FreeDOS - anyone using it yet?

[OzStick]

Hi All,

I'm planning a cabinet in which I'd like to use FreeDOS. Has anyone here used it yet?

If so I'd appreciate some info on potential problems, incompatabilities etc so i can weigh up whether it's a worthwhile OS to use.

Cheers,
ChrisW

[eightbit]

From what I remember FreeDos is the same as MSdos, only its free.  
 
The question I would ask is why you'd want to use any variation of Dos. Are you using a arcade monitor? Is your PC way under powered with very little ram? If you answered no to both of those questions then don't use Dos. If you have an aversion to Windows you can look to Linux.

[rampy]

From what I remember FreeDos is the same as MSdos, only its free.  
 
The question I would ask is why you'd want to use any variation of Dos. Are you using a arcade monitor? Is your PC way under powered with very little ram? If you answered no to both of those questions then don't use Dos. If you have an aversion to Windows you can look to Linux.

I won't touch the (why would you want to) but the only drawback that I know of using a DOS varient is IF you use a SB live card or SB pci card and need to load a compatibility TSR/thingie it will balk because it doesn't demand "an upper memory manager" it specifically asks for emm386 (or whatever - I mix up my dos memory managers on a regular basis) so umbpci or whatever replacement freedos uses might cause an issue (although you could then just get emm386.sys or himem.sys from another machine ... but then you should just use ms-dos at that point, I guess) *phew*  does that make any sense or answer your question?  

I believe it's 99.9% compatible.

rampy

[SirPoonga]

I have used freedos.  It works.  I even tested my hybrid arcade monitor once with it.

[OzStick]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I am mildly aware of the lack of an EMM386 type memory manager in FreeDOS which prevents the use of most/all Creative sound cards as they rely on it.

To answer eightbit, I want to get away from licencing issues so would greatly prefer to use FreeDOS because its, well, free!

As far as everything else goes though it seems like a pretty good OS to use so I think I'll go for it!

Thanks again,
ChrisW

[rampy]

fyi umbpci is an improved/free upper memory manager for dos, but like I said it too suffers from the SB issue mentioned earlier....

here's a link http://www.uwe-sieber.de/umbpci_e.html

good luck!

rampy

[Dave Dribin]

Try DR-DOS.  It used to be free for non-commercial use.  I've used 7.03 without any problems.  I got my SoundBlaster card working, and even got my ethernet card working under it

It looks like DR-DOS has changed hands yet again, but here it is still available for download:

http://www.drdos.com/

-Dave