Hi Ged, Thank you for the reply. A lot of interesting information there. I have a feeling that you might be close to my age. I am age 68. Having fun playing with DOS and Linux Lite on old hardware. Orson Yancey New Hampshire, USA
On Tue, Sep 24, 2024 at 2:39 PM tsiegel--- via Freedos-user < freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > You could use the open source version of caldera dos (as long as the > customer is the one to install it, then you can provide them fixes if > necessary). > > Or, if you need a commercial offering, PTS dos from paragon has source > code, and it's free to use in any environment, though I can't find any > sort of license file, beyond a readme file that doesn't really give any > information about how to get it up and running. > > It does however come with source, so that's an option as well. > > Both are competitors for MSDOS, and tried to be as compatible as > possible, so you won't have some of the necessary incompatibilities you > get with freedos. > > > On 9/24/2024 4:47 PM, G.W. Haywood via Freedos-user wrote: > > Hi there, > > > > On Mon, 23 Sep 2024, Orson Yancey via Freedos-user wrote: > > > >> ... > >> It would be helpful to novices, like myself, if on the Download > >> FreeDos 1.3 page, if there was a link to some information on how to > >> write images to various media. > > > > Maybe there could be a little bit more in the README included with the > > downloaded archives, but I guess this is the sort of thing which would > > be better on the wiki. As you've probably seen the wiki has been down > > for a couple of months after a spam attack. (Incidentally I'd be very > > happy to help if anyone wants to drop me a line about it. The message > > might be rejected, but don't worry - I'll still see it.) > > > >> It would be helpful to have a compiled list of many programs that > >> could be used to write images of FreeDOS to various media, i.e. to > >> CD/DVD, flash drives (USB Sticks), and diskettes. > >> ... > > > > I'd be surprised if there weren't already something along those lines > > in the wiki but my feeling is that any such list is likely to be what > > they call 'brittle', in that new utilities appear and old ones become > > outdated/forgotten/unsupported, no matter whether they're commercial > > or open source. Far better in my view would be something explaining > > what's involved in the process of writing a boot device and how to go > > about searching for tools which can do that. Sure, there's no reason > > to forbid making a list of well known tools in the wiki - for example > > it's hard to imagine that 'dd' will go away anytime soon - but it's > > much better to understand what you're doing than to point and shoot > > while following some recipe. If something goes wrong when you're in > > the middle of a complex recipe and you don't understand what's going > > on, then short of starting from scratch with the same recipe, which > > may fail again, you have little chance of recovering without help. > > > >> These image programs could be listed by which operating systems the > >> image writing programs run under, listing from Windows 2000 to the > >> latest version Windows. > > > > And Windows 95. :) And MacOS, Linux, and FreeBSD, and ... :) > > > >> I do understand that Rufus is big in the Linux community ... > > > > I've been using Linux for decades but until reading your message I'd > > never heard of Rufus, so I searched for it. I don't know if the Rufus > > that I found is the one you mean, but the one I found is Windows only: > > > > > https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ#user-content-Do_you_plan_to_port_Rufus_to_LinuxMac_OSSome_other_OS > > > > > > I'm not saying that the Rufus I found is no use, but it's no use to me > > because it's generally trivial to write an image to a boot device on a > > Linux box. While it's probably a little less trivial to produce that > > image in the first place, for FreeDOS images somebody did it for you. > > Oh - please let me take this opportunity to shout "THANKS!" for that. > > > >> I have not been able to determine whether Rufus will write images to > >> diskettes. > > > > What little I read told me it's just USB sticks. In the Linux world > > we're spoilt by having the raw devices exposed in the filesystem, so > > that a simple tool like 'dd' can just write an image to something in > > /dev/ whether it be a floppy, USB stick, SD card, hard disc, whatever. > > There are issues with some of the technologies for optical discs which > > mean that a simple write process isn't sufficient but that's a problem > > with the technology really, not with the OS and tools. Of course the > > tools do exist to write optical devices under Linux, but my DVD writer > > hasn't seen much action since we've had USB sticks of reasonable sizes. > > It's a lot more convenient all round to use flash memory. There are, > > believe it or not, still businesses which use floppies, so I do write > > the odd floppy now and again. Thesedays I mostly use a Greaseweazle. > > I wish forty years ago I'd known even a quarter of what I've learned > > about floppies in the past couple of years. :/ > > > >> Don't laugh, but I have been running only MS-DOS machines and > >> Windows XP machines. > > > > The last Windows version that I worked on for a client was Windows XP. > > > > The client had bought a CNC profiling machine. Think of a thing which > > in about fifteen minutes can cut into little pieces a sheet of steel > > which is ten metres long, three metres wide, and four inches thick. > > Well a couple of years ago they had some problems with it, and called > > me in. Yep, it was running Windows XP. I told them to ask for their > > money back (about a hundred grand) but the supplier already went bust. > > > > Imagine some kid using a CNC plasma cutter to write rude words in four > > inch plate. A couple more rules in their firewall ensured that XP at > > least couldn't talk to the internet any more. Then I reinstalled it. > > Production resumed. Nobody laughed. Well... a couple of the guys on > > the shop floor did, but nobody who could sign a cheque. > > > >> ... in the process of setting up some Linux machines. I hope to > >> soon have Linux Lite and MX linux running on some early Pentium IV's. > > > > > https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/09/hacker-boots-linux-on-intels-first-ever-cpu/ > > > > > > :) > > > > Kudos to you for not wasting old tech, but Linux won't run on 32 bit > > CPUs for ever. My desktop Linux box has been running on RPi for some > > years. I use a remote machine for hosting my home directory, so my > > desktop is totally silent and it uses, oh, about ten watts. > > > >> ... would like to run FreeDOS over the long term. > > > > It seems like you and I are starting the FreeDOS journey at around the > > same time. I've used it just a few times in the last twenty years for > > odd jobs but I've been very cautious about using it for anything which > > involves making money. I support businesses which use MS-DOS machines > > to run their day-to-day operations and I'm absolutely terrified of the > > potential to screw up an entire business by something like changing an > > operating system from MS-DOS to FreeDOS for no good reason. However, > > there might be a good reason coming up soon and I need to prepare for > > that if it happens. Basically I'm running out of old machines but one > > of the less old machines won't run the software I want it to run and I > > don't know why. I also need to handle PCI expansion cards more sanely > > e.g. for serial ports. Debugging MS-DOS without the source isn't my > > idea of a useful way of spending what little time I have left on this > > planet so I want to use FreeDOS with my DOS software. That will mean > > quite a lot more education for me (and probably some sleepless nights, > > but I'm only really happy when I'm learning:). > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user >
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