8ed9329
Funnily enough one can say the same about version 3.31 from all known vendors - Vendex, Emerson, Headstart. Unless you have the full disk set that was bundled with their PCs, there's no way to say - which OEM DOS is it.
And about Compaq DOS 3.31 rev.A on a 1.2M floppy. It's absolutely legit, but "handmade". In fact content of all 3 360k floppies was put onto a single image + a few files that never were a part of the original distro: EXMM.SYS from ZSoft (Compaq had it's own CEMM starting with DOS 3.10), HIMEM.SYS and SMARTDRV.SYS