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

Two huge issues occurred on the planet of text-based disk working methods in June 1994.

The primary is that Microsoft launched MS-DOS model 6.22, the final model of its long-running working system that might be offered to customers as a standalone product. MS-DOS would proceed to evolve for a number 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 publish asserting one thing referred to as “PD-DOS.” Sad with Home windows 3.x and unexcited by the undertaking we might come to know as Home windows 95, Corridor wished to interrupt floor on a brand new “public area” model of DOS that would hold the normal command-line interface alive as a lot of the world left it behind for extra user-friendly however resource-intensive graphical consumer 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 below lively growth.

Whereas it’s probably not usable as a standalone fashionable 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 at present’s computing firmament. It’s there for individuals who have to run legacy purposes on fashionable methods, whether or not it’s operating within a digital machine or immediately on the {hardware}; it’s additionally the easiest way to get an actively maintained DOS offshoot operating 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 bold fashionable options like multitasking and built-in networking assist (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 methods strikes slowly sufficient that the majority of this info 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 may appear, 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 stage 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 outdated ’80s- and ’90s-era software program.

“In comparison with about 10 years in the past, I’d say the curiosity stage in FreeDOS is about the identical,” Corridor instructed Ars in an e mail interview. “Our developer group has remained about the identical over that point, I feel. And judging by the emails that individuals ship me to ask questions, or the brand new people 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 collaborating within the FreeDOS group not directly.”

“I get lots of questions round September and October from individuals who ask, principally, ‘I put in FreeDOS, however I don’t know how one can use it. What do I do?’ And I feel these folks discovered about FreeDOS in a college laptop science course and wished 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 wished to attempt it out. Both means, I feel extra people within the consumer group are studying about “DOS” on the similar time they’re studying about FreeDOS.”