30 years later, FreeDOS remains to be maintaining the dream of the command immediate alive

Two massive issues occurred on this planet of text-based disk working techniques in June 1994.

The primary is that Microsoft launched MS-DOS model 6.22, the final model of its long-running working system that will be bought to shoppers as a standalone product. MS-DOS would proceed to evolve for a couple of years after this, however solely as an more and more invisible loading mechanism for Home windows.

The second was {that a} developer named Jim Corridor wrote a submit asserting one thing known as “PD-DOS.” Sad with Home windows 3.x and unexcited by the undertaking we’d come to know as Home windows 95, Corridor needed to interrupt floor on a brand new “public area” model of DOS that might preserve the standard command-line interface alive as many of the world left it behind for extra user-friendly however resource-intensive graphical person interfaces.

PD-DOS would quickly be renamed FreeDOS, and 30 years and plenty of contributions later, it stands because the final MS-DOS-compatible working system nonetheless underneath lively growth.

Whereas it’s probably not usable as a standalone trendy working system within the Web age—amongst different issues, DOS just isn’t actually innately conscious of “the Web” as an idea—FreeDOS nonetheless has an essential place in immediately’s computing firmament. It’s there for individuals who have to run legacy purposes on trendy techniques, whether or not it’s working inside a digital machine or instantly on the {hardware}; it’s additionally the easiest way to get an actively maintained DOS offshoot working on legacy {hardware} going way back to the unique IBM PC and its Intel 8088 CPU.

To mark FreeDOS’ twentieth anniversary in 2014, we talked with Corridor and different FreeDOS maintainers about its continued relevance, the legacy of DOS, and the builders’ since-abandoned plans so as to add formidable trendy options like multitasking and built-in networking help (we additionally tried, earnestly however with combined success, to do a modern-day’s work utilizing solely FreeDOS). The world of MS-DOS-compatible working techniques strikes slowly sufficient that the majority of this data remains to be related; FreeDOS was at model 1.1 again in 2014, and it’s on model 1.3 now.

For the thirtieth anniversary, we’ve checked in with Corridor once more about how the final decade or so has handled the FreeDOS undertaking, why it’s nonetheless essential, and the way it continues to attract new customers into the fold. We additionally talked, unusual because it might sound, about what the long run would possibly maintain for this inherently backward-looking working system.

FreeDOS remains to be kicking, whilst {hardware} evolves past it

If the final decade hasn’t ushered in The 12 months of FreeDOS On The Desktop, Corridor says that curiosity in and utilization of the working system has stayed pretty degree since 2014. The distinction is that, as time has gone on, extra customers are encountering FreeDOS as their first DOS-compatible working system, not as an up to date tackle Microsoft and IBM’s dusty previous ’80s- and ’90s-era software program.

“In comparison with about 10 years in the past, I’d say the curiosity degree in FreeDOS is about the identical,” Corridor informed Ars in an e mail interview. “Our developer neighborhood has remained about the identical over that point, I believe. And judging by the emails that individuals ship me to ask questions, or the brand new of us I see asking questions on our freedos-user or freedos-devel e mail lists, or the folks speaking about FreeDOS on the Fb group and different boards, I’d say there are nonetheless about the identical variety of people who find themselves taking part within the FreeDOS neighborhood not directly.”

“I get plenty of questions round September and October from individuals who ask, mainly, ‘I put in FreeDOS, however I don’t know use it. What do I do?’ And I believe these folks discovered about FreeDOS in a college laptop science course and needed to study extra about it—or perhaps they’re already working someplace they usually learn an article about it, by no means heard of this “DOS” factor earlier than, and needed to strive it out. Both approach, I believe extra of us within the person neighborhood are studying about “DOS” on the identical time they’re studying about FreeDOS.”