(FOSDEM 2021) Working on DOS in 2021

If you missed Jim's presentation at FOSDEM'21 on February 7, here's the pre-recorded presentation. This one-hour talk discusses the past, present (1.3) and future (2.0) of FreeDOS.

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[softwave]

FreeDOS is a wonderful operating system and project!

[misterspock]

So I think I know what needs to happen now... a return to codenames! FreeDOS 1.4: Wacky Weasel? Haha... Thank you to you and the team for all the hard work!

[arne]

For the impatient:
27:59 What will be in FreeDOS 1.3?
41:36 What's next (FreeDOS 2.0)?

[sharoyveduchi]

Real mode ring-0 operating systems are the past present and future of computing. It will never fully go away. FreeDOS is forever!

[powerfulaura]

Thank you for keeping FreeDOS F/LOSS, it's important!

[TheSulross]

would the 32-bit object file and exe file format from Windows NT for x86 be a reasonable to adopt for 32-bit FreeDOS?

[woohoo]

FreeDOS is the only way I flash BIOS updates on my Dell laptops

[billysolusi]

Mr. Jim, please make a biography video about yourself, your journey learning programming, from kid until becoming a pro.
And tell us about your job, your achievement, and other computing stories.
And what was the environment or condition of computer technologies back then?

It will be inspiring for us, hearing about an amazing history and career of a computer legend like You.

Thank you.

[shantanugadgil]

Any reason to use FDISK as is? Any equivalent of Ranish Partition Manager during install would be awesome (Disclaimer, I haven't tried latest version)

[sparkyinsano]

i have suggestions for 1.3 or future updates. 16 bit chkdsk for fat32. and package manager for ibm XT compatibility

[lucius]

One thing is certain FreeDOS will propably be way more compatible with older hardware then Windows 11.

[OpenGLever]

Those of us who have seen older lectures about FreeDOS on FOSDEM and others can save time by jumping to 27:09.

[wesch]

FreeDOS is perfect!
ExFAT support will be good.
I still boot to real mode DOS for hardware maintenance. I have software talk to hardware directly.

[jerzyglowacki]

Can't you port bash/zsh/ksh/busybox to FreeDOS using EMX as a new shell?

[shantanugadgil]

The Pascal FPU (I think) patch brings back happy memories. 🥲

[shantanugadgil]

Semantic versions, we could have semantic versioning to simplify release cycles

[zuljin]

I believe you're right when you say that FreeDOS would be pretty much out of character if you add features that take out the essence of it, It's a very good project with a clear mission of simplicity and retrocompatibility. But I'd also love to see a version of DOS with modern OS features like multi-user capabilities, multitasking and desktop environments that can evolve to a cool personal computing technology (not FreeDOS but a side project made by someone else).

Although we already have good Linux-based operating systems and BSDs, that's pretty much it, we don't have any other usable OS that is not a *nix. Nix operating systems are server OSes that have been hacked by talented people over decades to fit in the personal computing world, we don't have a genuine personal computing system from the bottom up. The operating system landscape is pretty arid compared to previous times and I consider this a very bad thing.

Less OSes means less people discovering things from different perspectives and less alternatives in case of other projects start to sink or turn into a corporate hellscape. People like Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds are getting old, and only god knows how the libre software world will change (for better or worse) after their deaths.

[shantanugadgil]

Man, I need to dig out my LFN supported Volkov Commander clone (but in C). I didn't know ASM then.

[sparkyinsano]

what are these dos program archival sites?

[robbietorkelsonn]

FreeDOS in rust ... anyone?
Would solve the compiler issues once and for all.

For realsies Jim, you should adjust the FreeDOS specification to allow rust as a language for FreeDOS base. That way people could work on FreeDOS and get some practice with rust as well.