> On Mon, 17 Feb 2025, tom ehlert via Freedos-devel wrote:
>
> > I think that every program beyond the default MSDOS programs raises some
> > level of noise.
> > They might be useful, but having hundred of unknown (to me) programs thrown
> > into the same \BIN\ directory doesn't motivate
> > me to search HELP on all of them until I finally find something useful.
On Mon, Feb 17, 2025 at 10:31 AM Steve Nickolas via Freedos-devel
<freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:
>
>
> This.
>
> I think if there's any particular source of bloat in operating systems
> these days - not FreeDOS specifically, as it's a thing on Debian too -
> it's the kitchen sink mentality. I can see adding stuff like CD-ROM
> drivers or tools to support common hardware but the idea I've seen in many
> places of making the OS contain every conceivable software package is just
> unreasonable. Especially when they _don't work properly._
We've had the discussion several times in past years about dropping
packages. The last big discussion I recall was 2020, and another in
2022. We've found consensus on some packages, but others have
generated a storm of "keep it" replies. Some of those reasons are
good, others not so much (for example, some complain "why delete it
when it's so small?" which is not really a good reason to keep it, but
whatever).
When we talked about packages in the run-up to FreeDOS 1.4 "RC1" I
didn't want to push for any major overhauls -- moving from "1.3" to
"1.4" doesn't suggest a lot of package changes, just trimming a few
packages here and there. I thought it would be better to wait until
after FreeDOS 1.4 to really cut down on the extra stuff we've
collected in the distribution.
After the FreeDOS 1.4 release, I'd like to start the conversation
again to drop more unneeded packages. For example, we have programs in
Util that have questionable value for a DOS distribution, like HIP
("steganography program that hides files inside pictures") or pngcrush
("PNG compression tool)" or Password ("protects your computer from
stranger's access") or PasswordBox ("passwords manager"). These may
have been interesting programs to write, but they aren't really useful
for DOS.
But I'll wait until May or June (after FreeDOS 1.4 is out) to have
that conversation about what to drop.
We can do these changes in the monthly test releases, so people can
see the changes happening. Then all of that will get rolled into the
next distribution.
And to be clear: just because something gets dropped from the
distribution doesn't mean it goes away from the FreeDOS Files Archive
at Ibiblio. People can always download it, but it wouldn't be included
in the distribution.
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