The system was created as a full-fledged alternative to the existing MS-DOS, which is distributed under a paid license. The development of the Free DOS project began back in 1994, but the system was released in a stable version 1.0 only in 2006. The OS is free and can be run on almost any new and outdated equipment, as well as using emulators to run the necessary applications under DOS. The system code is open, which means, if desired, it can be modified by any developer to suit his own needs.
Usage
Today, the system in version 1.1 can be downloaded from the official website of the developers as a CD image for installation. The system is used by computer and laptop manufacturers as a free alternative to MS-DOS and other products from Microsoft, which can significantly increase the cost of a particular device, which as a result can negatively affect equipment sales. Dell, HP and ASUS provide users with the opportunity to buy computers running FreeDOS.
Characteristics
The OS runs on the FAT32 file system. It supports all basic file operations that are available in other operating systems. Free DOS also supports opening archives (ZIP, 7-ZIP), editing text documents using additional programs, viewing HTML pages, working with mouse pointers with a scroll wheel. Another feature of Free DOS is a large number of programs ported from Linux. The system has its own browser, BitTorrent client and even anti-virus software.
Free DOS supports work with any modern computer that supports x86 architecture. In this case, the device must have a volume random access memory at least 2 MB, and system installation may require about 40 MB. The system can be launched not only after installation, but also through virtual machines (for example, VirtualBox), which can be installed on standard Windows, Linux or Mac. It is also possible to launch the system directly in the browser window using a Java emulator, which is available for download from the developer’s official website. To directly install Free DOS on your computer, just download latest version system and burn it to a blank CD, then restart the computer and boot from the disk.
On the shelves of many IT stores you can often see modern laptops and desktop computers with a DOS system. Despite the fact that DOS has long since sunk into oblivion, many hardware manufacturers still prefer to install it on their devices.
For the sake of fairness, it is worth noting that they no longer install MS DOS, but its free, open-source analogue Free DOS. The days of DOS passed twenty years ago, but despite this, Free DOS is kept up to date and the last stable release was on December 25 of this year, right before the New Year.
Its main advantages are low system requirements (up to 640KB of RAM) and single-tasking mode, which exclusively allocates all system resources to one task, which is useful for low-level programs and embedded solutions.
DOS is used mainly for running old hardware and old programs, for highly specialized devices, for restoring hard drives (MHDD, Victoria, HDD Regenerator programs) and for flashing the BIOS. But why install it on the latest Nvidia video cards?
So why does Free DOS appeal so much to laptop manufacturers? For free? Is it quick to install? Not demanding on resources? Or maybe they have problems with the BIOS and hard drive? And they decided to install DOS with a bunch of system programs so that it would be convenient for the buyer to reflash the BIOS?
Yes, there is just a FreeDOS prompt line, clearly indicating the complete absence of autoexec.bat and config.sys, necessary to run any drivers. But sometimes there is not even a prompt line, just a request to enter the date and time, as before the first launch of DOS.
Despite the highly specialized areas of application, I will try to install it on a desktop that requires movies, music and the Internet.
IN new version we are promised simplified tools for accessing the Internet, a package manager, updated versions of programs and a new installer that greatly simplifies installation
The FreeDOS distribution is distributed in five versions:
Standard installer: CDROM "standard" installer
Legacy installer: CDROM "legacy" installer
Boot floppy (use with CDROM)
Full installer for USB flash drives"Full" installer
LiveUSB with Live "Lite" installer
I chose the iso image with the standard installer, it takes about 450MB.
DOS can be installed using a simple command on LiveCD
Sys.com C: But in order not to install all the drivers and programs manually, we will run an automatic installer with a full set of programs.
Test computer:
Lenovo t60 laptop
Processor Intel Core2 1.7
Video: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS
Audio: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
Ethernet: Intel Corporation 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Memory 3GB
Disk partition: ~1GB
DWDRW drive and hard drive via IDE to USB adapter
The ISOLINUX bootloader menu has opened
Next, drivers and installer scripts are loaded
We press F5 to stop booting and exit to DOS or press F8 to cancel individual functions. At the end of the download, the installer got stuck on receiving packages from the CD
Later it turned out that DOS only supports IDE/SATA, and I have a USB CDROM. Moreover, this applies not only to FreeDos, but also to MSDos. In this case, the only thing left is manual installation, but I decided to take the path of least resistance and install DOS on the system partition via the KVM emulator
Select the installer language. There is no Russian here, but there is Esperanto
We are warned that the installer will overwrite the Windows bootloader. We can refuse and return to Dos to perform the installation manually or click Yes, but then we will have to restore the NTLoader (Windows loader). You can restore NTLoader by loading the Windows installation CD and running the fixmbr or Bootrec command there with the /FixBoot parameter.
