//Hehe, after an afternoon of effort, I finally got this article done. This really is the first time I've translated such a long article. If there is anything inadequate in the translation, please point it out. Many thanks! Oh yes, I've posted the original in front, so everyone can compare as they read :-)
FreeDOS Through the Eyes of a Linux Enthusiast (Translated Version)
Original author: Russell C. Pavlicek
Translated by: Joey Andrise (joey) openguet@yahoo.com.cn
Like those who conceived open source, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the future of open source in the business world. I have not spent much time thinking about how open source can improve outdated technologies. But there are indeed some people doing exactly that.
Take MS-DOS for example. If you are as old as I am (old enough that it takes some thought to remember exactly how old you are), you surely remember MS-DOS. And if you think back long enough and hard enough, you should come up with some dimmed memories about this "trick": having to manage memory manually, load CD-ROM drivers, and configure the video card so it would display properly.
DOS, at best, ought to stay in the junk heap buried by time. I probably used to think so too.
Believe it or not, there is a group of open-source developers busy building a better DOS system. Why? Because DOS is a platform that has existed for a long time, and it is still useful for some embedded applications. An embedded application needs a system that is both reliable and inexpensive as its foundation. Since MS-DOS is no longer important to Microsoft as a product while at the same time being important to embedded developers, some people believe it is necessary to build an open-source operating system compatible with MS-DOS.
The FreeDOS project began in 1994 in order to offset the impact of Microsoft's attempt to do away with MS-DOS and push everyone onto Windows. It contains no code from Microsoft, and it is designed to work in a manner similar to MS-DOS. FreeDOS does not guarantee that it can accomplish every task in exactly the same way as MS-DOS, but it is working hard toward that goal. The FreeDOS specifications all come from publicly released documents describing MS-DOS. FreeDOS is still in the testing stage, but the system itself is already usable. At present, FreeDOS is in the seventh version of open testing, nicknamed "SPEARS."
I brought an antique machine in my basement back to life and put it back into service -- a 486/DX4 120MHz with 12MB of memory. My machine is equipped with a 270MB hard drive, and even after installing the entire operating system and its source code, there was still plenty of room left over (when was the last time a 270MB hard drive was large enough for anything?). In fact, after a full installation the system takes up only 35MB of hard drive space.
Installing FreeDOS was simple enough; I got my old machine working on the first try. I downloaded its iso file from the download page at Freedos.org, then burned the CD and made a boot floppy. This FreeDOS CD already included a CD-ROM driver, but my 4x IDE CD-ROM drive was really too old and was not recognized, so I had to dig out the old original driver I had thrown aside to solve the problem. The installation requires you to stay nearby, because it keeps asking you to confirm the installation of different components. This is not much of a burden, though, because the installation takes only a few minutes.
Booting the system does not look quite like MS-DOS. First, there is a nifty boot manager that lets you boot multiple operating systems, which is very helpful in a development environment. Second, the boot messages are quite different, which is not surprising considering all the various drivers have to identify themselves as they load.
Once the system has finished booting, you may find that many things still feel very familiar, while some other stuff has been streamlined a bit. The output of the "dir" command looks just like I remember from MS-DOS, and the "edit" command still looks just as odd as "edit" in MS-DOS. Most of the standard DOS commands look little changed under FreeDOS. Some commands (for example, "men"
use more streamlined option switches. Thank goodness, the "/?" option seems to provide a list of options for most commands; likewise, there is a fairly good "help" command that can give related explanations for many commands.
At the same time, there are many signs that this is still a developing system. The installation documentation warns that floppy disk storage is slow -- and it really is, though fortunately it works fairly well. "scandisk" seems able to scan only the first partition. And the "format" command appears to do only a quick format, no matter what options you type.
FreeDOS also provides many software packages to choose from. Old hands from Linux/Unix/BSD will surely be delighted to see that there are many versions of vi and Emacs available to choose from. There are also many programming languages, such as Bywater Basic (which I had not come across again after seeing it in some early Linux distributions), as well as an assembler.
Perhaps the most interesting add-on package is Seal. Seal is a Windows-like GUI, if that interests you. The version I installed included only a few applications, but it showed great potential.
After looking through all the software packages, the next step was obvious: load some "serious" DOS-based software and see what would happen. My choice (perhaps influenced by the nickname "SPEARS" was "Spear of Destiny," the Wolfenstein 3D mission pack. The Freedos.org site had done some research on this too, to figure out how to free up just enough memory to run the game (some changes have to be made in one part of the architecture -- compared with MS-DOS), but once I got the memory sorted out, the game ran very well. This old 486 machine was still running quite briskly (when was the last time I said a 486 machine ran "briskly"?), and the game ran just as it always had.
But in the true spirit of open source, Freedos is not content to be merely an imitator of existing technology. Besides impressive add-on packages like Seal, there are also ongoing efforts to build a pure 32-bit kernel. Yes, in Virginia, there is a DOS messiah. Perhaps one day FreeDOS will become a DOS system that does not require endless memory management. Isn't it a good thing that, driven by technology, people keep trying to improve a system until no one can say "no" anymore??
I truly hope the FreeDOS project will continue to thrive. Open source talks about freedom of use, but it also means freedom of choice. And FreeDOS gives people another choice. If you do not want DOS, then try something else. But if DOS is the key to the special device you are building, please give FreeDOS a try. It is worth trying.
