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Jim Hall is celebrating the 23rd birthday of the FreeDOS Project, calling it "a major milestone for any free software or open-source software project," and remembering how it all started. An anonymous reader quotes Linux Journal: If you remember Windows 3.1 at the time, it was a pretty rough environment. I didn't like that you could interact with Windows only via a mouse; there was no command line. I preferred working at the command line. So I was understandably distressed in 1994 when I read via various tech magazines that Microsoft planned to eliminate MS-DOS with the next version of Windows. I decided that if the next evolution of Windows was going to be anything like Windows 3.1, I wanted nothing to do with it... I decided to create my own version of DOS. And on June 29, 1994, I posted an announcement to a discussion group... Our "PD-DOS" project (for "Public Domain DOS") quickly grew into FreeDOS. And 23 years later, FreeDOS is still going strong! Today, many people around the world install FreeDOS to play classic DOS games, run legacy business software or develop embedded systems...

FreeDOS has become a modern DOS, due to the large number of developers that continue to work on it. You can download the FreeDOS 1.2 distribution and immediately start coding in C, Assembly, Pascal, BASIC or a number of other software development languages. The standard FreeDOS editor is quite nice, or you can select from more than 15 different editors, all included in the distribution. You can browse websites with the Dillo graphical web browser, or do it "old school" via the Lynx text-mode web browser. And for those who just want to play some great DOS games, you can try adventure games like Nethack or Beyond the Titanic, arcade games like Wing and Paku Paku, flight simulators, card games and a bunch of other genres of DOS games.
On his "Open Source Software and Usability" blog, Jim says he's been involved with open source software "since before anyone coined the term 'open source'," and first installed Linux on his home PC in 1993. Over on the project's blog, he's also sharing appreciative stories from FreeDOS users and from people involved with maintaining it (including memories of early 1980s computers like the Sinclair ZX80, the Atari 800XL and the Coleco Adam). Any Slashdot readers have their own fond memories to share?

Very long-time Slashdot reader Jim Hall -- part of GNOME's board of directors -- has a Christmas gift. Since 1994 he's been overseeing an open source project that maintains a replacement for the MS-DOS operating system, and has just announced the release of the "updated, more modern" FreeDOS 1.2! [Y]ou'll find a few nice surprises. FreeDOS 1.2 now makes it easier to connect to a network. And you can find more tools and games, and a few graphical desktop options including OpenGEM. But the first thing you'll probably notice is the all-new new installer that makes it much easier to install FreeDOS. And after you install FreeDOS, try the FDIMPLES program to install new programs or to remove any you don't want. Official announcement also available at the FreeDOS Project blog.
FreeDOS also lets you play classic DOS games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem, and Jill of the Jungle -- and today marks a very special occasion, since it's been almost five years since the release of FreeDos 1.1. "If you've followed FreeDOS, you know that we don't have a very fast release cycle," Jim writes on his blog. "We just don't need to; DOS isn't exactly a moving target anymore..."

Very long-time Slashdot reader Jim Hall -- part of GNOME's board of directors -- has a Christmas gift. Since 1994 he's been overseeing an open source project that maintains a replacement for the MS-DOS operating system, and has just announced the release of the "updated, more modern" FreeDOS 1.2! [Y]ou'll find a few nice surprises. FreeDOS 1.2 now makes it easier to connect to a network. And you can find more tools and games, and a few graphical desktop options including OpenGEM. But the first thing you'll probably notice is the all-new new installer that makes it much easier to install FreeDOS. And after you install FreeDOS, try the FDIMPLES program to install new programs or to remove any you don't want. Official announcement also available at the FreeDOS Project blog.
FreeDOS also lets you play classic DOS games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem, and Jill of the Jungle -- and today marks a very special occasion, since it's been almost five years since the release of FreeDos 1.1. "If you've followed FreeDOS, you know that we don't have a very fast release cycle," Jim writes on his blog. "We just don't need to; DOS isn't exactly a moving target anymore..."

Jim Hall (2985) writes "In a June 29, 1994 post in comp.os.msdos.apps on USENET, a physics student announced an effort to create a completely free version of DOS that everyone could use. That project turned into FreeDOS, 20 years ago! Originally intended as a free replacement for MS-DOS, FreeDOS has since advanced what DOS could do, adding new functionality and making DOS easier to use. And today in 2014, people continue to use FreeDOS to support embedded systems, to run business software, and to play classic DOS games!"

angry tapir writes "FreeDOS — the drop-in, open source replacement for MS-DOS — was started after Microsoft announced that starting from Windows 95, DOS would play a background role at best for users. Almost two decades later, FreeDOS has survived and, as its creator explains in this interview, is still being actively developed, despite achieving its initial aim of an MS-DOS compatible OS, which quite frankly is somewhat amazing."

MrSeb writes with this excerpt from an Extreme Tech article about the latest FreeDOS release and a bit of project history: "Some 17 years after its first release in 1994, and more than five years since 1.0, FreeDOS 1.1 is now available to download. The history of FreeDOS stems back to the summer of 1994 when Microsoft announced that MS-DOS as a separate product would no longer be supported. It would live on as part of Windows 95, 98, and (ugh!) Me, but for Jim Hall that wasn't enough, and so public domain (PD) DOS was born. ... Despite what you might think, FreeDOS isn't an 'old' OS; it's actually quite usable. FreeDOS supports FAT32, UDMA for hard drives and DVD drives, and it even has antivirus and BitTorrent clients." The official release announcement has more details on the improvements, and the FreeDOS website has the release for download.

Jim Hall writes "The FreeDOS Project turns 15 years old today! PD-DOS (later, 'FreeDOS') was announced to the world on June 28 1994 as a free replacement for MS-DOS, which Microsoft had announced would go away the following year, with the next release of Windows. There's more history available at the FreeDOS 'About' page and my blog. Today, FreeDOS is used by people all around the world. You can find FreeDOS in many different places: emulators, playing old DOS games, business, ... even bundled with laptops and netbooks. FreeDOS is still under active development, and recently released a new version of its kernel. A 'FreeDOS 1.1' distribution is planned."

Jim Hall writes "The FreeDOS Project turns 15 years old today! PD-DOS (later, 'FreeDOS') was announced to the world on June 28 1994 as a free replacement for MS-DOS, which Microsoft had announced would go away the following year, with the next release of Windows. There's more history available at the FreeDOS 'About' page and my blog. Today, FreeDOS is used by people all around the world. You can find FreeDOS in many different places: emulators, playing old DOS games, business, ... even bundled with laptops and netbooks. FreeDOS is still under active development, and recently released a new version of its kernel. A 'FreeDOS 1.1' distribution is planned."