Disk C: is not partitioned, do you want to partition it? Yes
Then DOS fdisk opened and I had to remember my hundred years of experience working with this tool
You must reboot the system for the changes to take effect. Any disks you created or modified must be formatted after rebooting. Press Esc to exit Fdisk
After changing partitions, DOS must be rebooted. We need to press Esc, after which the computer will reboot and we will need to load the CDROM again and go through all the previous installation steps. We will not go through the disk partitioning again, since the disk is already partitioned.
Drive C: is not formatted, do you want to format it? Yes
Selecting a keyboard layout
What packages do you want to install?
Basic packages only
Basic source packages
Full installation
Full installation with sources
We will choose a full installation to immediately install the graphical shell, DOSNavigator and network support
Installation completed! Do you want to reboot?
We answer positively and after 5 seconds the bootloader menu opens. We are offered to choose a memory expander, boot without drivers or secure boot (just like in Windows). You can also enable step-by-step downloading to confirm or cancel the download of each component.
The file C:\fdconfig.sys is responsible for displaying this menu
Press Enter and get this desktop:
At the top there is a message that the DVD driver is not loaded, but the USB mouse and Russian keyboard layout work with right Ctrl switching
Checking the layout:
This issue is easily solved by the old program, developed back in the USSR. Just enter the command keyrus.com and there will be no problems with encoding or layout:
Installing packages
First we need to install some Commander like NortonWe have an FDOS folder on drive C:
This is an analogue of “Program Files” and in this folder all the programs, including a bunch of Linux programs from the DJGPP project, defragmenters, disk check, USB drivers and mouse driver. There are no file managers, graphical shells, network support or ntfs drivers. All this is on the CD, but for some reason it did not install, although we chose “full installation”.
We have no choice but to go to the working OS and load all these packages onto the DOS partition. And you can download them at
The package manager is very similar to the one in Debian:
- installation: fdnpkg install ..\package.zip
- removal fdnpkg remove ..\package.zip
- search fdnpkg search example
- update fdnpkg update package.zip
- and some other options
Graphic shells
Ozone and GEM are beautiful, but quite buggy and often crash on trivial actions. It is possible to adjust the screen resolution, flicker frequency and color up to 32 bits. The console in Ozone GUI does not always allow you to enter text. They simply refuse to run DOS programs, like Windows3.1.Ozone GUI
Our keyboard settings do not affect shells in any way:
Dos Navigator
Why not Norton Commander5.5?- The free Dos Navigator is much more powerful than the proprietary Norton Commander5.5.
Language support: 
Built-in Tetris game
Lots of possibilities: switching video modes, clipboard, recycle bin, notebook, screensaver, screen screenshot, output window, dos screen.
Built-in calculator:
Multi window mode
You can keep more than two windows
Many built-in applications:
spreadsheet editor, calculator, terminal, advanced disk formatting utility, database viewer, UU encoder/decoder, CD player, phone book. And this is not a complete list.
Support for flash drives and USB hard drives
Flash drives and USB drives open without problems, but only if these devices were connected before loading DOSMy 40 GB hard drive with file system NTFS opened immediately after launching the NTFS driver:
This NTFS driver is completely free and included in the FreeDOS distribution.
Movies and games
Mplayer is probably the only video player for DOSC:\mplayer video.avi
It plays without any brakes, but displays squiggles on the screen over the movie:
This can be fixed by redirecting the output to a file:
C:\mplayer video.avi >>1.txt
The video plays, but there is no sound.
The command is written in the autoexec.bat file
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 T6
But if there is no sound, then the problem is in the driver. One driver writes that HD Audio is not supported, although it is designed for NM10/ICH7 (I have an Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)) and was released in 2009:
The other driver doesn't work either:
I don't even know what to do. I've searched the entire Internet - there is no Intel HD Audio driver for Dos anywhere.
