On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 3:16 PM, Michael Robinson
<plu...@robinson-west.com>wrote:
> On Mon, 2009-06-15 at 06:23 -0800, dos386 wrote:
> > This is off-topic and irrelevant anyway ...
>
> No it is not and it is rude of you to say that it
> is. It is not because one of the goals of Freedos
> development has been to at least support the
> versions of Windows that ran on top of dos.
> The natural next step is to replace those
> versions of Windows.
>
> OpenGem is no different from Windows 9x or 3.x in the
> respect that it runs on top of DOS. It is different
> in the sense that it works with Freedos where Windows
> 9x doesn't and Windows 3.x somewhat doesn't.
>
> Microsoft doesn't sell Windows 3.x or 9x anymore, the
> attitude of Microsoft is that nobody uses dos anymore
> so nobody needs a version of Windows that works with
> it. The reality is, there is this thing called the
> Win32 API that Windows 9x and Windows 3.x support
> among other APIs. Making this available under dos
> without implementing a Windows 3.x or 9x replacement
> would be very difficult.
>
> Now then, at this time there aren't enough developers
> to take on cloning Windows 3.x or Windows 9x, but
> that alone doesn't make discussing a Windows 3.x
> or Windows 9x replacement irrelevant.
>
> There are many Windows programs that only work in
> dos based Windows. There is such a thing as a dos
> based Windows program, try to run it at the dos
> prompt ( any version ) and you'll get a this
> requires Microsoft Windows error. Many of these
> same programs either don't work or don't work
> correctly in Windows NT and other NT based
> versions of Windows.
>
> Right now, one of the goals of the kernel developers
> is to support Windows 3.x better.
>
>
Very true. One particular game that makes me interested in this idea
is Sonic CD. The game does not work under Windows NT systems, only
Windows 9x. There was a version that worked for Windows 3.x, but I
don't have it. There
are patches to make Sonic CD work under Windows XP, but they are horribly
unreliable and the game acts very funky when the patches are used.
Additionally, there are many other utilities, games, and other types of
programs that simply do not work under Windows NT based systems.
Microsoft since last year has pulled out ALL support for Windows 9x and 3.x,
including downloads for it. I heard that they even pulled the MSDN download
for Windows 3.x for MSDN subscribers, but I don't really know.
FreeDOS being able to run DOS/Windows applications is within the scope of
the project; however, for that to happen, the kernel needs to work with
regular Windows 3.x first. Otherwise it would be rather difficult to test
and compare a Windows 3.x/9x replacement with the official stuff. Unless the
people actually developing it had a copy of MS-DOS/DR-DOS/PC-DOS that could
actually run Windows. Even so, it is preferred that FreeDOS would be the
developing platform. And so, FreeDOS must be able to run Windows 3.x.
Currently, it cannot....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial
Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited
royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing
server and web deployment.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects
_______________________________________________
Freedos-user mailing list
Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
