Assuming Google does not scrap GSoC amidst the layoffs, I have a thought. Perhaps it could be used to solve one of the most frequent problems I hear. Running FreeDOS on modern UEFI hardware.
As we are all well aware, this cannot be directly accomplished and would require an abstraction layer between the OS and the actual hardware. A project could be created to provide a very thin Linux based system (possibly using an RTOS kernel) whose only job is to manage the abstraction layer and implement the virtual machine to run FreeDOS. This could be done almost transparently. Booting straight to DOS unless the user pressed a specific key (Like F1) during boot. Pressing such a key would bring up a BIOS like interface that could be used to change the virtual BIOS settings and configure drivers and such aspects of the host OS. Their job would be to create that interface and make it all work seemingly. Most of the pieces required exist. But, it would not be a small task to implement. It could yield much better performance and more accurate emulation than traditional virtual machines. With todays multi-core systems, individual cores could be dedicated to emulating various aspects of PC hardware. For example, one core could be dedicated to performing the tasks handled by a sound card. I think such a project could appeal to many. There is a lot of interest in playing old games. Also, since this would be a generic legacy PC emulation layer. It could be used to install other Operating Systems like MS-DOS, PC-DOS, etc. :-) Jerome _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
