I think the original goal of FreeDOS has been met, based upon what I
remember from back in 2000 or so when I came across the project. I have
seen many posts back and forth about adding support for this and that
because Windows sucks and so forth and so on.
With that being said, here's what I see. Now I know opinions are like ...
and everyone has one...
The core FreeDOS aims to maintain compatibility with MS/PC DOS as it
pertains to in-memory data structures, like SysVars, Job File Tables,
memory control blocks, etc, documented (and undocumented API) based on DOS
6.22 such as the DOS routines (INT 21h), the multiplexer (INT 2FH),
Ctrl-Break (INT 23H), Critical Error handler (INT 24H), and although
superceded, absolute disk read and write (INT 25H, INT26H respectively).
DOS was designed in an extensible manner, so I believe rather than changing
the core of the OS, we need to EXTEND the OS. Obviously features such as
IPv4/IPv6, GPT, are not relevant to the class of users that are wishing to
still relive the glory days of the early x86 processors, i.e., 8086, 8086,
80186, 80286, etc.
There is a different class of user, mostly those commenting on this thread,
which would like to use DOS with newer machines. One alternative would be
to design and build a protected mode kernel that would map all of the real
mode calls and virtualize all hardware access. That would put us right
where OSes like Linux and Windows are. The other alternative is to develop
a platform that sits on top of DOS that runs and switches to protected mode
and virtualize all the hardware. That puts us where Windows 95/98 was.
To bring DOS into "the future" requires some parting with older
technologies, which isn't particularly a goal of this project. In
comparison, the issues that Microsoft has (and had) with Windows was in
part due to their attempts to bring along the past into the future. This is
why Microsoft let go of DOS in the Windows 9x code base and shifted to the
Windows NT code base. Even then, with 32-bit code, it was still possible to
run DOS applications (to an extent) but they were isolated to their own VM.
Basically, short of forking this project, I don't see a way to incorporate
the advanced features and still remain compatible with an OS that is over
20 years old.
On Sun, May 17, 2015 at 6:07 PM JK Benedict <xenfomat...@outlook.com> wrote:
> Excellent.
>
> "Daily" builds was just an example and I agree, daily builds would be
> overkill.
>
> The angle I was coming from is when "core changes" start to be made. How
> will this affect the 100 packages when core, resource, and drivers are
> re-tooled? DOS is heavily classic, solid... but some of the changes will
> affect the core. I should have been more specific in unit testing and
> planning as various drivers, kernel, and kernel-deps change.
>
> Ah, Zip files -- the beauty of DOS. I love Linux, but sometimes I just
> don't feel like writing code or compiling things :)
>
> Thanks for the reply and will research/download the wifi drivers as soon as
> possible.
>
> --jesse/jkbs
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Auer [mailto:e.a...@jpberlin.de]
> Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2015 7:17 AM
> To: freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [Freedos-devel] Hello!
>
>
> Hi Jesse,
>
> Centralized documentation makes sense, but why would you put 100 packages
> in
> a centralized source code repository if 95 of them have not a single source
> code change in a whole year?
>
> And why do nightly builds of all 100 then? DOS heavily relies on classic
> software that simply is okay as it is and that no longer changes :-)
>
> As mentioned in the thread, there already is a considerable number of text
> and graphical web browsers. It probably is better to improve one of those
> instead of writing yet another browser.
>
> I agree that it is good to have a wishlist for shareware software that we
> would like to become free open source. Maybe the list could be done in wiki
> style?
>
> In general, if the hardware common for virtual machines is among the
> hardware for which there are drivers, there is no need to have separate
> development for virtualization and installation.
>
> We do already have a few VM-specific tools which are available :-) And
> there
> could be a download of a pre-installed VM, in case installation from ISO
> takes too much effort ;-)
>
> IPv6 is widely available already but is rarely required so I agree that DOS
> is not in a hurry.
>
> Regarding GPT, that is something that only needs some reasonably small
> amount of kernel code to support in passive scenarios. Having FDISK with
> GPT
> would be way more code, I guess. Most other tools never look at a partition
> table, so for them, this is not relevant.
>
> FileMaven basically does the LapLink thing, but it is closed source. It
> would be nice to have something open. On computers with network (LAN), it
> is
> better to use existing FTP, SCP, SMB or HTTP tools to copy files around.
> And
> there is a tool to copy files between VM and hypervisor.
>
> As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, there already are quite a few
> network
> drivers for DOS, but almost none for wireless network. Note that even if
> you
> do support the card, security protocols would still need a (often very
> complex) driver as well. Actually I agree with Mateusz:
>
> Better use a cheap portable and versatile access point with LAN between AP
> and DOS, so all the wireless complexity can be done by a small AP.
>
> There already is a FreeDOS repository of pre- packaged pre-compiled
> software
> that can be installed, both from file and over the network.
>
> Mateusz would be happy if you can help him to update and extend the
> contents.
>
> That repository also contains pre-packaged ZIPs with package sources.
> Remember that 95 out of
> 100 DOS tools do NOT get updated, so the sources are static and it works
> just fine to offer a ZIP with them for download.
>
> Cheers, Eric
>
>
>
>
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