Hi,
I cannot speak to much of this, but can tell you that the last edition of
wordperfect for dos, 6.22, is still available, and dreadfully cheap if
not free by now.
If you have an interest let me know, and I can direct you to the person
with the legal copies.
If there is enough general interest here, I can post the information to
the list.
Karen
On Mon, 15 Feb 2010, Michael Robinson wrote:
What are the goals at this point for Freedos 1.1?
When might it actually be released?
Freedos 1.0 definitely has some bugs still that could be fixed.
Updating Freedos 1.0 is haphazard at best, especially with limited
networking support and movement towards a newer updating standard.
What are the long term goals for Freedos?
I would like to see an effort to move from a free dos system to
a free Windows 9x/Windows Millenium replacement. I would also
like to see the abandonware issue get revisited as sadly most
people who still use dos are going to want to use a software
package that is commercially licensed but not legally obtainable.
One area that I feel freedos at this point is weak in is
networking. Windows 9x style networking essentially isn't
available. I'm talking long file names, broad network card
support, broad printer support, the works. I'm talking
printer sharing.
Another area that Freedos is weak in is word processing. You can
download and obtain an illegal copy of Microsoft Word for dos or
Windows and that will possibly work, but that is illegal. I would
like to see an effort started to find out if Openoffice can be
supported on a dos based platform. Can a dos based system running
some kind of graphical user interface support the current crop of
Java programs? Even a free word processor that is comparable to
Wordperfect 6.0 dos ported to Freedos would be a great thing.
So in short here are areas I want to see some emphasis placed on:
1) Create a Freedos compatible clone of Windows 9x/Windows Millenium.
No, the ReactOS project isn't trying to do this and never will.
2) Make a best of Wordperfect/best of Word word processor that is
GPLed available to Freedos users.
3) Abandonware. This issue isn't going away unless popular commercial
programs are replaced with truly adequate free alternatives.
4) Fix the bugs as much as possible, this is critical for a 1.1
release.
5) Start a wiki on how to update Freedos and move towards people being
able to set up a local Linux server to update their Freedos
machines from. Perhaps a protocol is needed to keep these local
update servers up to date. I'm thinking: ftp, rsync, http, or
possibly something else. I for one would like to get updates on
compact disc or DVD, the snail mail protocol.
6) Make a new installer that offers more advanced customization, but use
open source tools to create it.
7) A lot of people don't use pop to access their email where Arachne
doesn't support IMAP. Please someone address this.
If Freedos had come out with a 1.0 release at the same time that MS-DOS
6.22 hit the scene, abandonware would be less of an issue.
Unfortunately, most commercial dos programs that people want to use
these days are very old, hard to obtain legally, or both. This is where
pirateware sites come in and things get dicey unless there are free
alternatives. People talk about Foxpro a lot, how about cloning it?
It seems that there is a lot of emphasis on programming languages and
some emphasis on hardware, but what about application software?
Programming languages and hardware drivers constitute tools to build
application software with. Is it time to make some decisions about
how far Freedos should go concerning: word processing, web browsing,
email, games, accounting software, etcetera? In 10 years time, the
abandonware problem will probably get worse. I think the best way
to address the abandonware issue is to steer people towards Linux for
word processing, web browsing, general office productivity apps, and
email. Beyond that, start cloning popular proprietary dos software.
A project to go from HX Dos extender to a full blown dos compatible
Windows compatible gui that improves over time, this could be a major
catalyst pushing Freedos development going forward.
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