FreeDOS Through the Eyes of a Linux Enthusiast (Translated Version)
Original author: Russell C. Pavlicek
Translated by: Joey Andrise (joey) openguet@yahoo.com.cn
Like those who conceived open source, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the future of open source in the business world. I have not spent much time thinking about how open source can improve outdated technologies. But there are indeed some people doing exactly that.
Take MS-DOS for example. If you are as old as I am (old enough that it takes some thought to remember exactly how old you are), you surely remember MS-DOS. And if you think back long enough and hard enough, you should come up with some dimmed memories about this "trick": having to manage memory manually, load CD-ROM drivers, and configure the video card so it would display properly.
DOS, at best, ought to stay in the junk heap buried by time. I probably used to think so too.
Believe it or not, there is a group of open-source developers busy building a better DOS system. Why? Because DOS is a platform that has existed for a long time, and it is still useful for some embedded applications. An embedded application needs a system that is both reliable and inexpensive as its foundation. Since MS-DOS is no longer important to Microsoft as a product while at the same time being important to embedded developers, some people believe it is necessary to build an open-source operating system compatible with MS-DOS.
The FreeDOS project began in 1994 in order to offset the impact of Microsoft's attempt to do away with MS-DOS and push everyone onto Windows. It contains no code from Microsoft, and it is designed to work in a manner similar to MS-DOS. FreeDOS does not guarantee that it can accomplish every task in exactly the same way as MS-DOS, but it is working hard toward that goal. The FreeDOS specifications all come from publicly released documents describing MS-DOS. FreeDOS is still in the testing stage, but the system itself is already usable. At present, FreeDOS is in the seventh version of open testing, nicknamed "SPEARS."
I brought an antique machine in my basement back to life and put it back into service -- a 486/DX4 120MHz with 12MB of memory. My machine is equipped with a 270MB hard drive, and even after installing the entire operating system and its source code, there was still plenty of room left over (when was the last time a 270MB hard drive was large enough for anything?). In fact, after a full installation the system takes up only 35MB of hard drive space.
Installing FreeDOS was simple enough; I got my old machine working on the first try. I downloaded its iso file from the download page at Freedos.org, then burned the CD and made a boot floppy. This FreeDOS CD already included a CD-ROM driver, but my 4x IDE CD-ROM drive was really too old and was not recognized, so I had to dig out the old original driver I had thrown aside to solve the problem. The installation requires you to stay nearby, because it keeps asking you to confirm the installation of different components. This is not much of a burden, though, because the installation takes only a few minutes.
Booting the system does not look quite like MS-DOS. First, there is a nifty boot manager that lets you boot multiple operating systems, which is very helpful in a development environment. Second, the boot messages are quite different, which is not surprising considering all the various drivers have to identify themselves as they load.
Once the system has finished booting, you may find that many things still feel very familiar, while some other stuff has been streamlined a bit. The output of the "dir" command looks just like I remember from MS-DOS, and the "edit" command still looks just as odd as "edit" in MS-DOS. Most of the standard DOS commands look little changed under FreeDOS. Some commands (for example, "men"
use more streamlined option switches. Thank goodness, the "/?" option seems to provide a list of options for most commands; likewise, there is a fairly good "help" command that can give related explanations for many commands.At the same time, there are many signs that this is still a developing system. The installation documentation warns that floppy disk storage is slow -- and it really is, though fortunately it works fairly well. "scandisk" seems able to scan only the first partition. And the "format" command appears to do only a quick format, no matter what options you type.
FreeDOS also provides many software packages to choose from. Old hands from Linux/Unix/BSD will surely be delighted to see that there are many versions of vi and Emacs available to choose from. There are also many programming languages, such as Bywater Basic (which I had not come across again after seeing it in some early Linux distributions), as well as an assembler.
Perhaps the most interesting add-on package is Seal. Seal is a Windows-like GUI, if that interests you. The version I installed included only a few applications, but it showed great potential.
After looking through all the software packages, the next step was obvious: load some "serious" DOS-based software and see what would happen. My choice (perhaps influenced by the nickname "SPEARS"
was "Spear of Destiny," the Wolfenstein 3D mission pack. The Freedos.org site had done some research on this too, to figure out how to free up just enough memory to run the game (some changes have to be made in one part of the architecture -- compared with MS-DOS), but once I got the memory sorted out, the game ran very well. This old 486 machine was still running quite briskly (when was the last time I said a 486 machine ran "briskly"?), and the game ran just as it always had.But in the true spirit of open source, Freedos is not content to be merely an imitator of existing technology. Besides impressive add-on packages like Seal, there are also ongoing efforts to build a pure 32-bit kernel. Yes, in Virginia, there is a DOS messiah. Perhaps one day FreeDOS will become a DOS system that does not require endless memory management. Isn't it a good thing that, driven by technology, people keep trying to improve a system until no one can say "no" anymore??
I truly hope the FreeDOS project will continue to thrive. Open source talks about freedom of use, but it also means freedom of choice. And FreeDOS gives people another choice. If you do not want DOS, then try something else. But if DOS is the key to the special device you are building, please give FreeDOS a try. It is worth trying.
