Distribute vDos with a commercial DOS application

[lhsisson]

We have an old (obviously) DOS program that we sell primarily to churches named GiftQuest. It is a biblical spiritual gifts program. Currently we provide instructions and support to run it in a Windows XP 32 bit VM. Our sales understandably are very low--just a few a year. We would like to provide an alternative install that includes vDos to run the program to make it easier to install for existing customers stuck back on XP as well as our (few) new customers. We have done limited testing but it seems to work. We need a version of vDos that will execute Windows programs so Base vDos won't work--we've tried it! This is a very low budget endeavor at this point. Our future plan is to rewrite the application as a web app and charge a nominal fee per use rather than convert it to a Windows application and continue to market it as such.

As far as we know our customers (churches) never charge a fee to parishioners for spiritual gifts evaluations performed by the software--in other words, our software is not used commercially.

Would it be permissible to include vDos.exe in an alternate install package for our current DOS application. vDos will not run as a part of the install. We will of course credit it's use in the initial install process as well as the program's help file. In addition, we can include a pop-up that will credit vDos each time the program runs if necessary. We will also include full credits and links to vdos.info on our website in the downloads section.

Would there be a cost for such an arrangement?

Thanks,
Leonard Sisson, GiftQuest, Inc.

[Jos]

I’m not spiritual, though ‘gave away’ non-restricted vDos licenses in the past to some non-profit organizations.
vDos Base is based on an older vDos version. It has a somewhat bogus license check, you can simply remove by modifying the source.

You can of course incorporate (regular) vDos in the installation of your program. The nag would only apply/popup if your program runs in a Windows domain, or it accesses files on a network share.

If you want more: vDos running unrestricted in any situation, contact me directly. An unrestricted vDos is just that, I have to be somewhat satisfied it won’t be misused.

Jos