NetWare did not run on top of DOS, nor was it a GUI-driven environment. It was a purpose-built, that ran directly on the server hardware. You booted it from a floppy disk (later a bootable partition), and it ceded all system resources to the sole task of moving packets.
It was not user-friendly. It was not pretty. But it was beautiful in its brutality. And for the engineers who kept the floppy disks spinning, remains the benchmark against which all reliability is measured. novell netware 3.12
But for administrators, the magic happened at the console and via the utility (a blue, menu-driven tool reminiscent of early BIOS setup screens). NetWare did not run on top of DOS,
In the pantheon of network operating systems, few names command as much respect and nostalgia as Novell NetWare 3.12 . Released in 1993, it did not just arrive as an update; it arrived as a hammer. It was the definitive solution that drove the LAN revolution of the mid-1990s, turning a collection of DOS and Windows PCs from expensive paperweights into collaborative powerhouses. It was not user-friendly