Last week, FreeDOS turned 25 years old. FreeDOS is a complete, Free Software Disk Operating System (DOS) and a drop-in replacement for MS-DOS which has disappeared long ago. It is still used in certain niche cases such as playing legacy games, running legacy software, or certain embedded systems. Back in the day, it was also quite useful for updating BIOS.
Of those that will be, are, or have been using it, what tasks has it been good for?
Also, at:
The Linux Journal : FreeDOS's Linux Roots
OpenSource.com : FreeDOS turns 25 years old: An origin story
OS News : FreeDOS’s Linux roots
Lilliputing : FreeDOS turns 25 (open source, DOS-compatible operating system)
Earlier on SN:
Jim Hall on FreeDOS and the Upcoming 1.2 Release (2016)
Retro-Malware: DOS TSRs, Interrupt Handlers, and Far Calls, Part 2 (2016)
Retro-Malware: Writing A Keylogger for DOS, Part 1 (2016)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @03:14PM (3 children)
it's good to practice running linux as root all the time.
also it's good to use to program a tcp/ip stack for itself ...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @04:03PM
It is, but most people are boring and use existing solutions for TCP/IP and USB. Pff.. losers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 02 2019, @04:53PM
DOS is not quite like running Linux as root. DOS has this additional fine quality that an ordinary DOS 'user space' program has full access to all of the hardware.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @10:57PM
KA9Q [wikipedia.org] FTW!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @03:42PM (1 child)
DOS has a programming API developed by Microsoft..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by shortscreen on Wednesday July 03 2019, @12:37AM
Didn't Microsoft just base their API on CP/M or something though?
Oddly enough, I noticed that DOS calls on the Sharp X68000 use many of the same function numbers as MS-DOS int 21h calls. Except for some reason they decided to pass parameters on the stack and then the caller has to fix the stack pointer afterward.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DECbot on Tuesday July 02 2019, @03:43PM (7 children)
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @04:33PM (1 child)
3. ???
How about running simple programs (offline) at blinding speed, for example real time controllers?
We did this back in the day, had a data collection system that used interrupts, it also put up a "quick look" display when it wasn't actually looking at the data acquisition cards.
I guess the way it's done these days is to throw extra hardware at the problem and have the real time stuff run on it's own.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DannyB on Tuesday July 02 2019, @05:10PM
You could use a micro controller. When, when not otherwise occupied with real time, could send updates via serial through to a USB port of a computer running a common non-realtime OS.
But the price of micro controllers. Just consider the prices of microprocessors . . .
Creative Computing [archive.org], July 1980 . . . pg 33 . . . remembering way back to what 1975 was like . . .
So here we are today where you can get a system on a tiny circuit board that plugs into a breadboard. And is way more computer than most systems of that day.
To be on topic: FreeDOS would have seemed like a dream compared to the CP/M. (MS-DOS did not yet exist)
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @04:34PM
5. deltree c:windows
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 02 2019, @04:54PM (2 children)
FreeDOS might be good as a way to distribute BIOS updates?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday July 02 2019, @10:42PM (1 child)
That is pretty much all I have ever used it for.
I have these [nicegear.nz] running pfSense as firewalls around the joint. FreeDOS seems to be the easiest way to update their bios.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 03 2019, @01:34PM
FreeDOS was good as a choice that OEMs could offer when Microsoft's Windows agreements required all OEMs to only sell hardware with an OS pre-installed. Because a machine without an OS obviously must be intended for someone to install a pirated copy of Windows.
The machine could come with FreeDOS, and then the end user could wipe it and install whatever they had intended to install on a machine that doesn't have an OS preinstalled.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday July 02 2019, @06:51PM
I run i3 on Linux for that: the wife hasn't a clue what to do with it, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 03 2019, @07:21PM
i know someone that uses it for an ancient bookkeeping app.