Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
They did use some 32 bit drivers and needed a 386 to address memory. ... the default console was 32 bit. ... If Win9x had been a real OS and also entirely 32 bit there would have been no need to develop NT3.5x
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That's basically what an OS is. It does not use DOS services to access hardware or manage processes or memory, so it cannot be 'a shell' for a real-mode DOS. If by "console" you mean the command interpreter, as the console subsystem itself is 32-bit, it is not a DOS application either, as it can deal transparently with DOS, Win16 and Win32 executables.
Windows NT was a product of a different price range and requirements, yet it doesn't make Win9x not-OS just because its kernel is different.