Games
FreeDoom is one of the few 3D games in the FreeDOS package database
Internet access
There is a DOS driver, but it is needed for 82573LI tried to run this driver - it does not display an error, and the dhclient ported from Linux does not see anything. Microsoft Network Client 3.0 loaded this driver, but crashed with an error.
Conclusions...
Beautiful graphical shells fall out during trivial actions. USB-CDrom is not supported, but USB drives with the NTFS file system, USB mice and keyboards work fine. Sound and network adapters from 2007 are not supported, so it is not possible to listen to music and access the Internet on a ten-year-old computer in this OS.
If I made a mistake and configured something incorrectly, I will be very grateful and grateful for your help!
To say that MS-DOS is not in fashion today would be an understatement. And yet, on many computers that are simply physically unable to work normally under even the oldest versions of Windows, thousands of copies of this operating system work properly.
If this fact surprises you (it’s the twenty-first century - what, is there still DOS here?!), then think about those computers that control, for example, various measuring installations or even production systems. By and large, if everything works fine, then such an installation does not need Windows, since the work of transferring specific software to a new platform can be completely unprofitable in economic terms. At the same time, computers need updating from time to time. With new hardware, DOS may simply not want to work. And then FreeDOS comes to the rescue - modern operating system, which is 100% compatible with old MS-DOS.
Another area of application for FreeDOS is all sorts of newly developed embedded solutions. No matter how much Linux fans talk about the undemanding nature of their favorite OS in terms of resources, very few could compete with FreeDOS in this regard. This OS will also be more than useful in creating “rescue” floppy disks, which can be useful in emergency situations for almost everyone And, of course, FreeDOS is also famous for the fact that it allows buyers of laptops who do not need licensed Windows Vista to save money by purchasing laptops with FreeDOS installed by the manufacturer.
In general, the benefits of FreeDOS as an operating system, I think, are quite obvious. Now we can talk in more detail about what exactly it is. But first, it’s worth mentioning that FreeDOS has its own official website www.freedos.org, where you can not only download this operating system, but also find out details about it.
The history of FreeDOS began back in 1994, when Microsoft announced that it did not intend to further develop and sell the MS-DOS operating system. Unfortunately, today the development of the FreeDOS OS itself is also, to put it mildly, not impressive at a fast pace - the latest version numbered 1.0 was released in 2006.
So, what can you still work with after installing FreeDOS? Almost everything, with some exceptions, of course. Let's start with the file system. Only FAT32 support built into the OS is fully implemented. If you want to work with NTFS, Ext2 and other file systems, you will need to use third-party tools - in the case of NTFS this could be, for example, NTFSDOS, which is probably known to some readers of Computer News. The situation is approximately the same with USB devices: you can work with them either using similar utilities, or using BIOSes, the developers of which came to the aid of users of operating systems like FreeDOS that cannot work with USB ports. This way, at least, you can work with USB keyboards and mice.
Why, you might ask, is there a mouse in DOS? Firstly, there are many programs where a mouse can be very useful (take, for example, the same graphic editors and various toys). Secondly, for FreeDOS there is even several graphical shells. They will be very useful for creating "emergency" disks. Of course, you can limit yourself to pseudo-graphics and burn onto a disk, for example, Norton Commander or one of its analogues. But the graphical shell is for those spoiled by modern "axes" " still looks much more preferable to users. Among the most frequently recommended graphical shells for users for FreeDOS are SEAL () and Shane Land OpenGEM (gem.shaneland.co.uk). Personally, SEAL seems more attractive to me, although, of course, it’s a matter of taste don't argue.
It must be said that FreeDOS, while professing full compatibility with MS-DOS, refuses much of what could make this OS an even more interesting option for embedded systems. But another OS is moving in this direction (or rather, unfortunately, it’s better to say that it was moving) - FreeDOS-32. Her website “lives” at . FreeDOS-32, unlike “regular” FreeDOS, operates in 32-bit protected mode, and therefore requires at least a 386th processor, but at the same time maintains a single-threaded operating mode and continues to provide the programs it executes with full access to system resources . It is, of course, up to you to decide which is more suitable - FreeDOS or FreeDOS-32.
