Related News###### MS-DOS 4.0 in 1988 is now open source

Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS for short) is the operating system of early personal computers and the basic framework of early Microsoft Windows versions. Some older versions have been released as open source software over the past few years, giving us a better understanding of the history of early computing, and the code for MS-DOS 4.0, which is now released in 1988, has also been published.

Thankfully , its compatibility with MS-DOS games and applications should still be near perfect. This includes Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, earlier versions of Microsoft Word and WordPerfect, Commander Keen, Lotus 1-2-3, Oregon Trail Deluxe, Jill of the Jungle, Duke Nukem, and many other programs.

The announcement article also mentioned: "Some updates are not entering FreeDOS 1.4 version. For example, before the final release of FreeDOS 1.4, some programs released updates, such as the Blocek Text Editor (version 1.76), which was too late to be included. These programs will be included in the upcoming monthly beta release."

Download FreeDOS

You can download FreeDOS on the project's website. Live CD downloads are ideal for installing FreeDOS on virtual machines or hardware, because in addition to installing the program, it also provides a bootable environment for you to try. There is also a USB image for installing FreeDOS on a USB boot-enabled PC.

For older PCs, FreeDOS also has a "LegacyCD" image that uses different boot methods for better compatibility. Finally, there is a "floppy version" that suits 720kB, 1.2MB or 1.44MB floppy disks. This should apply to "any original IBM PC system, including PC, XT, and AT," the project said.

FreeDOS is still a 16-bit x86 operating system, so it can only be booted or virtualized on an x86 PC. If you have a Snapdragon X Elite PC, a Mac with Apple silicon chip, or other non-x86 hardware architecture, you must simulate it using QEMU or other similar tools.

Source: FreeDOS via hackaday

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