Jim Hall writes "The FreeDOS Project turns 15 years old today! PD-DOS (later, 'FreeDOS') was announced to the world on June 28 1994 as a free replacement for MS-DOS, which Microsoft had announced would go away the following year, with the next release of Windows. There's more history available at the FreeDOS 'About' page and my blog. Today, FreeDOS is used by people all around the world. You can find FreeDOS in many different places: emulators, playing old DOS games, business, ... even bundled with laptops and netbooks. FreeDOS is still under active development, and recently released a new version of its kernel. A 'FreeDOS 1.1' distribution is planned."

Jim Hall writes "The FreeDOS Project turns 15 years old today! PD-DOS (later, 'FreeDOS') was announced to the world on June 28 1994 as a free replacement for MS-DOS, which Microsoft had announced would go away the following year, with the next release of Windows. There's more history available at the FreeDOS 'About' page and my blog. Today, FreeDOS is used by people all around the world. You can find FreeDOS in many different places: emulators, playing old DOS games, business, ... even bundled with laptops and netbooks. FreeDOS is still under active development, and recently released a new version of its kernel. A 'FreeDOS 1.1' distribution is planned."

Slashback tonight brings updates and continuations of recent Slashdot stories including a continuation of the Massachusetts document format debate, a response from the US State Department on RFID passports, a unique celebration of Firefox's 100 millionth download, and more.

Politics still muddying the water of the MA OpenDocument debate. The Commonwealth's Secretary of State William Galvin says he has "grave concerns" about the switch and told secretary of administration and finance Thomas Trimarco that "we will not be participating." Galvin is considered one of the strong candidates to run as a rival candidate for next year's gubernatorial race against incumbent Mitt Romney who supports the switch.

RFID passports still the best option. The US State Department released a final ruling on the issue of RFID technology to be included in all US passports after October 2006 which also contained some of the reasoning behind their move. Other technologies were apparently looked at and discarded due to the difficulty of implementation and several security measures have apparently been taken to try and placate the opposition.

Firefox fans at Oregon State celebrate 100 million downloads. CNet has a pictorial about a local OSU LUG that had a few interesting ways to celebrate the recent big numbers on the Firefox downloads page. Happy to show their support students both painted a giant Firefox logo and launched a weather balloon, I can't think of any better way to say congratulations.

DrDOS didn't really break, it just reverted. The FreeDOS folks have an update on their webpage stating that DrDOS 8.1 no longer exists and all links on the DrDOS webpage apparently point to DrDOS 7.03. There were some negative reactions to the release or 8.1 stating that it included software that it shouldn't have so for now the "band-aid" fix appears to be in place.

Flexbeta takes a look at Flock. Noting the roots of Flock in Mozilla's Firefox browser, the folks over at Flexbeta take a quick look at the additional functionality offered by this newcomer. This comes with the recent news that Flock has also decided to open source their browser. Looks like this Firefox offspring is fighting hard for some recognition of its own.

iTunes continues to take over the world. With the recent release of iTunes Australia and Apple's continued growth in the industry a recent announcement brings us "Standford on iTunes". This new service will give alumni and the general public access to a wide range of Stanford-specific digital audio content.

Bob Dobbs writes "DR-DOS 8.1 (DrDOS Inc) came out at the begining of this month, however instead of an upgrade to DR-DOS 8.0 the new product is based on work available on the internet. The work includes shareware utilities, a badly patched version of the kernel work by Udo Kuhnt, drivers (Samsung, ESS) and utilities from FreeDOS and others (e.g. pkzip). Full information on the FreeDOS site. (Cheers FreeDOS!)"

Bob Dobbs writes "DR-DOS 8.1 (DrDOS Inc) came out at the begining of this month, however instead of an upgrade to DR-DOS 8.0 the new product is based on work available on the internet. The work includes shareware utilities, a badly patched version of the kernel work by Udo Kuhnt, drivers (Samsung, ESS) and utilities from FreeDOS and others (e.g. pkzip). Full information on the FreeDOS site. (Cheers FreeDOS!)"

shanecoughlan writes "FreeDOS, the GPL DOS distribution, has a powerful little graphical user interface called OpenGEM being actively developed for it. Well, powerful is relative. OpenGEM is based off the DR GEM GUI from the 1980s, and is a 16bit single-tasking GUI that tends not to use extended memory. While KDE and GNOME might not be shaking in their boots, it's an interesting opensource project in its own right. And it runs on a 286 with 640kb of RAM..."

Jim Hall writes "An article on the BBC says that a Dalek will return to Dr Who, in an episode titled simply 'Dalek'. The Doctor discovers that a Dalek has been collected by an unsuspecting billionaire. Many of the perceived weaknesses of the Daleks have been addressed: Stairs have not been a problem for Daleks since 1988, when they first levitated towards Sylvester McCoy in Remembrance of the Daleks. The new Dalek can also spin its torso independently of his head, so creeping up from behind is no longer an option. Its trademark 'sink plunger' attachment also reveals a terrifying new function. 'Dalek' is on BBC-1 on Saturday, 30 April."

Johan writes "HP has started selling a Yuan 3,999 ($483) PC in China. The cool part is that it runs FreeDOS! Not sure why FreeDOS was chosen, but I suspect they expect it to be replaced with Linux or Windows by the user. By not having to pay for Windows, they are able to include better hardware. They probably didn't want the support burden of bundling the PC with a Linux distribution." And while we're on China, Cringely has some prognostication and speculation about IBM's sale of their PC division to a Chinese company.

Jim Hall writes "The FreeDOS Project turns 10 years old today! PD-DOS was announced to the world on June 28, 1994. The PD-DOS project was later renamed to the FreeDOS Project. We've come a long way in 10 years. Today, FreeDOS is ideal for anyone who wants to bundle a version of DOS without having to pay a royalty for use of DOS. FreeDOS will also work on old hardware, in DOS emulators, and in embedded systems. FreeDOS is also an invaluable resource for people who would like to develop their own operating system. While there are many free operating systems out there, no other free DOS-compatible operating system exists. Read more about the FreeDOS Project history in the About FreeDOS page."

Jim Hall writes "The FreeDOS Project turns 10 years old today! PD-DOS was announced to the world on June 28, 1994. The PD-DOS project was later renamed to the FreeDOS Project. We've come a long way in 10 years. Today, FreeDOS is ideal for anyone who wants to bundle a version of DOS without having to pay a royalty for use of DOS. FreeDOS will also work on old hardware, in DOS emulators, and in embedded systems. FreeDOS is also an invaluable resource for people who would like to develop their own operating system. While there are many free operating systems out there, no other free DOS-compatible operating system exists. Read more about the FreeDOS Project history in the About FreeDOS page."

