On Sat, Jan 6, 2018 at 11:15 AM, Samuel V. via Freedos-user <freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > I was thinking that it could become necessary to start implementing a > FreeDOS version that included natively its own BIOS, and that this > combination of FreeDOS/BIOS is implemented entirely native as 32 or 64-bit > code, to keep using the known DOS environment, the same DOS/BIOS INT calls > programming style (now also with other ways to call services), but extending > everything to more modern CPU modes.
And just who would *do* this? Part of the problem for FreeDOS is that the people who *could* do it tend to have other things to do with their time, like 32/64bit code they get *paid* to write. > Would you use a FreeDOS version that was entirely native to 32 or 64 bits? Probably not. I ran DOS, back when the original IBM-PC was setting a standard. But DOS wasn't first OS I dealt with. That was OS/VS1 (later OS/MVS) on an IBM mainframe. I also logged time on Digital Equipment Corp. mini-computers, running DEC's RSTS-E, RSX11M+, and VAX/VMS OSes, and had a Unix machine running AT&T System V Release 2 at home before I got my first PC. I also dealt with Novell Netware, OS/2 Warp, WindowsNT, SCO Open Server, Sun Solaris, and several flavors of Linux. Early DOS was constrained by limited early hardware. My first PC was an XT clone with a 4.77ghz Intel 8088 CPU, 640K of RAM, CGA graphics and dual 360K 5.52" floppies. I swapped in a 10mhz motherboard using a NEC v20 CPU, added an AST 6-Pak card with a megabyte of additional RAM allocated to a RAMdisk, disk cache, and EMS memory for applications that could use it, and had a pair of 20 megabyte Seagate ST-225 MFM hard drives. I spent a fair bit of time looking for software to fill in the things I missed from Unix. I got it fairly well tricked out, but when more powerful hardware came along, I migrated, and the more powerful hardware included more powerful OSes. These days I run Windows 10 Pro and Ubuntu Linux. I got FreeDOS because it was fun to play with and exercise some muscles that hadn't been used in a while. I can (and do) run an assortment of older DOS programs under vDOS+ on Windows, and DOSBox under Linux. (For that matter, I have a few running on my Android tablet under an Android port of DOSBox.) But those are just for fun. Actual *work* gets done elsewhere, because it mostly can't be *done* under DOS. Given that what I do wants an actual multitasking OS with support for multiple users as a bonus, a 32/64bit native DOS version doesn't hold much appeal. I simply wouldn't have enough to do with it. ______ Dennis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
