FreeDOS 1.1 Released

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Posted by Unknown on Wednesday January 4, 2012 @05:42AM 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.

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Re:But what use would I have for it? by Millennium · 2012-01-04 05:48 · Score: 5, Funny

Someone needs to make a CoreBoot-style bootloader that uses this. Then they could call it "DOS Boot".
I'm now waiting on FreeQEMM by SensitiveMale · 2012-01-04 05:50 · Score: 4, Funny

and FreeDESQview as well.
Re:But what use would I have for it? by j-pimp · 2012-01-04 05:51 · 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.
Re:Writing Viruses for AV by Kenja · 2012-01-04 05:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

Right... because prior to Windows 95 there where no viruses! So there's NO WAY that the old floppy disc you have with your copy of Elder Scrolls could possibly have a virus on it.

This is DOS we're talking about. There has never been a more virus filled OS in history. What kids today think of as viri are just worms and trojans. DOS has REAL virus issues. Self replicating bastards that attach onto other executables.

--

"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Re:But what use would I have for it? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-04 05:55 · Score: 4, Informative

The same as for Linux. Program, learn, experiment.
Re:But what use would I have for it? by ruanime · 2012-01-04 05:58 · Score: 4, Funny

I mean seriously, how am I going to use it?
Running old programs maybe?
Yeah I would, maybe one day I can start that BBS that I always wanted.
Re:But what use would I have for it? by MightyYar · 2012-01-04 06:00 · Score: 5, Informative

Mostly I've used it for running old games (via DOSBox), but I've encountered it when using BIOS updates and other standalone boot utilities.

--
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Re:But what use would I have for it? by TopSpin · 2012-01-04 06:01 · 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
Is No One Excited? by eno2001 · 2012-01-04 06:03 · Score: 4, Informative

I remember the early days of Slashdot where this would have everyone talking. It's pretty damn cool. At this point it's prefect for reproducing real old school gaming. DOSBox is great for that too. But look... you're running a real DOS here! No VM needed! Pull out your 486! Get out your 1994 era Pentium 90! Relive the days when computing was actually fun! I installed FreeDOS with GEM (which was the better GUI compared to Windows back in the day until Apple ruined it by suing Digital Research) on a laptop from 1998. That thing is a BEAST now. Seriously, doesn't anyone get excited about this stuff anymore?

--
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
1. Re:Is No One Excited? by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-01-04 06:29 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Anybody who flashes BIOS ought to be excited.
  Real CDROM support means we should be able to have a .288 file that doesn't need to be mounted loopback and modified with mcopy for every different flasher. An big BIOS images aren't a problem anymore.
  One stock boot image that gets written to the ElTorrito sector and then jump to the CDROM drive to continue execution of the startup script.
  Boilerplate FTW.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
2. Re:Is No One Excited? by Pharmboy · 2012-01-04 06:29 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I am, so that likely brings the total of excited people up to 6, maybe 7. Everyone else is busy marveling over their iPad and iPhone (oooh, round corners....) and other walled gardens. Like you, I miss being able to actually communicate directly to the hardware, from the command line. I miss hand tweaking my config.sys and autoexec.bat files to squeeze out an extra 500 bytes (yea readers, 1/2 of a kb) of lower RAM. Using QEMM and DesqView to quazi-multitask by multiple line BBS on my 486 with 4mb of ram. (3 lines, but I still have plenty of ram left for a prompt to do maintenance while monitoring chat) There was a certain empowerment that came from operating a computer back then. We actually knew exactly how much power the system had, because we easily found ways to saturate it, just to get every ounce of power out of it. Back then, we did things just because we COULD, and we enjoyed learned from crashing and burning stuff.
  I also remember the good old days when the Internet was hard to use. THOSE were the days. No spam, no popups, and if you could find a website, likely it had real information on it because only computer "experts" and universities had servers. The days before the "Browser Wars", when every Congressman didn't know what the Internet was, instead of now where they know what it is, but still have no idea what it is. And who could forget BBSes, Gopher, and Veronica, Archie, and password protected FTP accounts brimming with goodies like Wolfenstein.... :)
  That said, I don't MISS those days, but at 47, I'm glad I got to be a part of those days, and the days before that with CPM, portable computers with 8086s that weighed 50 pounds, original Macs, and even a VIC 20 with no storage device. You can't recreate them, or duplicate them, so those days are gone for good. It's up to us to create new ideas to eventually become "the good old days".
  
