(2007-11-11) It's been over a year since our 1.0 (Sep 2006) release, and many of our packages have been updated since then. I'd like to see us create a "1.1" release sometime soonish. Blair is interested in rolling our 1.1 distro, but I think he'd like some help. If there's anyone our there who'd be willing to assist, please let us know.
We should set some timelines for this, if we're all going to make it work. A "soft" and "hard' freeze worked well for the 1.0 release ... so let's us that again.
Our target for release should be around 1 month after the hard freeze. That gives us enough time to make test releases of FreeDOS 1.1 (based on hard freeze) before the final release.
(2007-07-13)
Both Dell and HP sell PCs that include a copy of FreeDOS. I've asked them, but no one at Dell or HP will send me a copy of the FreeDOS CD. I'd kind of like to see one. If you have a Dell or HP kit with the FreeDOS CD, take a digital photo and post it on your blog for me. If you don't have a place to post, go ahead and email me. I'd love to see one!
Update: Thanks!
(2007-05-01) ... or 1.1, or whatever label we eventually give it. I have been giving some thought lately to the next version of FreeDOS. I was, obviously, very thrilled when we finally released 1.0. But it's been a while, and we really should think about what comes next.
Post "1.0", I'd also like to see more utilities to make it possible to replicate some of the advanced features we take for granted in modern operating systems, such as Linux. I want to revive GNUish and replicate a modern UNIX-like environment under DOS. I want DOS to be usable by everyone, not just DOS geeks. Linux users should feel at home.
I'd like FreeDOS to appeal to Windows and Mac geeks, but for that we'd need to have a strong GUI. GEM is already out there, and is a fine, stable GUI for DOS.
The installer also needs work. When I first wrote the installer, it was very basic, with text scrolling up from the bottom of the screen. But it did the job, and it was our first installer. By version 3 of the installer, I'd added a simple TUI, but it was still a pale imitation of where I wanted to go with the installer. The installer we have in 1.0 is basically the same look-and-feel as the original installer. The updated installer should be built with TurboVision or another standard TUI toolkit.
For features, Blair and I put together a small "wish list" for the updated installer:
Back in 1994, I saw all these comments on USENET newsgroups asking if there was a free version of DOS. So I sat down with my 8088 laptop and wrote some free DOS utilities. Over time, these "external" utilities were replaced by "internal" commands (that is, commands that were built into the FreeDOS COMMAND.COM) or were taken on by other software maintainers. The two programs that I kept as "maintainer" were:
However, these haven't changed in a long time, and I doubt they will ever need updating. I guess I've done all I'm going to as "maintainer". Please contact me if you are interested in taking on these programs.
In addition to FreeDOS utilities, I also had a hand in developing or maintaining other software for FreeDOS. This software is no longer maintained! Contact me if you are interested in taking over maintainership of these:
