Submitted by We’re looking at two alternative operating systems hitting updates. MenuetOS, the operating system written entirely in assembly, hit version 0.98.27. Meanwhile, FreeDOS 1.1 has hit final.
MenuetOS is an oldtimer here on OSAlert, and has been with us for a long time already. “MenuetOS is an operating system in development for the PC written entirely in 32/64 bit assembly language. Menuet64 is released under License and Menuet32 under GPL. Menuet supports 32/64 bit x86 assembly programming for smaller, faster and less resource hungry applications.”
Unlike just about anything else out there, it’s not based on UNIX or POSIX, making it a truly unique little creature. Its assembly nature is, of course, quite unique as well. Version 0.98.27 is a bugfix release, mostly.
As far as FreeDOS 1.1 goes, we already covered its test release a few weeks ago July last year (wait, July? Holy crap). “So, what has changed since 2006’s version 1.0?”we wondered back then, “Other than the usual performance improvements and bugfixes, it comes with the initial work on USB controller support, a newer kernel version with bugfixes, some limited USB flash disk support, and several other things.”
So, there you have it. Nothing earth-shattering, but at least there’s still work being done here.
My question about FreeDos is whether its aim is to become a clone of MS-DOS or improve and evolve the concept?
In any case it is a useful project.
It appears to be mostly about cloning.
now all I want is full HDA sound under DOS!
Don’t get your hopes up, hardware is always a mess, but try one of these:
http://mpxplay.sourceforge.net/
http://www.piotrkn22.republika.pl/judas/index.html
When I lived in the embedded world, our OS was DOS. Not MS-DOS, or , saddly, not Free DOS, but Data Light ROMDOS. Which was not free, or good. Most of the utils were absolutely broken. I was not allowed to replace ROMDOS with FreeDOS in production, but did most of my development of our app on FreeDOS because stuff just worked.
I’d love to try out Menuet64, but my Gateway AMD A6-3400M laptop uses only USB or CD to boot from. Any idea if a way exists to boot Menuet64 either way?
In the download section of the MenuetOS website, there’s a link named “Download Menuet CD”. You can follow that link to download an ISO file.
“My question about FreeDos is whether its aim is to become a clone of MS-DOS or improve and evolve the concept?”
Mainly a clone of MS-DOS with better hardware support, LFNs and lots of utilites.
There are some improvements, like command history and tab completion. But in general, they keep it pretty close to MS DOS so all of the apps will still work. Its the only way some dos games I have work.
Seriously, I’d absolutely love it if there were full support for FAT32 flash media – imagine syncing your Android phone with a DOS machine!
EDIT: another idea: bootable DOS flashdrives!
Edited 2012-01-03 04:53 UTC
the latter is already possible.
syslinux + memdisk and you can boot freedos from a stick.
Give me FreeDOS or give me death, =P I just had to. Sorry.
…for a downgrade in several ways. Yay, FreeDOS. Good thing that, although interested, I didn’t get my hopes too high. What a disappointment.
Oh well… it’s only really a “toy” OS to me to begin with, which DOSBox can replace for my typical use anyway.
DOSBox is only meant for games, not anything else. It is not meant to be a full DOS.
Anyways, I have no idea what you mean. It’s not a downgrade, but indeed this prepackaged version is more minimal than the old full one as volunteers are extremely low. You’ll have to download stuff individually if you want it, and I’m sure I can point you to whatever you were expecting.
Yes, I know–and like I said, DOSBox does what I need.
You just mentioned some of the downsides of the “upgrade” right there, so I’m not sure how you have no idea what I mean: more minimal (could be an advantage to some people) and manual installation of most programs; basically lack of anything but the “base” CD. Lack of “live” portion of the disc is another step back, although IMO a less important one.
It’s just disappointing after such a long wait to see such glaring steps back. If it had package management, it wouldn’t be quite as bad… but it doesn’t, at least as far as I know.
Edited 2012-01-04 00:00 UTC
P.S. Since OS News (and others) never mentioned it, I guess now would be a good time to publicly mourn the passing of Pat Villani, the original author of the DOS-C kernel used by FreeDOS. He was head of the project, even recently, from 2009-11 until he got sick and never recovered. Without his hard work, there literally would be no FreeDOS kernel (also used by DOSEMU). I know he’s no Steve Jobs or Dennis Ritchie, but he still impacted a lot of us in a good way. The FreeDOS 1.1 release is dedicated to him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Villani
(thanks to Matthias Paul for defending and expanding that article)