Op 23-7-2011 23:05, Ralf A. Quint schreef: > If the development of FreeDOS keeps sticking to it's original goal of > providing a "complete, free, 100% MS-DOS compatible operating system" > (http://www.freedos.org/freedos/about/), then the focus should be on > exactly that.
Still agreeing to that goal, even when it will never be met in practice. Compatibility with Win 3.1, Win9x, QEMM, Desqview and who knows what isn't easy to reach. > And then there isn't much to worry about "support everything ever > written for DOS". That comes then automatically. > IMHO, the prevailing mindset and the actions taken in the last few > years are leading more and more away from this basic goal, either by > taking shortcuts or ignoring some of "the old stuff". I'd like to provide a basic FreeDOS environment that is already set up well enough to allow you to start messing around (coding, compiling, configuring, testing, whatever) without the need of setting up everything manually. The manual way of configuring is horrible, an amount of work only discouraging each person's original goals on the DOS platform. See for example MSDOS and FreeDOS multimenu options in their config.sys, nobody knows that by heart. CD driver loading is a funny business as well, not to mention COUNTRY/LOCALE/NLS support and optimising memory which has always been a challenge. > That includes ignoring old (but working) compilers, thinking of > replacing command.com with 4DOS (instead of having it as an optional > choice) or possibly not testing FAT16 stuff to introduce a possible > regression in the latest kernel version (which I have not tested > myself yet though) as "everyone's using FAT32 these days". And don't > get me started on a mess like ChkDsk... :-( There's an entire eco-system of DOS software out there which shouldn't be ignored or thrown away. It's unfortunate some bugs keep creeping up while other programs aren't advancing despite being opensource (which isn't that much of a guarantee to getting bugfree software). I'm no programmer and also no opensource addict, though I like the free aspect of things with sometimes the ability to check out how stuff's done and request features. My goal for this next FreeDOS however is sticking to opensource software, as well as software which has available sources or is freeware without too severe limitations. (not including that PLoP bootmanager for example) Jim throwing out a lot of non-opensource is his decision, and justified for a base FreeDOS distribution (just like those core Linux distro's with hardly any driver and multimedia abilities). It's easy enough to add lots of freeware to an "EXTRAS" category :) > Ralf Bernd ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Storage Efficiency Calculator This modeling tool is based on patent-pending intellectual property that has been used successfully in hundreds of IBM storage optimization engage- ments, worldwide. Store less, Store more with what you own, Move data to the right place. Try It Now! http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51427378/ _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
