About FreeDOS:
FreeDOS is a free DOS-compatible operating system for IBM-PC
compatible systems, made of up many different, separate programs
that act as "packages" to the overall FreeDOS Project. FreeDOS
aims to be a complete, free, 100% MS-DOS compatible operating
system (mostly achieved except Windows compatibility - Windows
standard-mode works on FreeDOS, but 386-mode / WfW 3.11 does
not.) A short list of things possible with FreeDOS today:
* Easy multiboot with Win95-2003 and NT/XP/ME,
* FAT32 file system and large disk support (LBA),
* LFN support (with several tools, and FREECOM (COMMAND.COM)),
* LBACACHE - disk cache (harddisks in CHS and LBA mode, diskette),
* Memory Managers: (HIMEM), (EMM386), UMBPCI, HIMEMX, JEMM386,
JEMMEX,
* SHSUCDX (MSCDEX replacement) and CD-ROM driver (XCDROM.SYS) /
UIDE.SYS,
* CUTEMOUSE - Mouse driver with scroll wheel support,
* FDAPM - APM info/control/suspend/poweroff, ACPI throttle, HLT
energy saving,
* (XDMA.SYS) - (UDMA.SYS) - UIDE.SYS driver for DOS: up to
4 harddisks. UIDE.SYS also supports SATA,
* MPXPLAY - media player for mp3, ogg, wmv... with built-in AC97
and SB16 drivers,
* 7ZIP, INFO-ZIP zip and unzip... - modern archivers are available
for DOS,
* EDIT / SETEDIT - multi window text editors,
* HTMLHELP - help viewer, can read help directly from a zip file,
* PG - powerful text viewer (similar to V. D. Buerg's LIST),
* many text mode programs ported from Linux thanks to DJGPP,
* GRAPHICS - greyscale hardcopy on ESC/P, HP PCL and PostScript
printers,
* NLS Support: Help (" /? ") to the commands can be shown in
different languages (not at all commands),
* etc.
FreeDOS itself has NO graphic user interface (GUI). If you want to
shutdown your computer, simply close the program you are working with
and press the "power off" button.
See also:
http://www.freedos.org
Copyright © 2008 Jim Hall, updated 2011 by W. Spiegl.
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.