FreeDOS 1.1 (Software)

We'd like to announce the release of the FreeDOS 1.1 distribution.

What's FreeDOS?

FreeDOS is an opensource operating system aiming to provide the same (or better) functionality as Microsoft's old MS-DOS. Right now the main use is running old games and software, but you might encounter it on some freshly sold computers, motherboard setup CDs, BIOS flashing diskettes, embedded hardware and other uses.

While FreeDOS itself is basicly just the DOS-C kernel as created by Pat Villani, over the years many people have added programs (often licensed as GPL, other times as freeware, public domain or a custom license) to form a distribution so you actually get some additional drivers and programs to run.

What's new since 1.0 (2006):

• FreeDOS kernel 2040 (Bart Oldeman, Jeremy Davis and others. Should fix fat32 file corruption).
• mtcp (Michael Brutman), a suite of high-performance TCP/IP applications for any x86 computer.
• an initial attempt at USB controller support (Bret Johnson). So far only UHCI (Intel/Via USB1.1 12Mb/s & 1.5Mb/s), thus no OHCI (Nvidia etc, 12Mbit/s & 1.5Mbit/s, EHCI (USB 2.0 , 480Mbit/s) and xHCI (USB 3.0 , 5000 Mbit/s)
• generic PCI IDE cache/cdrom driver (Jack R. Ellis) including PIO/UDMA modes for (P)ATA/SATA harddisks and CD.
• new installation menu when starting from CD, intended to reduce amount of menus you have to respond to.

For more details, see www.freedos.org.