30 years later, FreeDOS remains to be protecting the dream of the command immediate alive – Cyber Tech

Two large issues occurred on the planet of text-based disk working programs in June 1994.

The primary is that Microsoft launched MS-DOS model 6.22, the final model of its long-running working system that might be bought to shoppers as a standalone product. MS-DOS would proceed to evolve for a couple of years after this, however solely as an more and more invisible loading mechanism for Home windows.

The second was {that a} developer named Jim Corridor wrote a submit asserting one thing referred to as “PD-DOS.” Sad with Home windows 3.x and unexcited by the undertaking we might come to know as Home windows 95, Corridor needed to interrupt floor on a brand new “public area” model of DOS that would hold the normal command-line interface alive as a lot of the world left it behind for extra user-friendly however resource-intensive graphical consumer interfaces.

PD-DOS would quickly be renamed FreeDOS, and 30 years and lots of contributions later, it stands because the final MS-DOS-compatible working system nonetheless underneath lively growth.

Whereas it’s not likely usable as a standalone fashionable working system within the Web age—amongst different issues, DOS will not be actually innately conscious of “the Web” as an idea—FreeDOS nonetheless has an necessary place in at present’s computing firmament. It’s there for individuals who have to run legacy purposes on fashionable programs, whether or not it’s operating inside a digital machine or straight on the {hardware}; it’s additionally the easiest way to get an actively maintained DOS offshoot operating on legacy {hardware} going way back to the unique IBM PC and its Intel 8088 CPU.

To mark FreeDOS’ twentieth anniversary in 2014, we talked with Corridor and different FreeDOS maintainers about its continued relevance, the legacy of DOS, and the builders’ since-abandoned plans so as to add bold fashionable options like multitasking and built-in networking help (we additionally tried, earnestly however with blended success, to do a modern-day’s work utilizing solely FreeDOS). The world of MS-DOS-compatible working programs strikes slowly sufficient that the majority of this info remains to be related; FreeDOS was at model 1.1 again in 2014, and it’s on model 1.3 now.

For the thirtieth anniversary, we’ve checked in with Corridor once more about how the final decade or so has handled the FreeDOS undertaking, why it’s nonetheless necessary, and the way it continues to attract new customers into the fold. We additionally talked, unusual because it may appear, about what the long run may maintain for this inherently backward-looking working system.

FreeDOS remains to be kicking, at the same time as {hardware} evolves past it

If the final decade hasn’t ushered in The 12 months of FreeDOS On The Desktop, Corridor says that curiosity in and utilization of the working system has stayed pretty degree since 2014. The distinction is that, as time has gone on, extra customers are encountering FreeDOS as their first DOS-compatible working system, not as an up to date tackle Microsoft and IBM’s dusty previous ’80s- and ’90s-era software program.

“In comparison with about 10 years in the past, I’d say the curiosity degree in FreeDOS is about the identical,” Corridor advised Ars in an e mail interview. “Our developer group has remained about the identical over that point, I feel. And judging by the emails that folks ship me to ask questions, or the brand new of us I see asking questions on our freedos-user or freedos-devel e mail lists, or the folks speaking about FreeDOS on the Fb group and different boards, I’d say there are nonetheless about the identical variety of people who find themselves taking part within the FreeDOS group in a roundabout way.”

“I get a whole lot of questions round September and October from individuals who ask, principally, ‘I put in FreeDOS, however I don’t know the way to use it. What do I do?’ And I feel these folks discovered about FreeDOS in a college pc science course and needed to study extra about it—or possibly they’re already working someplace they usually learn an article about it, by no means heard of this “DOS” factor earlier than, and needed to attempt it out. Both means, I feel extra of us within the consumer group are studying about “DOS” on the identical time they’re studying about FreeDOS.”