DOS/V was a Japanese computing initiative starting in 1990 to allow personal computers to handle double-byte Japanese text via software alone. It was developed by IBM for its PS/55 machines (a localized version of the PS/2). Kanji fonts and other locale information were stored on the hard disk rather than on special chips as in the preceding AX architecture. As with AX, its great value for the Japanese computing industry was in allowing compatibility with foreign software. This had not been possible under NEC's proprietary PC-98 system, which was the market leader before DOS/V emerged. DOS/V stands for Disk Operating System/VGA (not for "version five"). DOS/V came out at approximately the same time as DOS 5.
The promotion of DOS/V was done by IBM and its consortium called PC Open Architecture Developers' Group, also called OADG.
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“The pathetic thing about the great wellintentioned mass of college and highschool students is that they have been so badly educated they have no knowledge or understanding of the complications of the world we live in and they have been so conditioned and prejudiced by generations of ill-taught teachers that they refuse to see a fact when they are confronted with one.”
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