Hi... > I said not long ago that running windows on FreeDOS is not a real test, > let me explain why: Windows at some point included some very complicated > locking mechanism to *avoid* windows running other DOSes.
This was about Windows 3.1 and later versions, MS checked for some nonsense properties to support their false claim that DR DOS would be unable to run Windows 3.1, while actually DR DOS was simply better than the pointless MS DOS 3.3x / 4.01 of the time. FreeDOS passes that strange tests, but the real problem is with 32bit mode (Win 3.1 /3 mode and default mode of WfW 3.11, actually WfW 3.11 runs only in a stripped down safe mode if you tell it to disable all 32bit drivers and stuff). This mode does real multitasking with DOS. Well, kind of. It tweaks all kinds of internal DOS properties to make DOS believe that it is not multi- tasking at all. FreeDOS does not yet clone all internal oddities of MS kernels well enough to support that. So the best that you can get at the moment is Win 3.1 in /S mode, and you cannot create DOS boxes in there either (similar to the multitasking problem of 32bit mode). People show up regularily with some patches for FreeDOS, but so far, all were made based on MS DOS sources, so they were completely unacceptable. If I were keen on stealing MS DOS, I would rather steal a binary instead of having to recompile it anyway... By the way, the NEWDOS project (stolen Win98 MS DOS 7.xx plus some GPLed add-on tools but then called "GPL DOS 7", I guess?) is gone. Eric ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
