Hey,
I don't know if this is the right list to post in or not as i am rather new to
the maillist.
I have a rather large idea probably more a seperate project, with draft ideas
already sketched out but i wanted to run via the FreeDOS community to check
that it would actually be viable, so comments opinions etc are welcome.
The main aim behind the idea is to make a DOS system that is comparable to
Linux, Windows or any other of the 100+ OS's out their while still using the
DOS Kernel at the core, which if my idea is viable would allow DOS to be 16, 32
& 64-bit compaitable, seems like a crazy idea huh...!
Current Implementations:
- FreeDOS (FDOS kernel) 1.1
New Implementations:
FDOS64 Kernel:
-A secondary 32/64-bit capable kernel that *doesn't* replace the current FDOS
kernel but expands upon the existing kernel by writing new 32-bit and 64-bit
binaries/ code. The design of the FDOS64 kernel is take care of converting
between 64-bit to 16-bit. This kernel would take care of the processing load
and any other applications that require higher memory address space (I.e.
GUI's, graphics card Drivers, any current software would run through this
kernel, while DOS command would run through the the FDOS kernel.)
- The current FDOS kernel would function as it currently does running all
16-bit applications, but passing any 32-bit or 64-bit processing to the new
FDOS64 kernel.
- Direct access to the FDOS64 kernel could be obtained by expanding a new
category within DOS Command (e.g. adding 64 to the start of each command or
something like that)
HAL, Win32/ 64 API & Windows Drivers:
- Most of the HAL compatiblity already exists within FreeDOS, and what doesn't
could be ported from ReactOS.
- Like HAL alot of the ReactOS Win32 APIs and Win32s are either DOS compatible
or partially DOS compatible, thus minimal work would be required to port these
drivers to work with the FDOS64 kernel. This also means that alot of the
Windows Drivers compatible with ReactOS would also become compatible with DOS.
I have rough simple kernel layout sketched, alot of the other things are
preference, such as running with a Windows based GUI like ReactOS or using a
compatiblity layer like Cygwin and Cygwin/x and use the X-Windows System.
My personal preference was to run with the X-windows system because it is all
opensource and licencing wouldn't be an issue, Combined with the fact that
cygwin already has known compatibility with DOS and Window 9x systems.
Other option i considered was running FDOS in userspace leaving just the
FDOS64 in kernel space. Which would have the advantage of debugging and
updating the FDOS kernel, in a similar fashion to DragonflyBSD.
Opinions and comments are most welcome.
Regards,
Martin
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