  --
  Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
3. Re:Is No One Excited? by Overly+Critical+Guy · 2012-01-04 07:17 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Nostalgia is a deceptive mistress. It tends to glorify things that weren't objectively good but carry sentimental feelings. You miss communicating directly with hardware and editing DOS startup files, but the DOS developers who had to support everybody's esoteric PC hardware sure don't. In fact, those days were a step back from the initial push in the 60s and early 70s toward higher-level abstraction that we've only now come back around to but took a detour from during the initial commoditization of low-end PC hardware. But you explained why you liked it--a sense of mastery that mentally justified the time investment.
  
  --
  "Sufferin' succotash."
Screenshot of 1.1 by sootman · 2012-01-04 06:05 · Score: 5, Funny

C:\>_
(Hmm, never noticed how much that looks like a clown smiley.)

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Re:But what use would I have for it? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-04 06:06 · 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.
A new OS?! This changes everything! by brillow · 2012-01-04 06:09 · Score: 5, Funny

Does it have an app store?
Invaluable for our lab equipment by blind+biker · 2012-01-04 06:15 · 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.
Re:But what use would I have for it? by TheGratefulNet · 2012-01-04 06:20 · Score: 4, Funny

DIL_
(system hung...)
Dammit! I gotta go rebuild dilo again. again!

--

--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Re:Windows ME did not have DOS. by Dwedit · 2012-01-04 06:22 · Score: 4, Informative

Windows ME had DOS just like Windows 98 did, Microsoft just disabled it. You can hack several bytes, and you get DOS back again.
You must be thinking of Windows XP or Windows 2000, which did not have DOS.
Re:But what use would I have for it? by hawguy · 2012-01-04 06:29 · Score: 5, Informative

I mean seriously, how am I going to use it?
Running old programs maybe?
I use it for installing BIOS and other hardware driver updates that need a DOS boot disk. The process goes something like this:
http://www.tummy.com/journals/entries/jafo_20080920_234755
(Free)DOS can still be relevant ... by DigitalDreg · 2012-01-04 06:29 · Score: 5, Informative

DOS and FreeDOS are still relevant in some niche areas:
- Turn-key and embedded hardware often use DOS
- Retro-computing: Some of us like dragging out our old hardware to play with it
- Learning to code closer to the metal; DOS gives you enough services to get you going, while giving you a feel for embedded programming
FreeDOS runs on almost everything from an original IBM PC (1981) to a virtual machine under VMWare and VirtualBox. People (hobbyists) are continuing to work on the utilities to keep it refreshed. For example, in the last year there was a new set of TCP/IP programs added, a utility for sharing folders with a VMWare host, and a new web browser based on Dillo.
It's not for everyone, but if you are curious check it out - it's pretty painless to run in a VM. (Or you can drag out your XT or Pentium 90 for the full effect.)
Re:But what use would I have for it? by Cro+Magnon · 2012-01-04 06:31 · Score: 4, Funny

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.
But don't most Piece Of Shit apps run under Windows?

--
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Re:Kid's first OS by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-04 06:38 · Score: 5, Funny

"I told you, tou're not getting your kitten back until you configure HIMEM.SYS and solve that IRQ conflict with the Gravis UltraSound!"
Re:But what use would I have for it? by Grishnakh · 2012-01-04 09:15 · Score: 4, Insightful

With Linux, you get to learn about a real OS, which uses things like protected memory, processes, virtual memory, etc. If you come up with something useful, then you can deploy it on Linux systems everywhere or share it with the world so others can use it on their Linux systems.
With FreeDOS, you're only learning about an obsolete program loader. No one would create a serious application to run in DOS any more, because to do so would be utterly stupid. It's a lot like getting a Commodore=64 to learn about computers; they were fun in their day, but they're so utterly obsolete any more that it's pretty pointless unless you have a lot of time to burn.
Re:But what use would I have for it? by MichaelSmith · 2012-01-04 09:21 · Score: 4, Funny

POS apps
No, I don't think Eclipse runs in DOS.

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http://michaelsmith.id.au