| Connect jimfhall
Minnesota
Jim Hall is an open source software advocate and developer, best known for usability testing in GNOME and as the founder + project coordinator of FreeDOS. At work, Jim is CEO of Hallmentum, an IT executive consulting company that provides hands-on IT Leadership training, workshops, and coaching.
Authored Comments
This is a wonderful article! I am an occasional adjunct professor teaching CSCI Usability of Open Source Software, and your article is *exactly* what we cover in the first week: what is "Free software" and what is "Open source software."
I may link to this article the next time I teach the class.
DOSBox is a good system too. But I think of DOSBox as being just for games.
DOSBox provides a great platform if you just want to run games. It's not great for doing other work in a DOS environment. On their wiki, DOSBox says "DOSBox also comes with its own DOS-like command prompt. It is still quite rudimentary and lacks many of the features found in MS-DOS, but it is sufficient for installing and running most DOS games."
With FreeDOS and a PC emulator you can do more than just play games. We've added more features in FreeDOS than what classic "DOS" provided, while remaining compatible with DOS. The FreeDOS "Base" includes those programs and utilities that replace the original MS-DOS behavior. Our other packages include compilers / software development, editors, archivers, music players, text processing, and other things that make FreeDOS more than just "DOS." We also have games.