Jim Hall writes "The FreeDOS Project turns 10 years old today! PD-DOS was announced to the world on June 28, 1994. The PD-DOS project was later renamed to the FreeDOS Project. We've come a long way in 10 years. Today, FreeDOS is ideal for anyone who wants to bundle a version of DOS without having to pay a royalty for use of DOS. FreeDOS will also work on old hardware, in DOS emulators, and in embedded systems. FreeDOS is also an invaluable resource for people who would like to develop their own operating system. While there are many free operating systems out there, no other free DOS-compatible operating system exists. Read more about the FreeDOS Project history in the About FreeDOS page."

Zed writes "Showing a distancing of itself from Microsoft, Dell now offers businesses a chance to purchase computers without a Windows operating system. The N-Series computers start at $319 from Dell's website and ship with a FreeDOS CD in the box."

Jim Hall writes " A recent Sun-hosted article looks at installing and running KDE 3.x on Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) -based workstations. Author Corey Liu tries to shy away from the debate over GNOME vs. KDE, and focuses on how KDE is installed on Sun workstations and the Solaris OS. Both GNOME and KDE are available at freeware Web sites for users of the Solaris OS. While Sun recently began to favor GNOME as the default desktop environment on the Solaris OS, some people still enjoy using KDE."

An anonymous reader writes "Abiword 2.0 has been released. Finally the Linux desktop has a quality word processor that is faster to load than OpenOffice.org and includes proper footnotes. It also no longer uses its own font directory. At the same time Enchant 1.0.0 has been released, a cross-platform abstract layer to spellchecking. Enchant has been proposed to be a Freedesktop.org standard." That's not the only news, though: Abiword 2.0 is part of the just-released GNOME-Office 1.0, which, as riggwelter writes "coordinates GNOME2 versions of AbiWord, Gnumeric, and GNOME-DB, the database interface." Sun's StarOffice has just reached version 7, as well: read on below for some more information on that, including a first-look review.

Jim Hall writes "I just noticed that Sun Microsystems has released StarOffice 7. I've been using the StarOffice betas for a while now, so I have been eagerly awaiting this release! StarOffice is, of course, based on the ever-popular OpenOffice.org. StarOffice 7 software adds functionality to enable export to PDF, and to the Macromedia Flash format. It also introduces the new StarOffice Configuration Manager, the StarOffice Software Development Kit, a macro recorder, and support for assistive technologies, as well as for complex text layouts. Multi-platform running on Linux, Solaris OS and Windows. Only US$79.95 to buy your copy for home (free for edu, plus cost of media+shipping.) Now is a great time to show this to your boss and pitch that 'MS Office to StarOffice' conversion project."

An anonymous reader writes "NewsForge has a 'drive-by' 'quick-peek' look at the new StarOffice up on their site."

One suggestion on office software for the Free Software desktop: Casually re-start a friend or co-worker's Windows computer with Knoppix and show them you can open their Word files with OpenOffice.org. Mention their machine is moderately safe from Word-borne viruses until they reboot into Windows.

Slashback tonight brings updates on iTunes music sharing (the mentioned auction's been pulled), the continuing fight against software patents in Europe, the recently scuttled balloon-record attempt, and more. Read on for the details.

Your ruse, your clever trick. On August 22nd, we reported that OpenOffice.org's OS X version had been delayed for two years.

However, bluethundr writes "Hold the phone! Is it delayed or isn't it? Well, according to this story in the register, it AIN'T DELAYED...just undermanned. Apparently there are only TWO (count 'em! one...aw heck, where was I?) developers working on the OS X development team. Dan Williams (who is one of the two in question) says that 'the Mac version is in a Catch-22: with only two developers, it desperately needs man power. But no one will join the porting effort until they see momentum behind the Aqua port.' Maybe some of the coders among us could lend them a hand?"

Too late for the colonies, help save the mothership. leif.singer writes "While there still is some time left, please consider signing Eurolinux' petition against software patents in Europe." You'll be in good company: vinsci writes "In their news section, FFII has posted a more detailed story: "Within a few days, the petition calling the European Parliament to reject software patentability accumulated 50,000 new signatures.""

Free as in FreeDOS Jim Hall writes "I thought I'd submit this before the news item fell too far down our web page. If you remember about a year ago, Dell was to offer Windows-less PC's, instead pre-installing FreeDOS. You can now order a Dell with FreeDOS (or Linux) ... and have been for a while now. They are pretty nice machines, too (3.06GHz). We have the news item (with links to Dell) at the FreeDOS Project web site."

Nasty worms ought to at least produce spice. The NRC released an alert about worm infections and nuclear power plants. This is a reaction after the SQL-Slammer attacked the shut-down Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in January.

Tomorrow is another year. RoadKillian writes "New Scientist reports thats the QinetiQ 1, the record-breaking balloon which was supposed to rise to an altitude of 40km (131,000ft) has ripped during inflation. The weather is unlikely to permit another attempt this year."

When EULAs collide. Yesterday's story about selling a song downloaded from iTunes seems to have an unhappy ending: sideswipe76 writes "As I was watching this auction today, it approached $16,600! Now, if you try and check this link from eBay you get 'invalid item.' Is eBay wussing out just to avoid any legal snafus that _might_ occur? Or did he violate some ebay policy? Thoughts?"

Slashback tonight brings updates on iTunes music sharing (the mentioned auction's been pulled), the continuing fight against software patents in Europe, the recently scuttled balloon-record attempt, and more. Read on for the details.

Your ruse, your clever trick. On August 22nd, we reported that OpenOffice.org's OS X version had been delayed for two years.

However, bluethundr writes "Hold the phone! Is it delayed or isn't it? Well, according to this story in the register, it AIN'T DELAYED...just undermanned. Apparently there are only TWO (count 'em! one...aw heck, where was I?) developers working on the OS X development team. Dan Williams (who is one of the two in question) says that 'the Mac version is in a Catch-22: with only two developers, it desperately needs man power. But no one will join the porting effort until they see momentum behind the Aqua port.' Maybe some of the coders among us could lend them a hand?"

Too late for the colonies, help save the mothership. leif.singer writes "While there still is some time left, please consider signing Eurolinux' petition against software patents in Europe." You'll be in good company: vinsci writes "In their news section, FFII has posted a more detailed story: "Within a few days, the petition calling the European Parliament to reject software patentability accumulated 50,000 new signatures.""

Free as in FreeDOS Jim Hall writes "I thought I'd submit this before the news item fell too far down our web page. If you remember about a year ago, Dell was to offer Windows-less PC's, instead pre-installing FreeDOS. You can now order a Dell with FreeDOS (or Linux) ... and have been for a while now. They are pretty nice machines, too (3.06GHz). We have the news item (with links to Dell) at the FreeDOS Project web site."

