DOS ain't dead

Considering MS-DOS - Part 2 (Users)

posted by paulrichards, 06.08.2011, 04:46

Further to my earlier post ("Considering MS-DOS"), I'm still debating which way to go - FreeDOS or MS-DOS. A few more questions:

(1) while MS-DOS 7.1 and FreeDOS support FAT32 I read somewhere that there may be difficulties booting from FAT32. Is this so? (Apart from any inefficiencies in file storage, I'm unlikely to want a DOS partition > 2GB so, if there are difficulties, FAT16 is fine.)

(2) if dual/triple booting do either or both of the two DOSes have to reside in the first partition on a hard drive or can they be installed following, say, a Windows XP partition (as described here: http://thpc.info/dual/win7/tripleboot_win7+xp+ms-dos710_on_win7.html)?

(3) if there were a particular program available in FreeDOS, but not in MS-DOS, could it be installed in/copied to MS-DOS and be used there?

(4) basic question this - I know MS-DOS 7.1 used portions of 16-bit code for backwards compatibility but is it, and FreeDOS, essentially a 32-bit OS?

In case I didn't make it clear in my earlier post, this investigation of DOS in the 21st centrury is all about 'retro play' i.e it's nothing to do with real work. I like programming using some of the old Borland tools, creating DOS real mode apps, which run fine in DOSBox or an XP NTVDM, but I like the idea of messing around with autoexec.bat and config.sys again - as I said, just play/hobby/interest. Of course, I might use MS-DOS 7.1 and FreeDOS!

TIA

---
Paul
Melbourne, Australia

Complete thread:

• Considering MS-DOS - Part 2 - paulrichards, 06.08.2011, 04:46 (Users)
  • Considering MS-DOS - Part 2 - Rugxulo, 06.08.2011, 05:05
    • Considering MS-DOS - Part 2 - paulrichards, 07.08.2011, 04:58
  • Considering MS-DOG - Part 2 - DOS386, 06.08.2011, 15:00
    • DOS, not DOG - mbbrutman, 06.08.2011, 17:31
    • Considering MS-DOG - Part 2 - paulrichards, 07.08.2011, 05:03
      • Considering MS-DOG - Part 2 - marcov, 07.08.2011, 20:43