I'm thinking of modern video cards and multiple core processors. I would imagine that Freedos in 16 bit mode can't use multiple cores. One of the problems with DOS that I recall is a total lack of hardware protection. This allowed direct hardware access, which is fast. Unfortunately, accessing hardware directly instead of through a well defined interface makes supporting that software a nightmare.
Is producing a 32 bit protected mode Freedos or even a 64 bit version of Freedos dead? I'm thinking that Freedos should be able to support multiple processing cores and other modern hardware. OpenGem should be upgraded to work on 32 or 64 bit systems. Another consideration, a 32 bit or 64 bit variant of Freedos should protect the hardware. An open networking standard should exist in a 32 or 64 bit version of Freedos supporting most of the popular network cards. A 32 or 64 bit Freedos that can simulate a 16 bit DOS environment where there is standard well supported virtual hardware is a thought. Think virtual printers for WordPerfect 6.0 that the standard install disks provide drivers for. On the subject of word processing, it would be nice if Freedos could run a WordPerfect equivalent program that is licensed under the GPL. I'm thinking the goal for protected mode Freedos that is 32 or 64 bit should be providing a hypervisor to run multiple instances of 16 bit Freedos or even Linux instances. I think 32/64 bit Freedos should be the minimum that is needed to provide hardware protection, memory management, etcetera. After all, DOS systems are supposed to be simple, light, and really fast. Why Freedos? What are the defining reasons and goals for the coming 1.1 release? Except for certain smart phones and other embedded computers, does Freedos really have a niche anymore? Syllable is it's own operating system, but could a 32 bit version of Freedos or even a 64 bit version of Freedos run it under emulation? OpenGL support would be nice, but a 32 bit GUI is needed for that. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get a FREE DOWNLOAD! and learn more about uberSVN rich system, user administration capabilities and model configuration. Take the hassle out of deploying and managing Subversion and the tools developers use with it. http://p.sf.net/sfu/wandisco-d2d-2 _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
