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FreeDOS 1.0 Released

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the begun-before-you-were-born dept.

Noksagt writes, "FreeDOS 1.0 has been released only a little bit later than planned. The 1.0 milestone is considered to be 'a stable and viable MS-DOS replacement' and features long filename support, HIMEM and EMM386 management, and CD-ROM support."

2 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. Not exciting... by evilviper · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I liked DOS as much as anybody, but FreeDOS is perhaps 5 years too late for anyone to care.

    Most people have now (FINALLY) moved entirely off DOS (even Microsoft!), which had a solid niche until a few years ago.

    FreeDOS has really poor compatibility with everything I try. Try to run some MS-DOS program, and it aborts before showing anything, or perhaps acts in very weird ways, sometimes doing real damage.

    The main thing I tried it for, quite recently, was partitioning/formatting, as Windows has a few limitations in that regard. After finishing the job, Windows couldn't even read the partion. FreeDOS is a LONG way from 100% compatible.

    What's more, DR-DOS has been freely available, for a very long time now. You can even get the source code to it, if needed, although it's under a restrictive license. It really is 99% compatible with MS-DOS, both applications and filesystems.

    What is anyone using FreeDOS for, today, other than bragging rights?

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  2. Re:Installer needs work... by varunnangia · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philisophy, Horatio. DRM and conspiracy is not the answer to every question. If you want to read why Aero Glass gets turned off, read this article. If an application tries to draw directly to the front buffer instead of the back buffer, Aero Glass shuts down and you're staring at Aero Basic. Virtual PC 2004 was never designed to work with Aero Glass: it writes to the front buffer and the compositing manager shuts down - which means no Aero Glass.

    For examples of unsigned applications that doesn't break Aero: GAIM. Miranda. Firefox. VLC. We could go on and on.