Well, for the first acquaintance with FreeDOS there is enough information. I hope this acquaintance will be fruitful and interesting for you, and all problems that arise will be easily resolved after reading the documentation on the official website of the project.
DOS... Pure DOS filled the screen with a black veil.
The mouse... The mouse suddenly became square and lost its shape.
I broke a window... Windows... Hateful, damned window.
I installed DOS and then I saw - this is happiness, here it is!
Modern operating systems require more and more resources: RAM, disk space, CPU speed... Old computers have to be simply thrown away, and even units with Pentium or Pentium II processors with 14-15” monitors are practically worthless today. It is especially a pity to part with laptops with i386 and i486 processors, which are no worse than modern PDAs, but it is unlikely that you will be able to add memory to them in order to run a more or less modern operating system of the Windows family.
Is all this mind-blowing computing power really necessary? to the average user, which, in fact, only wants to access the Internet, send email, edit texts, listen to music and play simple computer games from time to time? And is it worth switching to new technologies, where the speed and reliability of a computer largely depend on the power of the power supply and the efficiency of the cooling system, and the difference between old and new versions of programs is often clear only to specialists?
Disk Operating System (DOS)
Question: How many Microsoft employees does it take to change a burnt out lamp?
Answer: None, since Microsoft standardizes darkness in such cases!
Joke
Quite recently, as it sometimes seems, that is, literally some 10-15 years ago, most users had the MS-DOS operating system on their personal computers. This system was quite simple and quite suitable for many purposes, and for some applications it was even optimal! By the way, many specialized programs did not gain anything fundamentally from the transition to new operating systems and increased power, but, on the contrary, lost in the convenience of the interface (which had to be standardized) and ease of development.
The main advantage of DOS (as well as the main disadvantage) is its close interaction with the hardware. Operating systems of the Windows family, as well as various variations of UNIX-like systems, are still fenced off from the hardware with a number of standardized high-level interfaces and, rising above the hardware, often complicate working with it, which is inconvenient, in particular, for developers of any non-standard equipment. DOS encourages you to interact with the hardware directly. For example, easy access to hardware allows you to work with disks at the physical level, which means you can organize copying of partitions regardless of the types of their logical formatting. However, there are also various pitfalls that lead to collisions when working in this operating system with careless programming. In general, the DOS system required programmers to be careful, and in this case the programs worked with maximum efficiency. Hundreds of thousands of programs were written for DOS, and some of them have no analogues in other operating systems and, perhaps, never will. In addition, the hardware requirements for running DOS were minimal.
However, in the mid-90s, Bill Gates said: “DOS is dead.” Indeed, after the release of MS Windows 95 and the first versions of Linux, it became obvious that the days of DOS as a mass operating system were numbered. And although theoretically DOS will still find use in cheap solutions for the creation of electronic microprocessor systems for a long time (some variants of DR-DOS and PTS-DOS have ROM versions, and there are also special ROM versions of systems such as Datalight ROM-DOS and General Software DOS-ROM for technical applications), these applications are very narrow and are unlikely to support the existence of similar operating systems in the future.
Keys for editing commands in DOS
With the beginning of the 21st century, the last commercial versions of DOS ceased to exist. The last version of IBM PC-DOS was dated 2000 (it sold for $60), and the last one was released at the same time full version PTS-DOS (this is a domestic development by Phystech-Soft). In the version of PTS-DOS, released in 2002, support for FAT32 and working with large amounts of memory appeared, but some useful utilities that were not adapted to the mentioned support disappeared. The latest version of DR-DOS 8.0 (with support for FAT32 and long filenames) dates back to 2004 (it sold for $40). By the way, now this system is called Caldera OpenDOS, it is distributed free of charge as part of the Open Source project (that is, the source texts of this system are available), and you can download it at: http://www.opendos.de/download/.
Finally continues to exist free version FreeDOS is also open source, but it is rather a public project of enthusiasts scattered around the world. The latest version of this OS appeared in 2003, but since various parts of FreeDOS are developed independently, it is still more reminiscent of Linux than DOS in its classic form (in particular, the complete installation of this system is an equally difficult operation). However, none of the alternative systems is 100% compatible with MS-DOS, and FreeDOS has the most problems with compatibility. It turns out that the best DOS is still the “dead” MS-DOS. Officially, the last version of MS-DOS was version 6.22 from 1994, but MS-DOS versions 7.x existed alongside Windows 95/98/Me - they could be separated from the Windows shell and used separately.
