The great thing about DOS is that it is basically not an OS, at least in the modern sense. It is little more than a bunch of 16bit routines that allow you to do useful things with hardware, like having a file system and handle some basic I/O.<p>If you have a toy OS project, check it out. Like so many people, I have one, and even though it is a protected mode multiple address space microkernel blahblah one, I not only start it from DOS, I actually still keep DOS running by hosting it inside a vm86 task in the OS. This means I can delegate all the stuff I haven’t bothered implementing, like file system I/O, basic video output and even a whole command shell, to the DOS instance (which is allowed access to the necessary hardware), and I can then focus on writing the parts of the OS that interest me.<p>It transformed an insurmountable project into a small and fun side project.
Intel plans to kill BIOS once and for all starting in 2020. This will make FreeDOS impossible to run on new hardware. Bummer.<p>I often find myself wishing for an OS that takes you right down to the metal like DOS did, but reluctantly, I admit those days are gone as complexity and the need for security increases.
To celebrate, he's answering questions from fans today in various forums...<p><a href="https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/28/1933239/the-slashdot-interview-with-freedos-founder-jim-hall" rel="nofollow">https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/28/1933239/the-slashdo...</a>
Out of curiosity, how does running something like FreeDOS in a VM compare to running something like DOSBox? Does FreeDOS have better compatibility and/or performance?