My view: FreeDOS is a distribution, and we don't control the "third party" tools that we include. So games, apps, and things like that aren't in scope for this. The only things that are in scope are what you would get if you installed a "Plain DOS" version of FreeDOS using the installer -- that should include the "Base" group (the programs that replace the traditional DOS commands like choice, edit, ..) plus a few other things that "plain DOS" needs to include like FDIMPLES, zip, unzip, v8power (and a few others I think I missed).
Does it apply to forks? I think if someone forks a FreeDOS package, that's their business. Open source means you can use the code to do what you want. Where the "no AI" rule would affect it is if that developer later said "hey, I forked __ and used AI 'vibe coding' to make it better." Well, "vibe coding" means they used AI to write code, so we wouldn't accept that "updated" program back into FreeDOS, even if it has a cool new feature. On Wed, Jun 17, 2026 at 7:01 PM Chelson a via Freedos-devel <[email protected]> wrote: > > This would apply to main line kernel and utils for the official distro only > right? > > What about forks? > > On Thu, 18 June 2026, 9:57 am Jim Hall via Freedos-devel, > <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> That's a fair point. I think we understand what "Any package or >> program that gets installed as part of the *plain DOS* installation" >> means, but one reason for this AI policy is to make it clear to >> others. So this should have some added text that explains what that >> means, in plain language. >> >> I can change it to something like this: >> >> <p><strong>Scope:</strong> Any package or program from >> the core parts of FreeDOS: the kernel, command.com, >> append, chkdsk, debug, edit, fc, graphics, himem, label, >> mem, … and other standard "DOS" commands.This also >> includes other packages that get installed with a <q>plain >> DOS</q> installation, such as the package manager and >> supporting tools.</p> >> >> >> On Wed, Jun 17, 2026 at 5:54 PM Mercury Thirteen wrote: >> > >> > To be clear, we should probably also specify whether this applies >> > strictly to code which is part of FreeDOS itself 9as has been indicated >> > here on the mailing list) or code for *any* program in any of the repos. >> > >> > I think we here all pretty much know the answers to those points, >> > but it would help to make the outside world aware, too. >> > >> > >> > On Wednesday, June 17th, 2026 at 6:21 PM, Jim Hall wrote: >> > >> > > Hi everyone >> > > >> > > I've created a page on www.freedos.org with a draft of the AI policy. >> > > This captures the discussion here -- basically, the consensus seems to >> > > be that the draft I originally shared (5/24) looked good, but the >> > > feedback was we should not allow docs to be wholly written by AI, but >> > > it's fine for folks to use AI for spelling & grammar. >> > > >> > > https://www.freedos.org/about/ai/ >> > > >> > > >> > > This is a temporary page for review only. This will get added to the >> > > Developers page in the next few days, unless there are any strong >> > > objections to this policy: >> > > https://www.freedos.org/about/devel/ >> > > >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Freedos-devel mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-devel mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