However, every year the problem of driver support for new hardware becomes more acute - we are talking primarily about USB devices, DVD-R/RW drives, etc. A similar problem exists for network protocols and new data formats.
Liberated DOS
The hard drive grunted, and the iron quietly rustled under the table.
Loaded immediately. Hey, let's see what it's worth!
Get out of DOS and use your head better!
Look for yourself: DOS is not a fairy tale, it’s true, he’s with you!
In recent years, some excellent programs for DOS developers have become freely available, including the Watcom C, C++, and Fortran compilers (the famous high quality generated codes); Borland Turbo C; Free Pascal (fully compatible with Borland Pascal and partially compatible with Delphi); the excellent, fast-growing macro assembler FASM (the code it generates is of higher quality than some of the currently known commercial assemblers), as well as Internet browsers such as Arachne and Bobcat. And thanks to the DJ Delorie system, almost all basic Linux tools (gcc, g++, gdb, bash, grep, etc.) are available for DOS.
Working with USB under DOS
Tears on the glasses... Strange glasses, or maybe they are tears on the face?
DOS cleared everything! Everything that was superfluous was on my “C” drive.
I pressed “F8”, and the cheerful “Norton” deleted everything for me:
Forty megabytes, maybe more... maybe even sixty...
Using a USB disk (flash drive) as a boot disk (see the article “The Many Faces of USB Flash Drives”) provides an interesting opportunity: if you distribute some program on such a disk along with DOS, then it can be used on any computer, regardless of the installed operating system system on the hard drive (for this, however, it is necessary that the motherboard BIOS supports booting from USB devices).
However, not all motherboards support booting from USB drives (and if they do, then on computers with a processor no lower than a Pentium III), and in the days of DOS there was no support for USB Flash Drive at all. Therefore, even if you just want to read from a flash drive under DOS (for example, by booting from an emergency floppy), you will need special drivers for this, which were written much later than the period of active use of DOS.
There are several similar drivers for supporting USB devices, written by various companies for their own purposes, since there are no basic means of supporting USB devices in any alternative DOS system, even in FreeDOS. The most popular drivers are from the Japanese company Panasonic (Matsushita), and although the company wrote them for its devices, the drivers turned out to be universal and work with most USB drives that meet the UHCI- (old USB 1.x devices) or OHCI- ( next-generation USB 1.x devices, where work is carried out not through I/O ports, as before, but through memory areas, which is faster), or, finally, the EHCI standard (USB 2.0). Panasonic drivers are 16-bit and work with any version of DOS.
To support USB drives, you first need an ASPI driver, which retains its name from Advanced SCSI Programming Interface. The main driver is the file USBASPI.SYS (Panasonic v2.06 ASPI Manager for USB mass storage), which you must copy to the system floppy disk and call when loading DOS from config.sys with the following line:
DEVICE=USBAPSI.SYS /v /w /e /noprt /norst
In this case, the /v (Verbose) parameter means using the detailed device information display mode, and the /w (Wait) parameter will stop booting until the device is connected to the USB connector and the Enter key is pressed.
In addition to these parameters, USBASPI.SYS has others. The general call line would look like this:
DEVICE=USBASPI.SYS ] /r]
However, all other parameters, except for the aforementioned /v and /w, are of little interest and their default values can be used. If you have any problems recognizing a USB device, you can try using other parameters. So, sometimes the /noprt switch helps. Note that the /l[=n] parameter explicitly specifies the logical unit number (LUN), so setting it can speed up boot time (n = 0 by default). In addition, sometimes it is useful to explicitly specify the USB specification (/e is EHCI; /o is OHCI; /u is UHCI).
Thus, if the USBASPI.SYS driver recognizes your USB device, it will provide it with an ASPI interface. However, in order to access a USB device from DOS, you will also need the DI1000DD.SYS (ASPI mass storage driver) disk driver from Novac, which will assign the corresponding letter to this USB device among other drives (for some reason This driver is called Motto Hairu USB Driver by the manufacturer). In the config.sys file you should write it as a separate line:
Panasonic's USB package also includes the RAMFD.SYS file, which creates a RAM disk and copies the entire boot floppy disk onto it to speed up work under DOS.
