A "distraction free" writing environment was probably one of the reasons I tested out FreeDOS at one point. I think it must also be the fastest-booting distraction-free system of its kind these days? Even as compared to some bare-bones ram-booted Linux like my beloved Tiny Core [1]. It literally takes 2 seconds to press the power button and get to the text editor that is configured to auto-launch via autoexec.bat.
I think the idea of having a system that can be configured with just 2 files (config.sys and autoexec.bat) might also appeal to many of those distraction free system seeker types. The entire system is at your fingertips, and well understandable to tech-curious-but-not-uber-geeky users. Also, I've started to teach our son programming with QBasic (it feels kind of weird to state this - but it is till an incredibly good teaching environment and language, particularly for children who are non-native English speakers). Currently we're using dosemu on Linux, but I've often thought that a bootable USB thumb drive with FreeDOS/SvarDOS and QBasic launched via autoexec.bat would make an even better environment. A lock-in, in a positive sense -- the child would not feel the urge to alt-tab to Minercaft or Firefox if he is booted to a system where all he can do is use QBasic. It would also be impossible to mess things up with keypresses that conflict with the main OS (Linux or Windows; we've had an issue with him always pressing the Windows key by accident). I have already observed that the Blue Screen of QBasic does create a noticeable "flow state" of learning for our 10yo son. Especially when paired with the instant feedback the user gets from an environment like QBasic. In fact, I actually went as far as translating a great QBasic tutorial by Ted Felix into our language (Estonian) [2]. It is a joy to watch a 2024 10yo kid Actually Reading The Spiral-Bound Printout and typing in the exercises. n=1, but I can confirm that this "oldschool" way of teaching programming does still seem to work, provided you have teaching material as good as this Ted Felix tutorial (and, maybe, a child who already likes to read paper books). As for writers with DOS, I recalled and managed to dig up a video with Philip Roth using a standing desk and a Blue DOS Screen - is this also Wordstar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBlVEcMSOGw&t=201 The video is dated 2004, though - back then, I imagine it was not that uncommon yet to use a DOS wordprcessor. Greetings from Estonia, Mart 1: http://tinycorelinux.net/ 2: http://tedfelix.com/qbasic/ (Haven't made my translation public yet - nor informed the author -, but eventually might do this as well.) On 28/01/2024, Jim Hall via Freedos-user <freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > On Sat, Jan 27, 2024 at 4:51 PM Dan Schmidt via Freedos-user > <freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: >> >> Now, that's an interesting use for a Dos/FreeDOS retro computer: >> >> https://www.theverge.com/2014/5/14/5716232/george-r-r-martin-uses-dos-wordstar-to-write >> >> How many computers destined for the landfill still have perfectly good >> screens and keyboards? (Recalling those heavy, grey, indestructible >> PS2 keyboards where the keys snapped back up with a vigour that >> seemed to sent your fingers flying on to the next character) Now, >> I might have gone with WordPerfect 6 instead of WordStar 4, but the >> idea itself is solid: A computer that you just use for writing, sans >> distractions. No YouTube, no Email, no Facebook - you sit - you write. >> I mean, it's hard to argue it didn't work well for this guy! > > I know I'm kind of an odd duck among my friends, but I'm with George > R.R. Martin on this. (Not the first time I've seen this article from > 2014.) DOS is pretty good at the distraction-free environment, > necessitated by the limitations of the era. A distraction-free > environment is great for certain kinds of work, especially writing. > > Actually, I've seen other, similar articles from different writers who > do the same. There's an example of a professional screenwriter (don't > remember the name) who still used a DOS word processor in 2020 to > write movie scripts. It was specialized software aimed at writing > scripts, and it only ran on DOS. This person said they had an office > set up just for writing, with a dedicated DOS-only laptop for writing. > If he needed to look up something on the Internet (or wanted to check > email) he had a separate computer for that. I'm not sure how he > transferred files from DOS to his other computer, but you can use a > USB drive for that. > > There's a lot of DOS software that's still great in 2024. And I'd > argue some tools haven't gotten much better since the DOS days. My > favorite spreadsheet (on any platform) is As Easy As on DOS. That saw > me through my undergraduate program. If I didn't need to share > spreadsheets with anyone else, I think As Easy As could manage 99% of > my spreadsheet needs. And probably 100% if I just accepted that some > things worked differently (only 16 text colors and 16 background > colors for conditional formatting of cells, for example .. As Easy As > ran in VGA mode so could do 16 background colors). > > I also experimented with using Word for DOS 5.5 as a "distraction > free" writing environment, and it works well. Word 5.5 uses modern > keybindings like ctrl-c to copy, ctrl-v to paste, etc (I didn't use > earlier versions of Word, might be the same there too, don't know) so > my fingers don't have to re-learn how to select text. If I did more > writing that didn't require special formatting (I rely on styles for > my tech writing these days) I'd probably be able to get by with Word > 5.5. And LibreOffice Writer can read the files, too. > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