Nasty worms ought to at least produce spice. The NRC released an alert about worm infections and nuclear power plants. This is a reaction after the SQL-Slammer attacked the shut-down Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in January.

Tomorrow is another year. RoadKillian writes "New Scientist reports thats the QinetiQ 1, the record-breaking balloon which was supposed to rise to an altitude of 40km (131,000ft) has ripped during inflation. The weather is unlikely to permit another attempt this year."

When EULAs collide. Yesterday's story about selling a song downloaded from iTunes seems to have an unhappy ending: sideswipe76 writes "As I was watching this auction today, it approached $16,600! Now, if you try and check this link from eBay you get 'invalid item.' Is eBay wussing out just to avoid any legal snafus that _might_ occur? Or did he violate some ebay policy? Thoughts?"

rjnagle writes "The availability of HOW-TOs and newsgroups is supposed to make the sysadmin's job easier, right? Much as I am a proponent of the 'distributed learning model' for Linux, the endless searching for answers on the Web for setting up Linux RAID was getting to be a royal pain. Sure, there was a RAID how-to and an excellent newgroup, but some of the information is out of date, and the tricks suggested by people a year ago may be no longer needed today. Robert reviews the O'Reilly title Managing RAID on Linux below to see how it stacks up to HOWTOs, guesswork and anecdotal evidence. Managing RAID on Linux author Derek Vadala pages 245 publisher O'Reilly rating The best reviewer Robert Nagle (aka idiotprogrammer) ISBN 1565927303 summary This book brings RAID to the masses

A person deciding to go with RAID faces a panoply of options and gotchas. Hardware or software? How many controllers? ATA or SCSI (or ataraid)? RAID 1 or RAID 5? Which file system or distribution? Kernel options? Mdadm or raidtools? /swap or /boot on raid? Hybrid? Left or right symmetric? One poster pointed out that putting two ATA drives on the same controller could impact performance. Yikes! Didn't I do that? Upon discovering that O'Reilly had just published its Managing RAID on Linux book, looking at sample chapter , I bought the book and let my blood pressure return to normal.

RAID is one of these subjects that is really not complex; it's just very hard to find all the information in one place. This is precisely the book to solve the problem. Author Derek Vadala, sysadmin and founder of Azurance.com, an open source/security consulting firm, has gathered a lot of information and even personal anecdotes to go through the decision making process when going over to RAID. He goes step-by-step through that process, educating us about hard drives, controllers, and bottlenecks along the way. This exhaustive book may be the first to bring RAID to the masses.

Although parts of the book (RAID types, file system types) may seem already familiar to experienced Linux users, it is helpful nonetheless to have everything in a nifty little book. A section of file systems provided not only a rundown of the merits and drawbacks of each one, but also a guide to their utilities. I learned for example what "file tails" for Reiser are, and why using them causes performance to degrade after reaching 85% capacity. The book compares raidtools with mdadm as well as lovely commands like nohup mdadm -monitor -mail=paranoidsysadmin@home.com (which, if you haven't guessed, causes the system to email you RAID status reports upon boot).

People who use software RAID may skip over the chapter on RAID utilities for the leading RAID controller cards. Still, there was one interesting tidbit: Why, the author asks, do makers of controller cards put all their BIOS utilities on DOS floppies which require us to find a DOS boot disk? Seriously, how many of us carry around DOS boot disks nowadays? The book made me aware for the first time of freedos, an open source solution that solves precisely that problem.

The Software RAID stuff was pretty thorough and clarified a lot of things. The book does an excellent job in helping to identify and eliminate bottlenecks and optimizing hard drive performance (using hdparm and various monitoring commands). The anecdotes and case studies definitely clarified which RAID solution is suited for which task.

I am less impressed by the book's sections on disaster recovery and troubleshooting. Although these subjects are brought up at several places in the software RAID chapter, the book could have discussed several failure scenarios or used a fault tree (such as the famous Fault Tree in Chapter 9 of the Samba book, a marvel for any tech writer to read). The book doesn't even discuss booting with software RAID until the last 10 page of the book and then gives it only a single paragraph (even though the author acknowledges it as "one of the most frequently asked questions on the linux-raid mailing list."). Call me old-fashioned, but isn't the ability to boot into your RAID system ... kinda important? As someone who just spent a significant amount of time troubleshooting RAID booting problems in Gentoo, I for one would have liked more insight into the grub/lilo thing. Also, in the next paragraph in the last chapter on page 228, the author casually mentions that "all /boot and / partitions must be on a RAID-1." Say what? Please pity the poor newbie who religiously follows the instructions in the book but fails to read until the end. I'm not sure what the author meant by this statement, but it required a much more substantial explanation and needed to go into a much earlier chapter.

These complaints don't detract very much from this excellent book, a true O'Reilly classic and a model of clarity and helpfulness. This book provides enough knowledge to avoid the dread and uncertainty that comes with trying to tackle Linux RAID. With a book like this, a sysadmin can sleep a little easier.

Recommended Readings:

• Reliable Linux , by Iaian Campbell, Wiley and Sons, Dec 2001, ISBN: 0471070408. Gives excellent information not only about RAID but on general Linux reliability issues.
  
• Software RAID in the Linux 2.4 Kernel by Daniel Robbins. (Part Two).
  
• Linux Journal Article on Software RAID by Joe Edwards, Audin Malmin and Ron Shaker. ( Part Two).
  
• "How to do a gentoo install on software RAID" by Chris Atwood. Gentoo User Forum.

Robert Nagle (aka Idiotprogrammer )is a Texas technical writer, trainer and Linux aficionado. You can purchase Managing RAID on Linux from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Jim Hall writes "Back in college (1991), I wondered why no one had bothered to make a DOS-based game console. One day, in the back of a notebook, I made some notes about how you might go about creating a DOS-based game console. (I even called it an "X-Box", but really the "X" was there because I didn't know what else to call it. Microsoft's current "XBox" console is completely different, and I don't claim any rights to the "X-Box" name.) I've posted some scans of my notes, and a discussion about how you would create a DOS-based game console."

Jim Hall writes "Back in college (1991), I wondered why no one had bothered to make a DOS-based game console. One day, in the back of a notebook, I made some notes about how you might go about creating a DOS-based game console. (I even called it an "X-Box", but really the "X" was there because I didn't know what else to call it. Microsoft's current "XBox" console is completely different, and I don't claim any rights to the "X-Box" name.) I've posted some scans of my notes, and a discussion about how you would create a DOS-based game console."

An anonymous reader submits: "As a follow-up to the Slashdot story Dell No Longer Selling Systems w/o Microsoft OS, News.com is reporting that Dell will sell systems without Windows. Microsoft's new licensing terms stipulate they can't sell PC's without an OS (hence the removal of the NoOS option), so Dell will be offering FreeDOS as an option for some computers. It will come with the computer, but not installed, so that users may install any other OS that they wish. It's a very creative interpretation of Microsoft's licensing terms, and one I imagine Microsoft didn't have in mind."