In addition, the package contains special drivers USBCD.SYS, which allow you to connect external CD drives with a USB interface.
The corresponding lines in the config.sys file of your boot floppy should look something like this:
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=DI1000DD.SYS
DEVICEHIGH =USBCD.SYS /d:USBCD001
If you have a CD drive with a USB interface, then you need to add the following lines to the autoexec.bat command file:
REM Mounting USB CD-ROM
LH MSCDEX /d:USBCD001
Now, even if you don’t want to work under DOS, but are just going to boot from an emergency floppy, make a backup copy hard drive to a USB drive using the Paragon Drive Backup program, copy the system disk using the Powerquest Drive Image program, or use Norton Ghost tools, then you can do this by loading the appropriate drivers for USB Flash Drive support under DOS.
Difficulties in using Panasonic drivers may arise when using EMM386.EXE (memory manager under DOS). If you are experiencing a mapped memory error, you will need to disable EMM386.EXE loading or use USB drivers from other companies. In addition, it may happen that your flash drive may not be correctly recognized by the USBASPI.SYS driver or that the DI1000DD.SYS driver will report incorrect data in the boot sector of the USB drive - in these cases, you can try preparing the flash drive directly in DOS: run, for example, the fdisk.exe program, create a primary DOS partition on a flash drive and format it in FAT. However, some flash drives cannot be formatted, as after this they may not work correctly or will no longer be recognized at all. Therefore, before such a procedure, be sure to ask the manufacturer about the possibility of formatting a USB drive and look for a special proprietary utility for this operation. In any case, it's better to try everything first possible drivers and their settings for connecting a USB device in DOS and only then, if none of the methods work, resort to more risky experiments.
In addition to the Panasonic drivers, there are USB drivers from Cypress that work with EMM386.EXE without conflicts, so you definitely don’t need to disable the memory manager (if you need it) in this case. In addition, Cypress DUSE only has the disk driver DUSE.EXE (ASPI mass storage driver), which assigns the corresponding letter to the USB device, so you will still need an ASPI manager: you can take the same USBASPI.SYS described above and replace only the DI1000DD driver .SYS to DUSE.EXE. The DUSE.EXE driver can be registered in the config.sys file as a device driver (DEVICE), for example:
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
DEVICEHIGH= EMM386.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=USBASPI.SYS /v /w /e /noprt /norst
REM Assigning a letter to the device
DEVICEHIGH= DUSE.EXE
Or you can simply call DUSE.EXE in the command file autoexec.bat as a program using the special loader DUSELDR.EXE:
DUSELDR.EXE A:\ DUSE.EXE
To access the Internet, you can use not only a regular telephone, but also an ADSL modem (naturally, it is better to use an Ethernet modem in router mode), as well as connect via a local network. Let us remind you that DOS does not support networking at the operating system level, so you will need to install the so-called package driver for your network card, which can be taken from the Ethernet card manufacturer’s website.
If a text browser is not enough, then you can install the powerful graphical Web browser Arachne (“spider”), which is launched from the DOS command line (http://www.cisnet.com/glennmcc/arachne/). It's not much more difficult to use than Internet Explorer. To configure the connection, Arachne has a special wizard (PPP Wizard) - almost the same as in Windows programs. “Dialer” Arachne supports the PPP protocol for communication with the provider’s modem and performs automatic authorization (entering login and password).
To connect to the Internet using this wizard, you need to set the following parameters:
- indicate the COM port on which the modem is located and set its interrupt number (if you don’t know this, the wizard can determine where the modem is connected);
- specify the maximum connection speed (Baud Rate);
- set the dialing method for your telephone line (tone or pulse). If you have a tone dial, then select ATDT, if you have a pulse dial, as usual, then ATDP;
- dial a number to reach your Internet provider;
- set a name (login) and password for accessing the Internet;
- explicitly indicate the DNS servers used.
