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FreeDOS 1.1 Released

Posted by Unknown on from the we-don't-need-no-memory-protection dept.

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.

4 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Re:But what use would I have for it? by j-pimp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I mean seriously, how am I going to use it?

    Running old programs maybe?

    POS apps. Embedded apps. Yes all legacy stuff, but even in a VM, emulating UDMA and a DVD drive is useful.

    --
    --- Justin Dearing http://www.justaprogrammer.net/ We're just programmers.
  2. Re:But what use would I have for it? by TopSpin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I actually used it extensively last November to develop an Option ROM BIOS extension. DOS is a convenient long real assembly code testing environment. Compile a COM program with NASM on Linux, use mtools to copy the output to the (live) VirtualBox FAT floppy image and execute in (Free)DOS.

    --
    Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
  3. Re:But what use would I have for it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I asked Dell to sell me a Vostro 200 ST with FreeDos instead of Windows and avoided paying for an OS I wasn't going to use.

  4. Invaluable for our lab equipment by blind+biker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In our labs, we have a shit-ton of expensive analytical and other scientific equipment which is controlled by some DOS-based software. We have been installing FreeDOS on replacement computers, and are all deeply grateful for its existence.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.