Jim Hall writes: "Newsforge [ed. note: Newsforge and Slashdot are both part of OSDN] is running an article about the FreeDOS Project. If you don't know: FreeDOS aims to be a complete, free, 100% MS-DOS compatible operating system, and is released under the GNU General Public License. It's a good read. From the article: 'But, in the true spirit of Open Source, FreeDOS is not content to be an imitation of the existing technology. ... Open Source talks about freedom to use, but it also means freedom to choose. FreeDOS gives people another choice. If you don't want DOS, try something else. But if DOS might be the key for that special device you are building, check out FreeDOS. It is definitely worth a look.'" We did an interview with Hall two years ago - looks like the project has come a long way since then.

Jim Hall writes: "Newsforge [ed. note: Newsforge and Slashdot are both part of OSDN] is running an article about the FreeDOS Project. If you don't know: FreeDOS aims to be a complete, free, 100% MS-DOS compatible operating system, and is released under the GNU General Public License. It's a good read. From the article: 'But, in the true spirit of Open Source, FreeDOS is not content to be an imitation of the existing technology. ... Open Source talks about freedom to use, but it also means freedom to choose. FreeDOS gives people another choice. If you don't want DOS, try something else. But if DOS might be the key for that special device you are building, check out FreeDOS. It is definitely worth a look.'" We did an interview with Hall two years ago - looks like the project has come a long way since then.

Screenshots of the recently released OpenOffice, another appeal for old Usenet archives, a possibly true account of the One True Conspiracy, and Yes, a way for you to send messages of (sympathy? rage? hope?) to sojourners at MIT while they study for exams. All below in tonight's episode of Slashback.

Screenshots to show the boss. Jim Hall writes: "The other day, I downloaded OpenOffice build 628C for Linux and for Windows. I use Red Hat Linux (7.1) at home, and I already use StarOffice (5.2) for my regular office needs. It works great. I think my main complaint with OpenOffice is the silly desktop. Other than that, I consider it a fully functional office suite that can replace my MS Office needs anytime.

I didn't see any cool OpenOffice screenshots, so I made my own of the text document program. I didn't do any (yet?) of the spreadsheet program, or presentation software. These were really captured for the benefit of my brother, but I'm posting them here so that others can see them."

When I was a boy, we didn't have "archives" ... jbrw writes "Occasionally complaints will pop up that the archives at groups.google.com aren't complete enough. Well, here's your chance to help. Google is conducting an archive hunt to find some CDs from the "NetNews CD Series" pre-dating 1995, to help fill out their archive. I'm sure there's a whole heap of useful information hidden away in there, so it would be nice if it was available for all. Google says they will pay a spotter's fee for any of the CDs they don't have yet. I imagine the /. crowd would be more impressed with some sort of custom t-shirt, but there you go..."

We've mentioned this before, but it looks like they're still looking, or at least haven't updated the page.

Pinch your salt well, folks. Sir_Real writes "The RIAA wants to re-establish the CPRM standard. It is also lobbying lawmakers to make the ISP responsible for content shared by the people they provide for. Sound Cards are being targetted also. If Ms. Rosen has her way, "Watermarked" content will not be rippable because of hardware protection implemented in the new cards. The Register has the full story."

My advice would be to take this one more as a thought experiment than anything else, though it would be interesting if some sort of substantiation emerges.

The site named after a game show noise hits a milestone. Zanthrax writes: "ZZZ Online just got their 100th edition out ! You should go see this site if you allready haven't. Lots of cool stuff on the site gets submitted to /. , Like their ornithopter story which was on a lot sooner than here on /."

Just good, clean, vicarious bathroom fun. random-nerds writes: "Following a suggestion from a Slashdot reader, we built and installed a display in our bathroom so all you crazy Int0rnet junkies can send us messages while we're in our bathroom. Now the MIT Bathroom Server is fun for the whole family. Check it out at http://neurosis.mit.edu/foo/"

There's something wrong there.

We asked Jim Hall a bunch of questions Monday. Today we get answers about the reason for and future of FreeDOS, along with a sprinkling of advice for FreeDOS users and developers. Thanks, Jim, for taking the time to do this. (Guys like you, who work on "lower profile" open source projects, don't get nearly as much recognition as you deserve.) Click below for the complete interview.

1) Lifespan of DOS
by ucblockhead

While it is very nice to have some sort of non-MS DOS available (at least for us gamers), it still basically 15-20 year old technology. How much longer do you think DOS, or DOS emulation, will be necessary?

Jim:

I think DOS will be around for quite some time yet. DOS remains a great environment to work in if you are building an embedded system, for example. The operating system is light, so it will run well in a device that doesn't have a lot of memory. You can burn it into ROM, boot from a floppy, or a small micro-drive. There aren't many operating systems that you can find these days that will boot from a floppy, yet still leave you enough room on the disk for your embedded program and maybe some room for data files.

I think the embedded systems market is one of the markets that will keep DOS alive, at least for several years to come. (Exactly how many years that will be is hard to guess. Yoda: "Always changing is the future.") Look at some of the alternatives that you have today if you want to build a small embedded device: DOS, Windows CE (and there's a reason they call it "wince"), or an embedded Linux (ala Elks). Look at it a little more closely, and you'll see that if space becomes an issue for you, DOS is really the only way to go. Linux and Windows both require too much overhead to build an efficient embedded system.

Another thing that will keep DOS alive, even behind the scenes, is the PC market. A lot of companies that make computer hardware (disk arrays, video cards, controller cards, etc.) use some kind of BIOS. (This is just an example.) Now, the way of the operating system is to make it free, and for more and more operating systems to become available and popular (right now, looking at my friends and people around the office, we use: Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Linux, FreeBSD, FreeDOS.) The hardware manufacturer may not care exactly what operating system you use. After all, they provide hardware, and others may provide the software drivers that make use of it.

At some point, you'll need to provide a patch, and the user will need to flash the BIOS on their device. If you are the hardware manufacturer, how do you distribute a flash update to all your users? Will you provide a different update program for every operating system platform that might be using your hardware? In my quick list, I count five different operating systems. Will you create five different versions of your update program, and provide support on all those platforms (remember also that the Windows NT credo is "thou shalt not touch thy hardware")? For a lot of companies, the answer is no. It's a lot simpler if they can give their users a bootable floppy disk that they put into their computer, and the boot floppy automatically flashes the BIOS.