If you correctly answer all these questions to the connection wizard, then accessing the Internet will not be difficult for you, and the page loading speed on a Pentium processor will be no lower than under Windows XP on a Pentium 4. The only inconvenience of this program is that it single-window, that is, you can only visit one site at a time. However, the entire history of your visits is saved, and returning to the previous page is very fast. By the way, to speed up work in Arachne, you should create a RAM disk and define a temporary folder on it (if, of course, you have enough RAM for this):
Graphics pages are displayed quite correctly (VESA resolutions up to 1024S768 in full color mode are supported), graphics load, tables are supported, etc. Moreover, Arachne supports scrolling pages with the mouse wheel: for this you need to use the CTMOUSE mouse driver that comes with Arachne (\SYSTEM\DEVDRVRS directory).
The Arachne program is universal, like Bobcat/Lynx - it includes a PPP dialer, a graphical browser, an email program, and much more. And all this in packaged form takes one megabyte and fits on one floppy disk. To Russify the interface, you need to download a special module (Plug-in) from the site http://386.by.ru - FULLRUS.APM, and to support Russian fonts (encodings) you need the files CP1251.APM and KOI8-R.APM. The PPP wizard, the setup menus, and useful tips etc. Additional modules are installed from a special Arachne installer in the utilities section of the program.
At its core, Arachne is a powerful graphical shell for DOS and has many additional modules and an easily customizable interface. In short, despite the "death" of DOS, the Arachne program continues to improve!
Arachne's low system requirements are also pleasing: it requires an i386 processor, 4 MB of memory, a CGA/EGA/VGA/SVGA video system and only 5 MB of disk space. In addition, for non-commercial use the program is distributed free of charge (freeware).
Thus, Arachne can be configured on a USB flash drive and get a mobile Internet connection that can be used directly from DOS. In addition, other Internet features are available from DOC, such as IRC, ICQ, etc.
Keyboard commands for controlling operations in DOS
A simple IRC client for DOS is Trumpet (http://www.trumpet.com.au) - it is both a newsreader, an IRC client, and an independent “dialer”. There are also ICQ clients for DOS, and one of these programs is implemented by LADsoft as a special module for Arachne - Lsicq (http://members.tripod.com/~ladsoft/lsicq/), which allows you to work with the console chat room simultaneously with browsing web pages. Of course, the browser and ICQ windows are called up in turn, but in one program and with simple switching between them.
Entertainment under DOS
Listening to any music under DOS is not difficult - there are plenty of players written for this operating system. And among them stands out MPxPlay (http://www.geocities.com/mpxplay/) - a unique player for almost any sound files, which continues to be improved to this day (the latest version is dated May 16 of this year). The player provides a standard set of functions, including control using a mouse and keyboard (as well as a joystick or device connected to the serial port), work with playlists, and even has a built-in spectrum analyzer.
Particularly worth noting is the ability of MPxPlay to connect an LCD indicator to a parallel port, which allows you to work even without a video adapter and monitor. MPxPlay allows you to play MP3, MP2 (MPG), OGG, CDW, WAV, MPC and AC3 files. A bootable CD can act as a file storage medium, which eliminates the need for a hard drive and reduces the size and power consumption of a device equipped with MPxPlay. In addition, the program takes up very little disk space and consumes negligible CPU time. The program supports long file names (LFN), performs sound correction and converts files to various formats. MpxPlay is also a CD grabber, which means it allows you to rip tracks from audio CDs and save them in WAV format. The new version provides support for playing MPEGPlus (MPC) files and improved support for the OGG format.
And what is absolutely surprising is full support for playing video discs under DOS (including watching DVD movies). In this area, the most popular player is Quick View Pro (www.multimediaware.com), which impresses with its system requirements and the number of supported graphic and multimedia formats and codecs. The program runs on a computer with an i386 processor, any VGA-compatible video card (preferably VESA-compatible) and the operating system DOS 3.0 or higher. In this case, it is advisable to have a SoundBlaster-compatible sound card.
This program quite successfully plays full-screen movies in MPEG-4 format even on i486 processors, although, of course, to watch movies it is better to use Pentium processors, and on i486 you need to watch movies in black and white or in half resolution. In addition to movies, Quick View allows you to view almost all graphic formats and play music (including MP3).
You can learn how to properly configure this program depending on the configuration of your computer from the very detailed documentation, and there are much more launch keys there than visual settings. In addition, the Quick View interface is very simple and intuitive.
