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=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
wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 27, 2024 at 4:51 PM Dan Schmidt via Freedos-user
> 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
