Hi, On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Ralf A. Quint <free...@gmx.net> wrote: > > 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. > 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". > > 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... :-(
4DOS is pretty good but can't recompile (easily? workably?) with hardly anything and has a weird license. I don't actively use it because I don't need it, but it's got some good stuff. It's definitely well-done and a cool piece of software. But hey, FreeCOM is quite good too. FAT16 bugs? Who enjoys bugs? Sure, testing is minimal because volunteers are very few, and you can't (easily) test everything. Don't worry, it will sort itself out, most likely. At worst, just use older kernels if you're paranoid. (Or make plenty of backups!) Re: old freeware compilers, remember that they also often have weird licensing. In particular, you have to "freely register" with Embarcadero just to download the old Borland tools nowadays, and (last I checked) you weren't allowed to redistribute them! That's not good for a GPL kernel since it makes it hard to recompile. (Granted, most people don't need to recompile the kernel, but see below ....) Ubuntu keeps DOSEMU in "multiverse". gNewSense doesn't have it at all. Fedora doesn't have it by default (search RPMfind). Debian keeps it somewhere weird (main/contrib? can't remember). The simple truth is that, to them, it "uses non-free tools". What are those tools, you ask? DOSEMU is GPL, FreeDOS is GPL, so what's the problem? How could Linux dislike GPL? Well, apparently OSI approved the Sybase v1 (OpenWatcom) license without consulting anyone else. Actually, Sybase was advised to use a better license (BSD), but they refused. In other words, OpenWatcom (to these Linux gurus) is *almost* non-free (not easily rebuildable) and thus taints FreeDOS and thus DOSEMU. No free-r compilers support the compact model, so they just throw out the baby with the bath water. Logical? Not really, but that's life! :-( So Jim isn't *that* big a purist ;-) else he wouldn't suggest using OpenWatcom. Even he knows that such an idea is either infeasible or just plain pointless. (And I've never heard OSI revoke it yet, so ....) Yeah, I hate license wars, it's all pointless. People spend more time fuming over that than writing actual code! So extremely pointless! But .... Jim Hall has made it clear that he wants a "free/libre" (GPL-compatible) "BASE" at minimum for FreeDOS. I don't think that's an unreasonable goal, esp. since GPLv2 is the most popular open source license (50% of projects use it). So yeah, it doesn't make sense to keep things incompatible in licensing unless you want people to actively ignore your work. Yeah sure, people still do whatever they want, but at minimum we have to have some sense of freedom to patch and share the base. So that's why things are the way they are. Believe it or not, none of the other (various non-GPL, closed source) DOSes are any better off, and from the looks of it, most of them are quite worse for it!! FreeDOS ain't perfect (nothing is), but overall it's easily the "best" [citation needed]. ;-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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
