On Sun, Apr 18, 2021 at 6:59 AM Liam Proven <lpro...@gmail.com> wrote: >[..] > FreeDOS commands are different in places; output is different in > places. That is fair; it is a community effort and an unauthorised > copy of a long-obsolete OS. I have no right to demand 100% > compatibility, and I don't. But I was surprised and annoyed by the > differences, and since at present I only use DOS for fun, then I will > not use something that annoys me. >
FreeDOS is not "an unauthorized copy" of MS-DOS. FreeDOS is a DOS-compatible operating system. We built FreeDOS using open documentation and standards, such as Ralf Brown's Interrupt List (RBIL) and printed documentation (such as the command documentation from the printed MS-DOS user manuals). Saying FreeDOS is "an unauthorized copy" implies that FreeDOS copied MS-DOS source code, which is not the case. In fact, we have rejected contributions from people who have hinted (or even joked) that they had seen the MS-DOS source code, before Microsoft re-released the source code to MS-DOS 1.25 and MS-DOS 2.0 via GitHub in 2018. *This source code re-release is distributed under the MIT License (aka "Expat" License) and is compatible with the GNU GPL. Developers who download and study these versions of MS-DOS are welcome to contribute to FreeDOS. Words matter. Please do not suggest that FreeDOS "copied" the MS-DOS source code. Instead of "unauthorized copy," you might instead say "re-implementation." Jim _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
