I haven't gotten the positive response I had hoped for trying to drum up some interest in a Windows 9x replacement. Some have talked about possibly enhacing HX extender and cloning Windows 3.x first, which makes a lot of sense.
Maybe it doesn't make sense to replace dos based Windows. Maybe dos based Windows is dead. So what to do those of us who like some program or need some program that requires a dos based version of Microsoft Windows? None of the versions available are supported by Microsoft and none of the versions are Y2K compliant. There is an open source service pack for Windows 98 SE, but it doesn't fix everything that's wrong. One answer to the what to do question is to have people start to list what they lose that they want if they don't have a dos compatible Windows environment. I am talking Windows 3.x and Windows9x/ME. One thing you lose if you have to use Windows XP is the ability to run smoothly on older computer hardware. I am talking 500mhz and below. Also, some programs just won't work in an NT based environment. Some will say, just get NT versions of whatever you want. Great, but that rules out a lot of computers and there is no free NT option right now. There is WINE, but that only gets you so far. Well, that list could be useful as the programs people want from Windows land may be replaceable with equivalent ones that run on top of say opengem. For instance, how hard would it be using opengem as a starting point to support abiword or openoffice? How about firefox? You can get the latter three programs for Linux, but maybe you can't run Linux because you have a lot of dos software or an older computer. Yes you can run freedos under dosemu or vmware, if your computer is fast enough and you really want to. Thing is, maybe your games or whatever you use won't work so well under emulation. I run freedos natively. I have given up on trying to run it under vmware. Sometimes, I use dosbox under Linux. Nothing allows me to run command and conquer red alert I under Linux. So, let me start the what do you lose list: Command and Conquer Red Alert Windows 95 edition by Westwood Associates Internet Exporer 5 and earlier, maybe 6. Microsoft Office for Windows 9x. Blake Stone Aliens of Gold requires the MS-DOS 6.22 or the Windows 9x version. It can run on top of Windows 9x. Wolfenstein 3D has the same problem because it's probably based on the same underlying engine. It starts under Freedos, but none of the keys work. Warcraft II Battle Net edition requires Windows 95 or higher. Under NT, it becomes clear that it isn't designed for it when you have to become Administrator to get it to run. Diablo II requires Windows 9x or higher, but it's not designed for NT either also having the Administrator issue. ...Insert other programs that need Windows 9x or Windows 3.x to work... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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