Basic DOS Commands
This company also has an even simpler DOS MPEG and VideoCD player - MPEGone (http://www.multimediaware.com/mpeg/), which works without a graphical interface, launching full-screen playback directly from the command line, and takes up disk space it is a little more than 100 KB.
DOS program archives
Hundreds of thousands of programs have been written under DOS, and enthusiasts still support them and develop new ones. So, on the website of the above-mentioned Bobcat/Lynx developers (http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/) there is a large archive of useful programs and utilities, which contains everything that can be useful for effective work on the Internet. A comprehensive collection of USB drivers and various utilities can be found on the website http://nostalgy.org.ru/.
And if you want to play under DOC, then an archive of old popular computer games is at your service
Good afternoon, dear readers, last time I told you about my experience with a new laptop, or rather, we looked at How to install Windows 7 on an HP 15-ay043ur laptop, today the situation is a little different, let’s assume that for some reason this did not suit you device, and you want to return it to the store, but the problem is that you need to return it to its original state, namely, install freedos on the laptop, since it was there initially, this is what we will do.
Operating system freedos
First, let's figure out what the freedos operating system is > An OS compatible with MS-DOS, completely free, does not have a graphical interface, created in 1994. Such large hardware and computer companies as:
- Lenovo
They install freedos so that when a person buys their laptop, he can choose which operating system he wants to install, since it’s no secret that OEM OSs very often include a bunch of unnecessary software.
Where to download freedos
In order to download the latest version of the freedos system, you need to go to the manufacturer’s official website.
http://www.freedos.org/download/
Currently, the most current version is FreeDOS 1.1 Base.
How to install freedos from a flash drive
In order to be able to install freedos from a flash drive, it is logical that you need to create one; below I will show how this is done in just a couple of minutes. The unetbootin utility will help us with this. Let's launch it.
How to create a flash drive with Freedos
In unetbootin, select the Disk image item and use the button with three dots to indicate the path to the ISO with freedos. I did not use the Distribution item, since it can only download version 1.0, but we can already make version 1.1. We indicate your USB and click ok.
You will begin copying the necessary files, the process is very fast.
You should get
As a result, you will get these directories and files on the flash drive and the freedos operating system in your pocket.
Installing freedos on an HP 15-ay043ur laptop
Let's now figure out how to install freedos on a laptop, select boot from a flash drive for this laptop, to do this, press ESC and then F9 when turning it on, and to see how to set priority in the BIOS, read the link on the left. If you did everything correctly, the freedos operating system will start loading. Select install to harddisk.
The first thing you should do is mark the main partition for installation, press f to launch the FDISK utility.
In the next step, you will be asked if you will use the FAT32 disk format, say Y.
Before the installation of freedos begins, it is logical that you need to look at what you have in your arsenal and where it can be produced. Select item 4 Display partition information
In my case it’s an 8 SB hard drive, which triples me. To return to the menu, press ESC.
Now select 1 item Create DOS partition or logical DOS Drive.
Here you need to create a primary partition; to do this, press 1 and select Create Primary DOS Partition.
Now you will be asked if you are ready to give up the entire section for installation of Fridos, if you agree, then we say Y
If you don’t agree, then wait for N and set the size in megabytes.
We see everything PRI DOS and press esc.
Let's reboot.
All preparatory requirements have been completed and the freedos operating system can be installed. Select Install to harddisk again.
It’s good that now there are flash drives, but before everything was on floppy disks and there was more hassle, so installing freedos on a laptop has become easier. We all press 1 point.
We ask what language it will be, I choose English.
We confirm that we agree to format the main disk.
We write YES and press Enter, formatting to FAT32 begins.
Select Continue with FreeDOS installation
Read the license agreement and click continue.
They will show you the directory where it will be installed
Using the arrow and space keys, select all the items:
Select all items and say proceed with installatin.
The unpacking of the Fridos files begins.
The installation of the Fridos Syslinux boot record begins,
Press any button.
After a couple of pages of black and white comics, select 1 Write FreeDOS specific code to this area so KERNEL,SYS will be loader,
Now select Boot from system harddisk.
And before you, dear comrades, is the freedos operating system, in person. I think it was not at all difficult and even educational, if you think that it is not yet used, then you are mistaken, an example can be
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