> On Apr 7, 2025, at 12:52 PM, Liam Proven via Freedos-devel > <freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > > On Sun, 6 Apr 2025 at 01:44, Jim Hall via Freedos-devel > <freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: >> >> FreeDOS 1.4 is live! > > Great! Congrats! > > [...] > >> Please reply here to >> let me know what else I should emphasize for FreeDOS 1.4. > > I am writing a news story on it. > > It's hard to link to the announcement on https://www.freedos.org/ > > Is there a page for "What's new?" I could link to? Better still a story? > > At present I am using: > > https://sourceforge.net/p/freedos/news/2025/04/freedos-14-is-here/ > > Not ideal -- wholly different base URL. > > I am looking at the release notes: > > https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.4/readme.txt > > ... But they aren't really release notes. That's just a readme file > detailing the media. > > If I may say so... > > "FreeDOS Floppy-Only Edition (FD14-x86)" > > That's a bad name. x86 implies that the other versions are _not_ x86 > or that they run on other CPUs.
The primary installer used on the CD-ROMs and USB images requires a 386 or better processor. It was originally the only installer for FreeDOS 1.2. It is simply called FDI (for the FreeDOS Installer). There was no floppy disk version to install FreeDOS at the time. Later, I then created a floppy disk based version for us to include as a part of the OS release. It uses a different installer than FDI. The installer used for the Floppy Edition is completely different. It also supports all x86 based processors and that is where it gets its name… FreeDOS Installer for all x86 based computers (with a legacy BIOS). > > In fact VirtualBox defaulted to 32MB of RAM when it saw "dos" in the > VM name and the live CD failed to boot saying "not enough RAM"! This is an issue with VirtualBox not the LiveCD or FreeDOS. The LiveCD still boots to a prompt and is usable. However with 32Mb, not all of the Live Packages can be loaded into a RAM disk. Those packages are still Live on the CD itself. This means that the CD must remain mounted. Otherwise, trying to use a program that is on the CD (and not on the RAM disk) will result in DOS errors messages. The last time I checked, the minimum amount of RAM to expand all of the packages that are live by default is 48Mb. Then, the OS will switch over completely to the RAM disk and the CD can be removed without any worries. It only matters if you want or need to remove or change disc. > > So, a realistic RAM spec is needed. 64MB? 128? 256? I personally recommend having 128mb or more. That permits the LiveCD to completely switch over to the RAM disk. Plus, it leaves a lot of extra room to use FDIMPLES to install other packages into the RAM drive. The User can also insert and use other CD-ROMs. > > So live FreeDOS needs an amount of RAM only an x86 machine can > provide. It would be better called x86 because these days "x86" means > "x86-32" to most people. Millennials think all PCs are x86-64 and they > forget the "86" bit and call it "x64". > > I would suggest "FD14-86" not x86. 8086 is more like it. > > I could really use a list of changes and what's new. There is a change.log file included with the release. Most of that file is created based on commit messages to the various projects in the FreeDOS Archive at GitLab and not from a developers website or VCS. That means most of the messages will be something like “upgraded to v2.3.4” and not contain details. You will need to visit the developer’s site to view the changes they made for the new version. Projects like, FDI, FDI-x86, FD-NLS, FDISK and a few others are either maintained in the FreeDOS Archive or directly mirrored there. Those projects have much more detailed commit messages which are included in the change.log. This is not likely to change anytime soon. Pulling all of the change log messages from projects developed elsewhere cannot practically be automated. While manually updating that information on a single project does not take a very long time, doing it on mass is very time consuming. Time better spent on other aspects of the project. > > -- > Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven > Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lpro...@gmail.com > Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven > IoM: (+44) 7624 227612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884 > Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053 > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-devel mailing list > Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
