@freedosproject@fosstodon.org
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freedosproject

@freedosproject@fosstodon.org

FreeDOS is an open source DOS-compatible operating system that you can use to play classic DOS games, run legacy business software, or develop embedded systems. Any program that works on MS-DOS should also run on FreeDOS.

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freedosproject, to random
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"Shareware" did very well in the DOS era. Usually low cost, you could try before you buy. And they encouraged you to share the (original, unregistered) software with others.

My favorites were As Easy As spreadsheet, Galaxy word processor, and of course all the games (so many games!)

What shareware apps did you use?

*Let's focus on applications for this one. We'll ask about games next time.

freedosproject, to random
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https://josem.co/the-beauty-of-finished-software/

I liked this article about Finished Software, and the WordStar example. That was from an era when online updates and patches weren't yet a Thing. Once you shipped that version, that was it.

My favorite Finished Software is As Easy As spreadsheet on DOS. Very solid, no issues.

But I'd say many DOS programs were that way too. What was your favorite Finished Software?

freedosproject, to random
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FYI: I'm in the middle of the website move, and something got stuck.

Right now, you can visit http://www.freedos.org/ and see the new website, but https://www.freedos.org/ (note the "https" instead of "http") is showing an error. So something didn't get updated for https when the move happened.

I have a support ticket open for the site hosting folks to fix this.

freedosproject, to random
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Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! 🎄🎅

freedosproject, to random
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I think some folks here will be interested in this article about 4 retro tools I use all the time for tech writing:

https://technicallywewrite.com/2023/12/18/retrotools

technically we write . com

freedosproject, to random
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Thanks to everyone for joining the FreeDOS virtual get-together today!

We had a small group (probably because of the holidays) but we had a great conversation about the new website, kernel updates, the distribution, and our upcoming 30th anniversary.

freedosproject, to random
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So I also teach this university course about the history of technology, where students also learn how to use spreadsheets.

This semester, some of my students were surprised to learn that (a) spreadsheets existed before Windows 🤨 and (b) even a DOS spreadsheet could do everything we learned on the modern spreadsheets, just differently in some cases.

In this demo, we'll compare LibreOffice Calc on Linux and Quattro Pro on DOS.

https://youtu.be/Z5LXMpcZjEw

freedosproject,
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@brouhaha Yes! I highlighted that to my students and they were surprised

First desktop spreadsheet: VisiCalc on Apple II (1979)

First computer spreadsheet program: LANPAR (1969)

davespice, to random
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Deathmatch DOOM2 running on bare metal FreeDOS @freedosproject using RTL8029 PCI network cards and BNC T-pieces/terminators! Back to the 90s!

A video showing a two player game of DOOM2, the green doom guy appears from the right and fires a rocket towards the screen

freedosproject,
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@davespice Brings back so many memories. My very first job was Unix sysadmin. We used 10base2 thin net for most of our network. Since we were a small company, sometimes I'd help run new lines. Good times. 😎

freedosproject, to random
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ICYMI
SuperIlu has released DosView 1.1 and 1.2, now with support for TIFF and JPEG2000, and 24/32bpp detection (version 1.1) and NetPBM and Sun RAS formats, and added image scaling (version 1.2).

https://github.com/SuperIlu/DosView/releases/tag/v1.2

freedosproject,
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Thanks to SuperIlu for updating DosView with support for GIF, PSD, HDR, and PIC. Also supports dithering and 8bpp mode, and a few bug fixes.

Check out their GitHub to get the new version 1.3.1

davespice, to random
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Hi @freedosproject, for playing classic DOS games, do you have any advice on what's the newest hardware working in DOS for both sound and IPX network? I have some WinXP era machines which I am thinking about installing FreeDOS on but need to think about older still sound and network cards. Thanks! 🙏

freedosproject,
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@davespice I don't know about IPX network hardware options, but try SBEMU to emulate SoundBlaster on modern AC97 sound hardware.

freedosproject, to random
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I'm thinking about doing some videos where I show that yes, you can do the "modern" spreadsheet stuff on classic DOS spreadsheets.

And I do love a good DOS spreadsheet. ❤️🤓

freedosproject,
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*where this comes from:

I sometimes teach university classes, including an "intro to tech" class that includes how to use spreadsheets.

I have some labs I'd like to do with DOS spreadsheets. 😎

freedosproject, to random
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Very exciting news! Dave Dunfield has decided to release the source code of over 40 years' work "in the hopes that others may find it useful or maybe learn a few things." This includes the Micro-C compiler, a very nice C compiler for DOS.

You can find everything on Dave's website.
https://dunfield.themindfactory.com/dnldsrc.htm

The source code license isn't an "OSI open source" license, but aims to release the source code for others to use. Thanks Dave!

freedosproject, to random
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If you missed yesterday's Livestream with about using Linux like Unix from 50 years ago, here's the YouTube video!

https://www.youtube.com/live/FpBnRk8oWLc

freedosproject, to random
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Not FreeDOS, but if you missed Jim's talk yesterday at about history, you can watch Jim do a similar demo as a YouTube Livestream with VCF, at 5:30 US/Central today:

https://youtube.com/live/FpBnRk8oWLc

freedosproject, to random
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I'm excited to speak at the #seagl2023 conference on Friday THIS WEEK!

I'm giving a remote presentation about “Linux like it was 50 years ago” showing how you can use the Linux command line like original Unix.

It's a fun look back, and a reminder of how far we've come.

Session info here:
https://seagl.org/

freedosproject, to random
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Tomorrow I'll be on a panel discussion about teaching with vintage computing. I think you'll like it.

https://vcfed.org/2023/10/18/livestream-talk-10-21-liza-loop-jim-hall-wil-lindsay-byron-stout-on-vcfs-youtube-channel/

Saturday 6:30 Eastern

freedosproject, to random
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The National Day of Writing is this Friday, October 20, so I wanted to share a history video about technical writing on Unix.

This will show up in an article on Technically We Write (dot) Com, but I also wanted to share it here too because I think it's an interesting history of computing.

https://youtu.be/pXmS501wKlU

freedosproject, to random
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It's not FreeDOS, but I think you'll like this article about dot matrix printers.

https://technicallywewrite.com/2023/10/02/dotmatrix

I loved my Epson FX-80. What was your favorite printer of the era?

freedosproject,
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@mmu_man We have several updates planned, including this, coming soon

freedosproject, to random
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https://yeokhengmeng.com/2023/09/hdmi-isa-graphics-card-for-vintage-pcs/

This is pretty cool for retro computing— connect an ISA computer to HDMI 🤩

freedosproject, to random
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FYI: This was our last meeting on BlueJeans. The next meeting will probably be November (not October) and will use a different meeting platform.

Not sure what video meeting platform we'll use - there are a lot of options.

I'll share the planned date in late October so there's plenty of time to plan ahead - but might be mid November, so we can avoid the US Thanksgiving weekend.

freedosproject, to random
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Also on today's call: I'm making a "FreeDOS 2024" calendar, and looking for suggestions of what FreeDOS screenshots to include in it.

(Each month has a different screenshot.)

Any ideas? What screenshots would you like to see on the calendar?

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