If all you need is a simple program that updates the BIOS with new instructions, do you really need a multitasking kernel for that (ala Linux or a Windows-like kernel)? The simplest choice is to use DOS, with the SHELL= line in your CONFIG.SYS file set to the flash program. At least, that's how I'd do it. (There may be some hardware vendors out there who read this and think "Gee, glad he's not on my project.")

2) Best thing about DOS
by Jon Peterson

Since you must be very well acquainted with the internals of DOS, are there any parts of it that have struck you either as being very clever in a hackerish sort of way, or very clumsy and kludgy (in an equally hackerish sort of way)?

Whilst we all loathed DOS when it was around, there was no debating that it was danged fast for some things, and its complete lack of abstraction was fun for games programmers and the like who got to cut through to the hardware when it suited them (and when it didn't!). Do you miss this rawness and freedom in more protective environments like Unix and Win32?

Jim:

I like the simplicity that DOS offers. As a DOS user, you have the equivalent of 'root' access on your computer. Anything that you want to do on the PC is possible. Nothing is really stopping you, other than hardware limitations. I find that this additional degree of freedom is nice to have, although since I work in both environments (UNIX and DOS) I tend write programs that stick to "safe areas" that work on both platforms.

DOS is also easy to learn, at least on the technical side. It's not nearly as complicated as something like UNIX, and even a user who is untrained in DOS can figure out that if you twiddle this thing here, that thing pops out over there. UNIX isn't as easy to pick up.

What don't I like? There are some things about what Microsoft did with DOS that do irk me. The biggest is that MS-DOS commands lack options, not that there are lots of MS-DOS commands anyway. Look at MS-DOS TYPE. Under MS-DOS, you can only type:

TYPE file.txt You don't have any options on that command line. Compare it with UNIX 'cat', which has more options than you can shake a stick at. It's the same with the other DOS commands.

I suppose that in a way, it was part of what got me to start FreeDOS in the first place. I wanted to have more powerful tools than what MS-DOS provided me with. So I hacked some of my own. (I wasn't a strong C programmer at the time, so this wasn't very beautiful code.) After I'd written over a dozen utilities that replaced MS-DOS commands, and found some public domain source that implemented other functionality, I realized that you could reproduce what MS-DOS does and make it a free software project. The rest, I guess, would be what we are today.

**There's an interesting bit of history here. When I first wrote my DOS utilities, my TYPE command had 8 command line options, with functionality that was similar to UNIX 'cat'. But later, I went back to read my code and realized that my code sucked! So I cleaned it up a bit, and decided that I would implement a TYPE that was more like MS-DOS. Yet no one has complained. Interesting...

3) Project suitable for a moving target?
by Wholeflaffer

Do you think this sort of project is only suitable for dead or dying software? By this I mean, DOS hasn't been in significant development for a while now, so making a clone is like reconstructing a static subject. Do you think your project could have been successful during the time of MS-DOS 6.0, or instead do you think commercial developers would have torpedoed your efforts by redesigning their next release to be less cloneable?

Jim:

Looking at MS-DOS 6 is kind of unfair. By that time, I think Microsoft had enjoyed success with Windows for a fair bit, and was starting to realize that they could make a hell of a lot more money if they switched to that. FreeDOS in the days of MS-DOS 6 really wouldn't have made things turn out much different than they are today. Anyway, FreeDOS *was* around in the MS-DOS 6.x days.

If FreeDOS had been around earlier in the MS-DOS 6 lifespan, Microsoft would have made moves to protect its interests. The DOS interface would have changed, or (more subtly) new, hidden DOS API would appear that the next version of Windows would depend on. "Free version of DOS? Hah! You can't run our version of Windows with it."

Actually, you saw a bit of this with the Caldera lawsuit on behalf of DR-DOS.

I think things really might have turned out differently if we had come out with a FreeDOS back in the days of MS-DOS 5. At that point, DOS was *the* desktop operating system. In at least the areas that I could see, people weren't making the switch to Windows, and DOS apps dominated the office desktop PC.

Introducing a free version of DOS, where the source code was available so that developers could see what was going on and make their own fixes and improvements, would have really shaken up the DOS market. I think a company would have started doing with DOS what Red Hat and Caldera are doing with Linux: bundle it, sell it, and support it. If popularity grew similarly to the way Linux's popularity has grown, I think the DOS vendors of the time would have had no choice but to consider FreeDOS a viable alternative to their commercial, closed-source DOS systems. And consider this: with a low cost to create a product (testing and support) and a relatively low barrier to entry at the time, and Microsoft would have been given a run for its money.

Microsoft has a little statement on their FreeDOS forum(MSN) that I like to bring up at times like this: "DOS is still a viable choice for millions of computers worldwide and FreeDOS offers an alternative to commercial DOS operating systems. FreeDOS does not use any Microsoft (MS-DOS) or Caldera (DR-DOS) code. The developers used public descriptions of DOS (i.e., user manuals) to recreate DOS functionality. In other words, FreeDOS is a clone."

You can assume different things about how people might have responded to a free version of DOS in the MS-DOS 5 days. I look at the proliferation of shareware at the time - I mean things that people brought into the office and actually *used* - and I like to think that people would have reacted favorably to a FreeDOS.

I wonder what the world be like if FreeDOS became so popular and widespread, and Microsoft would have had to make modifications to release an MS-DOS 5.1 that was compatible with any extensions added by the free DOS? :-)

4) How close is 1.0?
by Paul Neubauer

I've played a bit with FreeDOS (Beta3) on a spare 386 some. I will likely be trying Beta4 (or later, depending on my time..) in the foreseeable future. I'm reasonably impressed with the "lite" setup version. (Though warning a third disk, blank, may be needed would be a Good Idea, IMO.)

What do you feel are the remaining steps that must be taken to move from beta to the first non-beta version?

Jim:

I'll take that advice for the FreeDOS install program. That's a project that I maintain, and that particular bug is one that really got annoying when I installed it on my system at home. It's a kernel thing.

On the other question of when will a Version 1 be ready? If you look at the FreeDOS Software list you'll see that not all of the MS-DOS functionality has been reproduced in FreeDOS. For example, we don't have a MS-compatible BACKUP/RESTORE, we don't have CHKDSK/SCANDISK and we don't have EMM386. But I don't really see that as much of a barrier to going to Version 1. After all, if someone really wanted to have those functions available under the GNU GPL and supplied by FreeDOS, someone would have written them by now.

For example: A lot of people get by with using zip/unzip to backup their software (when's the last time you backed up *your* home system?) And there are shareware programs that do the same job as CHKDSK/SCANDISK (many people still use the venerable Norton Utilities, which does one better.)

The big barrier to Version 1 is, I think, the 512MB bug. Right now, the FreeDOS kernel can't handle hard disks that are larger than 512MB. If you try to even do a DIR on a FAT bigger than 512MB, you hose the FAT.

