The SvarDOS Community Builds an Open Source DOS Distribution (svardos.osdn.io) 14
Long-time Slashdot reader sproketboy shared a link to SvarDOS, "an open-source project that is meant to integrate the best out of the currently available DOS tools, drivers and games." From their site:
DOS development has been abandoned by commercial players a very long time ago, mostly during early nineties. Nowadays, it survives solely through the efforts of hobbyists and retro-enthusiasts, but this is a highly sparse and unorganized ecosystem. SvarDOS aims to collect available DOS software, package it and make it easy to find and install applications using a network-enabled package manager (like apt-get, but for DOS and able to run even on a 8086 PC).
Once installed, SvarDOS is a minimalistic DOS system that offers only the FreeDOS kernel and the most basic tools for system administration. It is up to the user to install additional packages. Care is taken so SvarDOS remains 8086-compatible, at least in its most basic (core) configuration.
SvarDOS files are published under the terms of the MIT license. This applies only to SvarDOS-specific files, though - the packages supplied with SvarDOS may be subject to different licenses (GPL, BSD, Public Domain, Freeware...).
Once installed, SvarDOS is a minimalistic DOS system that offers only the FreeDOS kernel and the most basic tools for system administration. It is up to the user to install additional packages. Care is taken so SvarDOS remains 8086-compatible, at least in its most basic (core) configuration.
SvarDOS files are published under the terms of the MIT license. This applies only to SvarDOS-specific files, though - the packages supplied with SvarDOS may be subject to different licenses (GPL, BSD, Public Domain, Freeware...).
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, I'm sure the wrong-mixed case thing will throw off their AI totally!
Woohoo! (Score:4, Insightful)
Itâ(TM)ll be great to have modern tools around FreeDOS.
Can it run DESQview (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: Can it run DESQview (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Given it runs FreeDOS internally, it should. FreeDOS is a superset of MS-DOS - it not only remains DOS compatible, but it adds support for modern PC buses and components.
Everything DOS should run as it always has, unless FreeDOS goofs and breaks something.
but does it fit (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't forget QEMM (Score:3, Funny)
Your wish.... (Score:2)
FreeDOS (Score:2)
It says it's using the FreeDOS kernel, but how does it compare to the FreeDOS distribution as a whole? Oh, looks like they answered that:
http://svardos.osdn.io/phpamb.... [svardos.osdn.io]
TL;DR: SvarDOS uses a rolling release so you can never have a stable version to rely on, and it includes non-free software.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, it's not like DOS is a fast changing platform with new releases every month. The base platform hasn't changed in decades, and it's only really support for new stuff that forces a release. Heck, if there was a system breaking change introduced it would probably have been fixed long before you even noticed it.
As for non-free, well, lots of stuff in DOS was freeware or shareware, and