Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS, Windows and higher resolutions
Hi Michael, Right now, I am trying to install Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Is it possible to use it with higher resolutions? For instance 1024x768 16 millions colors. Is the process straightforward??? If there are generic VESA drivers, it should be possible...? Unfortunately, my understanding is that Windows 3.11 won't work on top of Freedos. Windows 3.1 works in standard mode. Windows 3.11 is supposed to offer crude multitasking, but the freedos kernel is evidently not compatible with it. You would have to use an experimental version of the unstable branch of the kernel: It is included in FreeDOS 1.0 under the name Winkernel. Still Windows 3 do not run very well on modern hardware at all. Try without EMM386, with Japheth's versions of HIMEMX and SHARE, and tell HIMEMX to make at most 256 MB of RAM available. With some tweaking of the Windows config, it is possible to use up to 1 GB, but not more. You also have to tell Windows not to use protected mode disk drivers etc. I am not sure whether the latter is possible with WfW 3.11. You may have to use FAT16/CHS otherwise, in the first 8 GB of your disk, I guess. I have Windows 3.1 working on top of freedos, but I admittedly never use it. Can you tell which problems you encountered and which config options you recommend for that? On old hardware, Windows 3 and 3.1 standard mode should be relatively tame, but there still might be some tricks necessary? The good thing is that no special kernel is needed, a normal FreeDOS kernel is happy with standard mode. I don't think anyone really believes in Windows on top of Freedos. The ReactOS project that is trying to replace Windows XP directly with an OSS operating system started out trying to clone Windows 95... Plus there is Wine for Linux, which can imitate a variety of different Windows versions :-). Dos is inherently insecure, there is no user context and no hardware protection of any kind. Some people might have Windows software which actually needs unprotected hardware, dunno... Using HXRT to run it directly in DOS might be an option in such cases. What Windows software are you interested in that will run on Windows 3.11? I think you will find that most software requires either Windows 98SE or Windows XP, neither of which will run on top of freedos. Ask yourself, is Windows really an enhancement for a dos based system? Windows on top of dos is insecure and always will be. DOS is the quick and dirty operating system that was dominant on PCs in the early days up until the mid to late 90s. The advantage of dos is that it's simple and there are plenty of apps for it. Exactly :-) There is no way to protect software You can use FDSHIELD to reduce the impact of old DOS viruses and reduce the ability of DOS users to shoot in their own foot, but of course because there is no hardware-assisted protection, users and viruses which know how FDSHIELD works can patch / disable it in RAM. In a Windows XP environment, you can't install software at all if you aren't root. I think you can, but most installers want to put files into writeable-only-by-admin areas which makes it harder. Reconsider running Windows for Workgroups etcetera. There is the Syllable desktop operating system and there are umpteen versions of Linux. ReactOS isn't stable yet, but it should be getting much better in the next 6-12 months. Good to hear :-) Eric -- Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time, vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] FreeDOS, Windows and higher resolutions
Hello! I've been using FreeDOS for a couple of months and it's working great. Right now, I am trying to install Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Is it possible to use it with higher resolutions? For instance 1024x768 16 millions colors. Is the process straightforward??? Thanks a lot, Santyiago -- Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time, vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS, Windows and higher resolutions
On Fri, 2009-07-10 at 15:07 -0400, Santiago Almenara wrote: Hello! I've been using FreeDOS for a couple of months and it's working great. Right now, I am trying to install Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Is it possible to use it with higher resolutions? For instance 1024x768 16 millions colors. Is the process straightforward??? Thanks a lot, Unfortunately, my understanding is that Windows 3.11 won't work on top of Freedos. Windows 3.1 works in standard mode. Windows 3.11 is supposed to offer crude multitasking, but the freedos kernel is evidently not compatible with it. What do you have that specifically requires Windows 3.11 anyways? I have Windows 3.1 working on top of freedos, but I admittedly never use it. Windows 3.11 was distributed on CD, but a lot of the software from that era was on floppy disks that are shot by now. I don't think anyone really believes in Windows on top of Freedos. The ReactOS project that is trying to replace Windows XP directly with an OSS operating system started out trying to clone Windows 95. Part of why there is probably little to no interest in supporting Windows or a Windows clone on top of freedos is the fact that it will never be secure. Dos is inherently insecure, there is no user context and no hardware protection of any kind. What Windows software are you interested in that will run on Windows 3.11? I think you will find that most software requires either Windows 98SE or Windows XP, neither of which will run on top of freedos. Ask yourself, is Windows really an enhancement for a dos based system? Windows on top of dos is insecure and always will be. DOS is the quick and dirty operating system that was dominant on PCs in the early days up until the mid to late 90s. The advantage of dos is that it's simple and there are plenty of apps for it. The downside of dos is that implementing security is impossible. There is no way to protect software, impose user restrictions, filter via locally installed software, etcetera because everyone in a dos environment is a super user. DOS environments aren't like NT environments and Linux environments where there is an enforced user context and hardware protection. In Linux if you don't have the root password, you won't for example be able to bypass a local web browsing filter very easily. You can install a local copy of another web browser possibly, assuming you are allowed to have executables in your home directory. In a Windows XP environment, you can't install software at all if you aren't root. Supporting networking in a dos environment is problematic because there is no user context. Everyone is a super user, so viruses and worms can be a huge issue. There are some limitations to what you can access on the Web from a dos based system, but by no means are the limitations an effective filter. Reconsider running Windows for Workgroups etcetera. There is the Syllable desktop operating system and there are umpteen versions of Linux. ReactOS isn't stable yet, but it should be getting much better in the next 6-12 months. -- Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge This is your chance to win up to $100,000 in prizes! For a limited time, vendors submitting new applications to BlackBerry App World(TM) will have the opportunity to enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge. See full prize details at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/Challenge ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