At one time, we did have a fix for the 512MB bug. But I'll be honest: that fix was lost and will need to be recreated. The version with the 512MB fix had some other issues anyway, so when we changed maintainers that code was dropped. But until the FreeDOS kernel can support large disks, I don't want to make a Version 1 FreeDOS distribution.

5) DOS Based Pseudo Embedded Systems
by Doug Dante

There are a lot of pseudo embedded DOS based systems out there. My previous employer had a remote access concentrator product in this category, and paid a non-trivial sum per box to Microsoft for DOS 5.0, a product that Microsoft refused to support. Unfortunately, I was unable to convince management to give Free DOS a try.

Has Free DOS made any progress in these types of markets? Are people using Free DOS to replace MS-DOS in these pseudo embedded systems? )

Jim:

FreeDOS is definitely being used in these markets, and FreeDOS is definitely being taken as an alternative to MS-DOS in these areas.

John Price has a really good example of an embedded system that uses FreeDOS. It's called The Box: "It is a box with a single board computer (a 486DX made by Ampro), and an LCD display, two volume knobs, and four push buttons. The push buttons are connected to four inputs of the PRINTER port, and the software polls the printer port inputs to read the key presses and control the operation of the program.

At one point, I had started a list of ways in which FreeDOS is being used in the commercial market. I can't seem to find that list anymore. Guess I've been a bad web guy!

But the list goes something like this, as far as I can remember (I'd need to find the list before I can report names, since I'm not sure):

• a Japanese company is using FreeDOS as an embedded controller for a piece of machinery.
• a graphics card company distributes FreeDOS on boot disks that they distribute to users to flash their BIOS.
• a disk array manufacturer put FreeDOS on boot disks to let you control options on the disk array.
• Maximum PC Magazine ran an article about FreeDOS in reviving old PC's as Internet terminals. A PC manufacturer in Germany is doing just that - collecting old 486 hardware, installing FreeDOS, and selling the systems.

And more!

I'd really like to do more with embedded computing myself, but I haven't found the time to go in that direction. But EMJ Embedded Systems is selling a '386-24MHz PC/104 SBC for less than $200, and this is just the kind of low-end system that I would like to play with. Maybe I'll have to make time for this, anyway. Another hobby.

6) Reverse Engineering
by Effugas

The DVD CCA's argument has essentially become, had MS thought in advance to include but a single sentence in a license agreement, FreeDOS could have been supressed.

How do you feel about this, and what advantages do you feel society has a whole has received from the fruits of your reverse engineered labors? Similarly, what harms would we have as a society if you could never have rewritten DOS?

Jim:

I guess I'll weight in with my two cents here, even though I'm no expert on the DVD-CCA thing. Remember that the entire PC industry exists because of a single reverse engineering effort. When Compaq first debuted with the IBM-compatible PC, it launched a computer revolution. Now everyone could build their own PC company, compatible with IBM's original effort. Because of that, you have increased competition to make a better product. Prices get lower, while quality gets better (Microsoft not withstanding.) You try to do it as cleanly as you can (in terms of clean room engineering.) I think the DeCSS guys had every right to reverse engineer how DVD systems work. It opens up the market (which is what DVD-CCA doesn't want.) By creating a free version of DOS, I believe we have improved the state of DOS everywhere. Unlike the DOS'es that came before it, FreeDOS opened up its source code. You can look at it, and if you find a bug you can fix it right away without waiting for a service patch. If you find that your DOS application would run better if DOS ran just a little differently, you have the ability to make that change. And under the GNU GPL, you have the right to distribute those changes. As a DOS community, we all benefit from this.

7) How do you feel about Caldera?
by MrHat

A previous Slashdot article included reactions to the settling of Caldera's lawsuit regarding DR-DOS, their non-free DOS clone. What are your feelings on the lawsuit and its settlement? Even though your development isn't focused upon running Windows, have you ever run into any similar "forced incompatibility" issues (Microsoft-related or otherwise)?

Jim:

I have a lot of feelings about Caldera. I could write tomes on that one.

One one hand, Caldera has done some cool things with DOS. I really like the idea of writing a TSR that provided a wrapper for all the missing functionality between DR-DOS and MS-DOS 7 (the version of DOS that underlies Windows 95.) I listened to Bryan Sparks from Caldera speak at a TCLUG meeting once. One of his topics was the lawsuit, and how their TSR program lit up an indicator every time Windows 95 accessed a DOS API. This showed how much DOS was part of Windows 95, that it wasn't really a new operating system that just happened to have a command-line interface that looked a heck of a lot like DOS. It really was a play on DOS + Windows, just like the old Windows 3.1.

On the other hand, I think Caldera has done some bad things that have been hurtful to free software. Hopefully, they will turn that act around.

Back to the Caldera v. Microsoft suit. I think it would be more fair to call it the DR-DOS v. Microsoft suit, since what was really at stake was an accusation that Microsoft had hacked its pre-release version of Windows (the version that all the IT managers were using to evaluate this new thing called Windows, and see if it will work on top of the really cool DR-DOS that most of them were using.) The hack was supposedly to make it appear as though DR-DOS was not capable of supporting MS Windows, so if you wanted to jump on the GUI bandwagon, you better buy MS-DOS to go with it since you know they'll work together.

Caldera had already bought the rights to DR-DOS. I think it was really part of Caldera's responsibility to carry on the fight that DR couldn't continue - that Microsoft might have intentionally broken its own software's compatibility to put a stain on the reputation of a customer. In my view, Caldera bought DR-DOS's benefits, but it also bought its history, and this Microsoft thing was sitting right there as a stain on its record. It was in Caldera's best interest to take it to court.

On the "forced incompatibility" thing: no, I don't recall any issues that we ran into with that. When Pat Villani wrote the first kernel, he implemented only those DOS API that he needed to support his applications. I suspect a lot of that was analysis to figure out what was breaking, and how it was really supposed to work (things like _Undocumented DOS_ weren't available.) Later, when Pat's kernel became the FreeDOS Kernel, we had access to terrific resources like Ralph Brown's Interrupt List. That's your compatibility right there. It tells you all the features you need to add to become compatible with MS-DOS.

8)Internals Question
by jd

DOS had some fascinating internals, some of which were never really exploited or realised. One example was the disk drive. DOS supported, at the machine-instruction level, 127 floppy drives and 127 hard drives, for example. Indeed, some early PCs came with 4 floppy drives as standard.

What is FreeDOS' take on such quirks? In other words, where the system call specification is more general than what was actually implemented, are you referring back to the specification or what Microsoft actually coded?

