> >I've been studying up a bit on the FreeDOS project, and have a couple of >questions. First, however, let me tell you why I'm interested in said >project. I'm a reporter for a medium daily in Northwest Arkansas and, for >some reason or another, my employers have given me the opportunity to write >a weekly column about the Internet, computer stuff and etc. As someone who >started out on PC-DOS 1.1(!) as a young man, I love that old OS and resisted >moving to Windows for years. > >I believe the FreeDOS project will be useful to many readers out there who >are a) sick of windows; b) looking for something to do with that "old" >Pentium system laying around; or, c) wanting to run DOS-native applications >that don't seem to cooperate with Windows (I have that problem with Windows >98, believe me -- hard to set up some programs with Windows lurking in the >background, no matter how hard you try). > >To that end, I'd like to ask: Here are the answers to your questions. I hope this is helpful. If you have any follow-up questions, just let me know. May I post a copy of your article on our web site when it is printed? >(1) how compatible FreeDOS is with MS-DOS? FreeDOS aims to be 100% compatible with MS-DOS. However, we aren't there yet. Some programs do not work with FreeDOS. Basically, any program that requires a working network redirector (for example, Novell LAN client software) or direct disk access (for example, Norton's DiskDoctor) will probably not work with FreeDOS. That said, there are lots of other programs that work great with FreeDOS. Sounds like you've used DOS for a while, so you will probably recognize these big names: - WordPerfect - Galaxy Word Processor - DOOM - Borland's C Compiler - Borland's Turbo C and Turbo Pascal - 4DOS (an excellent replacement for Command.com) - VNC (a free software program that is very much like PcAnywhere but runs on multiple platforms) - Procomm Plux - Telix There is a longer list at http://users.twistedpair.net/bmetzler/freedos/compat.html, but this list is far from an exhaustive list of all DOS programs will run on FreeDOS. A complete list would be too long! On my own PC, I use the popular Freemacs editor to write code, and Borland C and Borland Turbo C to compile my programs. Of course, my PC runs FreeDOS. >(2) Can it be configured the same as MS-DOS? Most of the ways that you configured MS-DOS will apply directly to FreeDOS. The Config.sys file is still there, and so is Autoexec.bat. However, a few details have changed. For example, many people wanted to let FreeDOS co-exist on a computer that had an existing copy of MS-DOS. Basically, a multi-boot situation. But a few of the later directives that Microsoft put into Config.sys (think "boot menu") will not work in FreeDOS. So FreeDOS will look for Fdconfig.sys before it looks for Config.sys. That's a minor point, though. FreeDOS also makes life simpler for the user. Let's say you want to simulate a different version of DOS. For example, you have a program that will only run on MS-DOS 4.01, and won't run on any other version of DOS. With MS-DOS, you would use the Setver command to build a database of applications, and how the DOS version should be reported to that program. With FreeDOS, you just put this line in your Fdconfig.sys: VERSION=4.01 The benefit is that this presents much less overhead to the operating system, and this feature is required pretty much by people who are trying to get one or two old programs to work on FreeDOS, and that's about all they plan to run on FreeDOS. So the FreeDOS way of implementing "Setver" is to make it global, but this doesn't seem to be a problem for people. But I think the simple answer to your question is: yes, you configure FreeDOS in the same way >(3) What are the known shortcomings? (What I'm >getting at is, can a person put FreeDOS on a system and not notice the >difference between it and MS-DOS?) Your average DOS user will not notice a difference between MS-DOS and FreeDOS. Some of the utilities will allow more options, and we include more utilities that offer better flexibility and extensibility, but the general look-and-feel of the utilities stays the same. The two biggest shortcomings of FreeDOS in the Beta4 distribution (our latest release) are: 1. The 512MB bug. FreeDOS will not work on disks that are bigger than 512MB. Even if you try to do a DIR on this large disk, it will mess up your disk. But smaller drives are okay. 2. Memory use. Many users will find that their favorite (often large) program that they used under MS-DOS will complain that there is "not enough memory" to run. This is because the Command.com shell is taking up too much memory. We need better memory management. However, the large disk bug is the only problem that is holding me back from making a "Version 1" release. Until that is fixed, we'll still be in Beta release. >(4)I'm also curious as to what can be achieved with DOS? I've found a few >answers here on my own, but figured you'd know a heck of a lot more than me. >For example, is there an Internet browser for DOS and, if so, how does it >compare to Windows and Mac-native browsers such as Netscape and Internet >Explorer? You can do quite a lot with DOS. Yes, there are Web browsers for DOS, such as Arachne (graphical) and Bobcat (text-only). People use DOS in different ways. Some companies have started using FreeDOS, in fact. There are hardware manufacturers that distribute update floppies to their customers, to flash the BIOS on the product or download a patch to the firmware on some hardware. But you have a problem if you are using Windows NT with this hardware. Windows NT will not allow you to make direct access calls to the hardware. This is because there is a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) between you and the hardware. So what do you do? A few of these companies use FreeDOS on that boot floppy. All they need to do is get a the computer up and running, talk to the hardware, and update the BIOS or patch the firmware. A DOS system works great in applications like this, and with FreeDOS you don't have any license fees! Other companies use FreeDOS in embedded systems. John Price has a terrific example of a FreeDOS-based embedded system on his web page. An embedded system is basically a small computer that runs a piece of hardware. This might be an information kiosk, a lottery-ticket printer (to guess random numbers for you), a card-key system, a music system, or pretty much any small device that does some task but needs to do some interactive i/o with the user. You might also use FreeDOS as a data entry system, or a cheap server (yes, a server - an example of putting FreeDOS on a network was FISH, a Web server for FreeDOS), a workstation for students, or just a dedicated game system. Note that FreeDOS will run on pretty much any PC, but today's operating systems (Linux, Windows, BSD, ...) will only run on a '386 or better CPU. Okay, that's not much of an obstacle for today's University student in Northwest Arkansas, but look at it from the global perspective. In other countries (for that matter, in some schools in America today) you don't have the luxury of the latest computers. But an education that includes computers is basically considered essential for today's youth. Maybe your school doesn't have P-III's with 1GB memory. For that matter, you may not even have access to a '386 with 8MB. Maybe all you have are a bunch of '286 PC's. So with these resources, how do you teach kids how to use a computer? How do you let them learn computer programming? For a lot of schools, DOS is the only choice. And FreeDOS is available for free, and comes with various tools and compilers that MS-DOS can't provide. I have received email from around the world where schools are using FreeDOS. Many are in Russia. A few are in South America. It's great to see that FreeDOS can be useful in these situations. >There are a few questions. Since I write columns a couple of weeks in >advance, I'd appreciate your time in answering those queries. Meanwhile, >I'll look up some resources on my own. Thanks, in advance, for your help! >-- >Ethan C. Nobles, University Reporter >The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas >203 N. College >Fayetteville, AR 72701 >Telephone: (501)872-5193 >Facsimile: (501)444-7289 >Pager: (501)251-3283 >e-mail: enobles@nwaonline.net >http://www.nwaonline.net >