Welcome to FreeDOS

OpenGEM GUI running on FreeDOS

• What is FreeDOS?
  FreeDOS is a free DOS-compatible operating system that can be used to play games, run legacy software, or support embedded systems. FreeDOS is basically like the old MS-DOS, but better! For example, FreeDOS lets you access FAT32 file systems and use large disk support (LBA) — a feature not available in MS-DOS, and only included in Windows 95 and newer.
• Is FreeDOS really free?
  Yes, FreeDOS is really free. It doesn't cost anything to download and run FreeDOS. Even better, FreeDOS is open source software; you can view and edit our source code. All FreeDOS programs are distributed under the GNU General Public License ("GNU GPL") or a similar open source license. Because we are open source software, anyone can contribute to it. Even if you don't write code, you can help out the FreeDOS Project by reporting bugs.
• What programs can I run in FreeDOS?
  FreeDOS is a complete, free, DOS-compatible operating system. While we provide our own programs and utilities, you should be able to run any program that was intended for MS-DOS. You can even do networking! However, you may experience problems running Windows on FreeDOS. For example, Windows standard-mode works on FreeDOS, but 386-mode Windows for Workgroups 3.11 does not.
• How do I install FreeDOS?
  To install, simply download the FreeDOS 1.1 CD image. Write this to a blank CD, and boot your computer with it. The automated installer should walk you through the rest. If you need help, please read the FreeDOS Install HOWTO (this is for VirtualBox, but should apply to any PC.)
• What do I need to run FreeDOS?
  FreeDOS should run on any standard PC, although you will need at least an Intel ‘386 or better processor and a CDROM drive if you want to install FreeDOS using our standard CD image. 2MB or more memory recommended for best performance, and 40MB disk space. If you are new to DOS, we recommend you use a PC emulator such as VirtualBox to install and boot FreeDOS. You can find PC emulators for all computer platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac.) You can even run FreeDOS using a PC emulator written in Java, right in your web browser!
• How can I contribute to FreeDOS?
  We welcome new users to FreeDOS. You can contribute to the FreeDOS Project by downloading our latest release and telling us what you think. If you find a problem, please report a bug, to help us improve FreeDOS. By participating in the development and debugging process, you help everyone. Also, consider joining the email lists. If you are a programmer, please also check the software list and see what needs to still be done!

What's New?

FDNPKG 0.91

2012-11-19 9:28 Mateusz Viste released a new version of the FreeDOS Network Packager. FDNPKG v0.91 is a minor update. What's new? - [fix] fixed a memory leak when aborting package installation due to pkgname.lst file access error, - [new] Added support for the FreeDOS NLS system via the Kitten library (and bundled the fdnpkg.en template), - [new] verifying that there is no collision between files in the package to be installed and any already existing local file before actual package installation. Download at: www.viste-family.net/mateusz/software/fdnpkg/

Regina 3.7 (386+)

2012-11-01 10:20 On Oct. 14, Mark Hessling released Regina 3.7, the LGPL'd ANSI Rexx interpreter. Quoting Wikipedia, Rexx "is an interpreted, structured, high-level programming language designed for ease of learning and reading". Changes include: "* Significant performance improvement with LINES BIF on large files, * Significant performance improvement with compound variables with large numbers of tails, * TRACE L now traces internal subroutines called as functions, * Added -o command-line switch to specify OPTIONS, * Update usage from 'rexx -h' and man page, * Implement date separator conversions in DATE BIF as per Object Rexx, * various bugfixes". Grab the DJGPP binary and sources from https://sourceforge.net/projects/regina-rexx/files/regina-rexx/3.7/ or mirrored at www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/devel/rexx/ .

wcd 5.2.3

2012-10-31 8:28 Erwin Waterlander has released wcd 5.2.3 - "Wherever Change Directory," a command line utility that makes it easy to navigate your DOS directories. Wcd has a new optional compact tree mode in which the tree is drawn the same way as in Windows explorer or KDE konquerer. Wcd now compiles with MS Visual C. A few small problems have been fixed. For details, see the announcement at waterlan.home.xs4all.nl/whatsnew.txt - Download at waterlan.home.xs4all.nl/

Doszip 2.37

2012-10-24 12:34 On Oct. 23, nidud updated Doszip to version 2.37. Changes: "- added Window List to Edit (Alt-0), - added direct access to menus using mouse, - fixed memory leak in editor, - fixed bug in file-IO using short file names, - fixed bug in file-IO using long file names, - fixed bug in Setup". Grab binaries and sources at https://sourceforge.net/projects/doszip/ or mirrored at www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/util/file/doszip/ .

UIDE etc. (Oct. 15)

2012-10-24 12:33 On Oct. 15, Jack Ellis again updated his suite of drivers / tools. Changes: "UHDD/UIDE again detect A: and B: diskettes from BIOS data, NOT "Int 13h" calls! See section 7 of their README for details. Other drivers unchanged (re-dated only)." Users of LS-120 drives may wish to upgrade. Grab binaries and sources at johnson.tmfc.net/dos/driver.html or mirrored at www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/cdrom/uide/ .

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