Jim:

I don't see us implementing these kind of interesting quirks. I've seen it, but you have to remember that people hack code to support the systems they have. And not too many people have PC hardware that actually includes 127 floppy drives and 127 hard disks. :-)

I guess the trend has been that, when you're adding compatibility, you look at what the program actually needs and you work from there. These kinds of quirky underpinnings don't really come into it. Sorry.

9)Packet Drivers & tcp/ip Stacks
by flaw

I find DOS to be an extremely useful system, and a necessary one if you're running old hardware. I personally know know several students who contentedly write their essays on 286 machines using DOS WordPerfect or WordStar. I myself have an old PC XT, running DR DOS, networked to my Linux router using a DOS plip packet driver and wattcp. There's a lot of old hardware around, and I think that tcp/ip network connectivity is one of the most useful ways of breathing added vitality into old boxes. The problem with it now is that it can be a bear to setup (especially dialup ppp connections), and most of the people I know who would make use of it are not exactly computer enthusiasts.

Looking through the FreeDOS software lists I don't see any mention of packet drivers, tcp/ip stacks, or pppd implementations. Are there any plans of integrating some form of tcp/ip network connectivity in future versions of FreeDOS? If so, would it be easier to setup then what is presently available?

Jim:

Actually, I would like to include Internet dial-up software with the next FreeDOS distribution. The real reason that I haven't done so up until now is that I'm lazy. I admit it.

In the early distributions (Alpha1-5) that were put out by M. "Hannibal" Toal, we did have DOSPPP and a web browser. When I began to manage the FreeDOS distributions, I simplified the distributions so I could put things into packages, make them easier to maintain and install, etc. One of the first things to go was DOSPPP.

As we released more FreeDOS distributions, people have become more comfortable with FreeDOS as their version of DOS. Until now, most people have been installing FreeDOS to use under DOSEmu or something similar where you don't need a network connection (because you have it under the primary environment that is running the emulator.) But I think it is time to add the DOSPPP package again. Look for a new disk set to appear in Beta5.

Note that the TCP/IP stack does not necessarily go through the network redirector (which is broken.) There is even a free Web server (FISH) that runs on FreeDOS and shows how to write TCP/IP-enabled applications on FreeDOS.

10) FreeDOS and Redirection
by BacOs

I have recently setup a client with a Linux server running DOSEMU and one of the requirements was to access network shares from within the DOSEMU session using LREDIR or emufs.sys.

We had to deploy the system with MS-DOS 6.22 (in other words we could not deply the system using Free DOS) because FAQ 6.1 of the DOSEMU FAQ says "First make sure you aren't using DosC (the FreeDos kernel), because unfortunately this can't yet cope with the redirector stuff." (I know it doesn't work - I tried anyway :))

Anyway, my question is, when will FreeDOS work with redirection?

Jim:

I think network redirection is coming, but I can't tell you exactly when that will be. I have to give James Tabor a lot of credit for making the patches to the kernel that provided CD-ROM support. John Price (kernel maintainer) has also put a lot of work into it to bring the kernel where it is today.

The CD-ROM support definitely started to add redirector support to the FreeDOS kernel, but network redirector support just isn't there yet.

I guess all I can do to answer this question is re-post part of a message from James Tabor at the time that we posted kernel build 2017f (CD-ROM support) back in December: I hope this is it. I would like to see this kernel tested! I know there is probably something I forgot, if so let me know. I did not remove SHSUCDX from the bin directory. I think everyone needs it. MSCDEX works but it is unable to read file entries. I'm going to start work on the Network part of this. I'll wait until next year to post unless someone wants it now. Still can't find out why SCSI device drivers boom during any device access. Darn! I'm going to take a break for the next month. So let me know!

BONUS QUESTIONS (chosen by Jim):

I found out about this a while ago, when I first heard about Litestep, but I've always wondered one thing...

Could you rewrite a version of DOS that'll work with Windows 9x and have the correct slashes ( / ) in the filesystem instead of those bass-ackward ones ( \ ) that are always in the wrong spot to type quickly?

Jim:

Actually, you could use switchar to change the DOS application's idea of the switch character. You might change it to '-' for example, meaning that '/' could be used for directory separators (Note: DOS doesn't care if you use '\' or '/' to separate directories- look at Freemacs.)

However, the bigger problem is that not all DOS apps honor the switchar value in DOS. A lot of apps (I'll admit it - even my own) just assume '/' as the option character, and look specifically for that. My hack to GNU Getopt assumes '/', and my hack to HTML Help to use PD getopt also assumes '/'.

So it's a mixed answer: yes, you can use switchar to change the switch character with some apps, but you will still need to use '/' for those apps that don't recognize switchar.

What's the meaning behind the "names" for the Beta distributions?

Jim:

We've had several code names in the Beta distributions: Orlando (Beta1), Marvin (Beta2), Ventura (Beta3), and Lemur (Beta4). The short answer is that I thought it was cute.

The origin of each of the code names are:

- Orlando (Beta1)

At the time that I created the first Beta distribution for FreeDOS (the first distribution to actually have an install program, rather than being just a huge zip file) I was about to take a vacation to see my brother. Since he lives in Orlando, FL I thought it would be cool to name the distribution based on that trip.

- Marvin (Beta2)

I was starting to wax nostalgic for FreeDOS's roots. When I started the FreeDOS Project, I was a physics student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Marvin was a VAX system that was being de-commissioned at about the time I announced FreeDOS.

- Ventura (Beta3)

Jesse Ventura had become governor of my state. 'Nuf said. (Save us!)

- Lemur (Beta4)

I've always wanted to have a mascot for the FreeDOS Project (it's a gimmick.) Linux has the penguin, BSD has the daemon, and GNU has the gnu. I've never pushed the idea of officially adopting a FreeDOS mascot because I didn't want to get distracted by the noise that would create. Not when I could be hacking code. I guess naming the Beta4 the "Lemur" distribution was my way of adopting a mascot when we really didn't. Plus, I've always thought lemurs looked cool.

-jh

..............

Jim Hall lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife (Sara) and four cats (Midnight, Murphy, Vita, and Linus.) Yes, he named the cat after Torvalds. So he's a geek.

..............

Next week: Jon Johansen, the deCSS guy.

This week's interview guest is Jim Hall, founder of the FreeDOS project. Jim isn't rich or famous, just an old-fashioned open source contributor who helped start a humble but useful project back in 1994 and still works on it as much as he can. FreeDOS is the DOS behind DOSEmu, so if you've used any DOS programs (like games) under Linux, you've benefited from Jim's work. One question per post, please. Moderators do the question selection, with editorial help only if there are duplicate or overlapping questions. Cutoff for questions and moderation is Tuesday noon, U.S. EST. Jim's answers will appear Friday.

FreeDOS has come one step closer with their "Marvin" Beta 2 release. FreeDOS is MS-DOS compatible, while having the advantage of being open source.