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FreeDOS

Posted by michael on from the when-autoexec.bat-was-king dept.

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.

1 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Don't B*tch :-) by lw54 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Before people start griping about why on earth anyone would want DOS now days, keep in mind there are many things FreeDOS would be useful for.

    Boot disks. A DOS boot disk with fdisk, partition magic, norton, or ghost is still quite useful at times.

    Engineering. Lots of engineering programs at univerisity's currently run on older OSes then we'd all like. FreeDOS will allow schools to use older software without having to pay licensing fees for the OS too.

    Distribution. It's easier to share old DOS games that no longer work under windows with your

    Emulation. Unix people can use this to load DOS programs.

    I'm sure I'm probably overlooking most potential uses of FreeDOS but I'm going to call it quits and let the rest of the group figure them out...