I'm running FreeDos on an old Pentium server that came with Windows 2000. I wanted to keep W2K, so I installed FreeDos in a partition. I use PLOP on a diskette to boot to either W2K or FreeDos. I wanted to install Linux on it just for fun, but haven't been able so far. This old beast has a USB input but BIOS can't boot from it. It has a CD which is bootable but Linux is too big and needs a DVD. So, I tried several ways to install Linux from a hard drive but had no success. It's no big deal.
I do have 2 Linux servers running in my home computer/radio room. One handles my home automation and weather station. The other is a file server. I also have a laptop running Linux Mint, which can do a lot of things and is even user friendly. But I have other software that only runs on Windows, so I have a desktop and another laptop for that. I was thinking of using the FreeDos PC in some network server capacity, but I had forgotten how loud the fans are in these old Pentium machines. I did replace the main cabinet fan with a quiet one, but the CPU and power supply fans are way too loud. I guess that's just part of the retro experience, but it doesn't do much for marital bliss when my wife has to yell at me to be heard. On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 4:06 PM dmccunney <dennis.mccun...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 3:19 PM Marv <moa47...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > I know I'm late to the FreeDos party, but it would help me and maybe > other newcomers to know what you guys do with your FreeDos PCs. I was > thinking of utility type things that are easier or more quickly done in > DOS, but I'm wide open to any ideas. > > > > So far I've got programs like Supercalc, Wordstar, GWBasic, DBase, etc > working. I transfer files back and forth to my Windows PC using FTP over my > local network. > > I'm odd man out, as I don't currently have a dedicated FreeDOS PC. > > I originally installed FreeDOS in a multi-boot setup on an ancient > notebook. The machine was a pass-along from a friend who had upgraded > but didn't want to see it thrown out. It was a Fujitsu p2110 > machine, the a Transmeta Crusoe CPU (and early attempt at a power > saving design, a 30GB IDE4 HD, Intel graphics on the motherboard, and > a whopping 256 *MB* of RAM. The Crusoe CPU grabbed 156MB off the top > for "code morphing", there were 240MB usable. She said it was "Slow, > slow, SLOW." Well, yes. It came to me with WinXP SP2 installed. XP > wants 512MB *minimum*. It took 8 minutes to simply boot, and much > longer to do anything once up. > > I pulled the 30GB HD, swapped in a 40GB model from a failed laptop, > and started hacking. I reformatted and repartitioned the HD, with a > 20GB slice formatted as NTFS with Win2K on it, tow 8GB slices > formatted as Linux ext4 with Ubuntu and Puppy Linux, a 2GB slice for > Linux swap, and a 2GB slice formatted FAT32 for FreeDOS. > > *Getting* it to boot FreeDOS was an involved process. I have no idea > which of the config tweaks I made actually did the trick, but I had a > machine that could boot Win2K, Ubuntu Linux, Puppy Linux, and FreeDOS > from a Grub2 menu. Win2K actually more or less ran in 240MB ram, > after I removed everything from Startup that *could* be removed, and > disabling Windows Update (since it would no longer *get* updates That > saved me a SVCHOST.EXE process and 10MB RAM.) Ubuntu and Puppy also > more or less ran. (Puppy was designed for old hardware, and Puppy > itself ran well. Linux *applications* installed were another matter.) > FreeDOS *flew.* > Linux could read NTFS vis NTFS3g, Win2K could read extfs via an open > source driver. Everything could read FAT32, but FreeDOS couldn't read > anything else. I had no need to and didn't care. > > A problem that required reinstalling Wn2K broke the multiboot and I > couldn't get it to work again. I didn't care. The process had been > an experiment to see what performance I could coax out of ancient > hardware without throwing money at it. It was fun to try and I learned > things, but the real work was done elsewhere, so losing the machine > wasn't an issue. > > These days I run Win10 Pro on a refurbished HP SFF desktop with a > quad-core Intel i5 CPU, Intel HD4600 graphics, 20GB RAM, and OS and > programs boot from and live on a 256GB SSD. > > I still have an assortment of DOS applications, and run them using a > DOS port of the DOSBox MSDOS gaming emulator, or the vDOS fork of > DOSBox specifically aimed at supporting character mode DOS > productivity applications. I do so to flex mental muscles and keep my > hand in. It's a hobby activity done for fun. Actual work happens on > the Windows side, and most of that simply can't be done in FreeDOS. > > (I also have some old DOS apps running on an Android tablet courtesy > of an Android port of DOSBox. It raises the occasional eyebrows. > "What's *that? "It's the Unix Larn game, ported to MSDOS, adn running > on Android via a DOS emulartor." "<boggle>" :-p) > > I think I admire a couple of folks here who still seem to use DOS for > everything. I can't do that and wouldn't try. > ______ > Dennis > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > -- It's all fun and games until someone divides by zero.
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