Hi Jim, glad to hear that FreeDOS is so often downloaded :-) Regarding compatibility, I think about EMS / XMS drivers and how crashes with their default config might make first time users give up attempts to try "FreeDOS for fun" and return to DOSBOX for gaming... I also think about how an improved version of VSB or similar SoundBlaster emulators (based on protected mode traps, so not all games will be compatible) can make FreeDOS more entertaining on real hardware :-)
I would not move away any classic components which mimick MS DOS 3, 4, 5 or 6 functionality: Remember how Windows now contains zillions of files but it still works. As Ralf wrote, making APPEND and similar tools 2nd class citizens would hurt compatibility without having real advantages. In general, I would include a variety of drivers for modern hardware. As mentioned on BTTR, somebody recently tried a few DOS games on VERY new hardware: First with MS DOS plus Win9x FDISK (fails to boot from harddisk, so he installed to harddisk and used a boot diskette) and then with FreeDOS (boots from harddisk, supports USB drives). He then tries some sound options, but fails to get JEMMEX / JEMMEX happy and obviously has no pre-PCI slots on that (Ryzen based?) computer either, so no SB Live etc. And no PC speaker, as none was included with the case - mainboard still has the header... In short, drivers help with modern computers :-) I would not go as far as including Wireless network drivers, obviously. Too complex etc. - see the newest bug in WPA2. External bridge solutions via wired network are available. You could add stuff like SETEDIT to BASE if you want fancy features more than exact MS DOS style. But this is rather optional for me: All MS DOS features fit on very few disks and almost everybody downloads FreeDOS as ISO or USB boot image anyway, so they can always install many bonus apps. If you give me some URL with a list of all FreeDOS 1.2 packages in one page, it might be easier to think about what should be excluded from 2.0, but I think this will be mostly "exclude X with mediocre license because Y is available as replacement". I would rarely exclude things only because they are for example unmaintained. Well... I guess the SSH and ICQ related packages are candidates for the latter, because their age broke compatibility with current servers. But apart from such cases, I would keep most of 1.2 in 2.0 :-) Regards, Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
