Roger wrote: > >> Would be really interesting to hear, how people continue actively using > >> DOS today, including their hardware/software environment. Of course, not > >> including testing environments, as these can get really exquisite! And, > >> I already realize one of the environments DOS is still used, for > >> engineering and bare-metal programming projects. [..] > >> More so curious, does anybody use DOS/FreeDOS for daily office work? > >> We've all heard of one writer doing so.
Mercury Thirteen wrote: > >Actually, a book exists which is all about that question! :) > > > >Check out Why We Love FreeDOS available at https://freedos.org/books/ Roger wrote: > Just what I was looking for. Thanks! > I'll add that I met with someone last year who uses FreeDOS to drive a CNC router to make actual products. (CNC = "Computer Numerical Control" .. that is the fancy term for "a machine controlled by a computer.) I recall that the CNC was running from a Dell PC, and they had a serial selector that let the PC control two (or three?) different CNC routers .. but one at a time. I also found a video on YouTube from a few years ago, about some trainspotters in Russia (I think) who found a PC in some remote booth next to a rail line that ran the communications systems. I don't think it was "train signal control" but "announcements sent to the trains, like for an automated voice to read over the speaker." (Probably boring stuff like "Staff will check for valid tickets" or "Trains will run slow on Wednesday due to the holiday" or "No smoking aboard trains" or whatever.) The PC was off, so they turned it on to see what it did .. and if you paused the video at the right time, you could see it was booting FreeDOS. My favorite example of someone running FreeDOS was years ago, probably around 2005. They built pinball machines, and FreeDOS ran the scoring system, lit the lights, and played sound effects from a sound bank. I have no idea how that was hooked up, but I've always imagined that each element (bumpers, etc) provided input on a keyboard bus, and then a DOS application read the keyboard to know what was happening. But that was a long time ago, and I'm sure they aren't doing that anymore. My favorite example before that was a nebulous one. Someone from NASA emailed me in the late 1990s to say they were using FreeDOS on some of their computers. They never provided details, so I don't know what it was doing - but how cool that NASA was using FreeDOS!? For myself, I usually run FreeDOS in a virtual machine. I like QEMU because it's easy - but mostly because it's already installed by default on my Linux desktop system, so I don't have to install some other package like VirtualBox or PCem. More recently, I bought a Pocket386 micro laptop, and now that's running FreeDOS (see other email thread). That's $200 for the laptop, $20 for the CF card reader, and another $20 for the PS/2 keyboard. Not bad! And while I don't use FreeDOS for daily work, I do use it almost daily. One thing I do is play DOS games to take a break. I purchased legit copies of classic DOS games from GOG.com (for like $5 each) and I installed those on FreeDOS. I loved replaying Jill of the Jungle. I'm replaying Commander Keen now. I also use FreeDOS as a demonstration when I teach a university class. That class is basically two parts: "How computers work (plus a history of technology)" and "How to use Word & Excel." These are freshmen students, so almost no one has used a spreadsheet before. When I start the Excel unit, I bring in FreeDOS and show them some classic spreadsheets: I show them VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, As Easy As, and then Quattro Pro. And then the students understand that spreadsheets just haven't changed that much over time. The interface has changed (graphical) and modern spreadsheets support more functions, but the core features of "letters for columns, numbers for rows, cells are A1, .. and so on" haven't changed since 1979 (VisiCalc on the Apple II was the first desktop spreadsheet that we would recognize as a "spreadsheet"). I love As Easy As. That saw me through my physics undergrad program. And it does so much that modern spreadsheets can do - just differently (like conditional formatting). I sometimes think that if I didn't need to share spreadsheets with others, As Easy As could meet more than 95% of my spreadsheet needs in 2024. That's one reason I keep showing off As Easy As in the videos on our YouTube channel. *We have links to VisiCalc and As Easy As on the website: https://www.freedos.org/about/apps/ _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
