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DOS Emulator In and Out of App Store

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the going-for-hte-record dept.

gent01 writes "A company called Fast Intelligence got DOSBox running on iOS and dubbed it iDOS. It's been stuck in review for the app store for some time. Evidently the iDOS app was in the app store this morning, but it has already been taken down."

14 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Well, duh. by pclminion · · Score: 4, Informative

    Duh. By emulating DOS, you allow the user to run any DOS program they want. In other words, you make the device programmable. That's a no-no on the App store.

    1. Re:Well, duh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Unless things have changed in the last week that C64 emulator doesn't have any way to save the programs on it.

    2. Re:Well, duh. by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Informative

      I hate to break the news to you friend but BfW basically did an end run around the GPL by having the main developers license to Apple under different restrictions. There is still some stink over this since not all the contributors agreed. you can read more here but I would say since the FSF wrote the GPL if they say it ain't compatible then it ain't, period. Considering the whole basis of the GPL is the four freedoms, which you simply can't have because Apple uses both hardware and legalese to restrict what you can do with the code, I just don't see the two coming to any real agreement.

      Either you have to own ALL the code so you can re-license it in a more restricted form as MYSQL used to do, or you simply can't play in Steve's garden. Personally I don't care for the walled garden approach but if that is your thing, enjoy. But logical hoop jumping won't make a walled garden into a free commons, nor will it make an Apple iDevice compatible with the four freedoms.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  2. This proves the previous story... by copponex · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apple leans very far to the left.

    1. Re:This proves the previous story... by hedwards · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's because in the US it's considered acceptable to accuse a politician of being both fascist and socialist at the same time. Both sides when you get far enough are completely nuts, but try comparing Naziism with Soviet Communism. The difference is significant.

  3. Re:Newsworthy? by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah, and the BIOS is IBM's property which is why you can only buy IBM-made PCs....

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  4. Re:Newsworthy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Dosbox is to MS Dos as VisualBoyAdvance is to people walking around handing out free Gameboys.

    There's also a FreeDOS implementation which is an actual OS and not just an emulator, which also isn't Microsoft's property.

    id Software and Activision have distributed Dosbox in the past without permission from Microsoft.

    Kindly cease and desist your baseless claims.

  5. It's available for Android by LodCrappo · · Score: 5, Informative

    As "aDosBox".. http://androiddosbox.appspot.com/

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    -Lod
  6. GPL3 by CritterNYC · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's actually GPL3 code that can't be used in any apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad due to the anti-Tivoization clauses in GPL3 and the completely locked down nature of iOS and the app store.

    --
    Portable versions of Firefox, GIMP, LibreOffice, etc
  7. Re:Newsworthy? by NotQuiteInsane · · Score: 4, Informative

    DOSBox is a reverse-engineered re-implementation of the PC BIOS (int13h et al) and DOS APIs (int21h et al) and the x86 CPU. There's no Microsoft, Digital Research, IBM or whatever code in there. At all.

  8. Re:News? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    If you have to ask why, you're not a member of the intended audience.

    [That answer borrowed from the Text-Mode Quake site.]

  9. Re:Aw. by Lehk228 · · Score: 2, Informative

    get a blackberry, they don't restrict developers and encourage you to integrate your app with the standard blackberry apps and UI with their "super apps" initiative.

    oh and the signing keys required to access sensitive API's costs 20 bucks, one time per developer.

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  10. Re:reason why: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Commodore 64 emulator was let in after the BASIC interpreter was removed, time passes then over the summer the developers were told they could add the interpreter again. it's still in the app store happily interpreting BASIC.

    There's also a Lua interpreter in the app store by the way.

  11. Re:I could have run cygwin! by Nimey · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, you couldn't. Cygwin's always required Windows.

    You may be thinking of DJGPP, which was (is) a port of gcc to 32-bit DOS (via DPMI) and also a collection of GNU utilities compiled with same. The utilities are occasionally updated.

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem