Message-ID: <015001c0768d$3ccb5a00$027efea9@c6d3n3> From: "Matthias Paul" To: References: <01FD6EC775C6D4119CDF0090273F74A4021EA4 AT emwatent02 DOT meters DOT com DOT au> Subject: Some thoughts at the beginning of a new year Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 21:27:37 +0100 Organization: Rechenzentrum RWTH Aachen MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by nets5.rz.rwth-aachen.de id f04KV2m17643 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by delorie.com id PAA32339 Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com Hi all, First, I´d like to wish everyone listening to this forum a happy New Year. Given the long silence after my (rather pessimistic) "essay" in the past millenium, I am assuming that you either were shocked by my provocating statements or just by the fact how much the average consumers´ privacy is confined already - often even without their knowlegde and explicit consent (when speaking particularly of Internet users using Windows, default settings are just soooo convenient to leave them as they are: Ever wondered what this nice sounding "Control panel"->"Internet options"->"Extended properties"->"Enable profile assistant" actually does? Knowing the side-effects of the Internet search function in the toolbar, and web-based auto-link-completion?... ;-> Well, I know, most of you are experienced to avoid such issues, so this probably does not apply to you (we use DOS, don´t we?!? ;-), but I guess the sad story is the majority of PC users today has literally windows and gates (so to speak ;-) open to abuse, providing info to interested parties in the hidden "public" they would not even tell their neighbours... So, maybe there´s a slight hope, that the silence was because you all feel similary threated by the mentioned combination of closed-sourced technologies & sometimes strange ideologies, in a world which is moving faster every day, where short term issues count and only money seems to talk any more, and - even more important IMHO - that the consequences of using some of the key technologies are unfortunately no longer fully understood by most, probably due to lacking higher technical (and social???) education, paired with marketing controlled Zeitgeist ("fun generation") and simple minded or even blind belief in technology, and last but not least by intended obfuscation on the other side (with sometimes only marginally developed humanitarian conscience). Who takes the responsibility? But fortunately there are alternatives (there always are, if one takes the time to look for them). (Ironically, having said this, I´m "accidently" sitting on a Windows box with Outlook Express, once more my impression is: pretty at the first glance, but with no real substance. And, yes, I´m already close to ruining my eyes and getting sado-maso phantasies due to missing essential features and its many unergonomic design details... ;-> Know your enemy, it seems... ;->) We have Linux and GNU software, which is driven by alternatives and is evolving faster than ever thought, and we still have DOS, which is still powerful and - with the right tools in reach (like, to mention some of my personal favorits, the 4DOS command shell, the DOS Navigator file manager, the TSE & QEDIT editors, the EmTeX word processing/publishing system, the Arachne web browser, FreeKEYB keyboard driver & console extension) - convenient enough for many task, but, although far from being "dead", unfortunately is (and will be) more and more stagnating - until either the FreeDOS kernel will become much better than it already is, or the more or less complete sources of a commercial DOS like the technical superior DR-DOS would be opened up to let the community continue what was started 25 years ago and brought forward over the years by a group of brilliant developers (and some visionars) at Digital Research, Novell, Caldera, and other parties. However, the backbone of a community as we need it are many people who are willing to support such a project in every possible manner (not only in this forum) by providing expertise, infra-structure, time, good will and an open mind mixed with some sort of evangelism and the necessary persistence, and, yes, sometimes money (to grease the "interface" to the outer world ;-). Personally, I am seeing a possible DOS (and thereby DR-DOS) future in the following areas. Well, rather unsorted, but I´d still like to hear *your* estimation: - (for up to 10 years and longer) Low footprint and fast OS in many kind of x86-based embedded systems (especially if the kernel would be made even more configurable and modular - it currently requires 128 Kb to boot - and if the multitasker would get better real-time functionality. Also helpful would be improved serial communication support under TASKMGR.) - (for max. 5 years) Advanced file by file replacements for similar files and tools in other DOSes, Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2K, or OS/2 (way too many ideas to list here, but the approach is "best of all worlds") - Various kernel improvements (too much too list, but besides others these things are on my wish list to better support current systems: 64-bit LBA, FAT32, LFN support [a) native VFAT compatible plug-in *and* b) a loadable "transparent" virtual FS model to work seamless with other DOSes, e.g. using 4DOS DESCRIPT.ION files to store the info instead of polluting the directory entries], full DOS 7.10 API plus extensions, improved memory management. (Now, that Microsoft is finally dropping DOS, this also has something for good: 100% compatibility, which often prevented brighter solutions, is no longer the top issue. Once having laid a rock-solid base developing a DOS 7.10 compatible OS, we would be free to design and implement the final "DOS 9" according to our own wishes.) If the kernel should still be useable on *new* *desktop* hardware as a *native* OS in a few years, USB, Firewire etc. support will be required, as the traditional PC architecture is beginning to die out, no ISA slots, no DIN or PS/2 keyboards, no traditional I/O ports (gate A20), no serial & parallel ports, no traditional video hardware, no floppies. Even the CPU´s Real Mode might be going sooner or later. On such machines, DOS may continue to run only in emulated environments such as under DOSEMU, not as a native OS any more. (The kernel itself is relatively save because it has some sort of "hardware abstraction layer" (no virtualization, of course), but the memory managers and some of the disk tools would require massive changes, as they are often directly accessing hardware. Although a new "32-bit" DOS could be made compatible with existing software, the current situation does not justify such a effort IMHO. The alternative is running DOS under Linux, and Linux to be made much easier and flexible to configure and use.) However, there are (and will be) still myards of older systems using the traditional PC architecture, fast enough to fulfill their tasks, not to speak of embedded x86 boards, which will remain available for the long term. - (for max. 5 years due to the mentioned hardware changes ahead) "OS independent" boot floppy (e.g. things like Ontrack´s Easy Recovery, Storagesoft´s ImageCast, StarTools´ disk tools etc.) and recovery BIOS use (e.g. IBM´s DFT or new "dual-BIOS" features). - (at least for 10 to 15 years) Compatibility box under Linux This could evolve into some kind of general "Legacy Platform" for all kind of ancient software (including emulators for long forgotten systems of the "home computer" era) and important data files from the past three decades. (With multi-user support and some handy COMMAND.COM extensions for improved Unix support at the DOS prompt. Also interesting: Advanced NLS sub-system to provide limited Unicode support to DOS and bring in all the code pages found in other OSes, including the ISO, Windows, and Mac code pages.) Some of these paths may be commercially viable, others are definitely not, but would still be useful for convenience, flexibility, compatibility, or just to hold up the decreasing acceptance of DOS in the mainstream (every user counts). However, without publically available sources, all this is just wishful thinking (at least for DR-DOS). Let´s hope, this year will bring some changes, and things around DR-DOS will start moving again... (No need to be idle until than, help supporting FreeDOS and Linux meanwhile!!! This will indirectly also help DR-DOS.) In closing, I´d like to wish you all good default settings... ;-> Matthias BTW. Without being able to promise anything because of the applying legal restrictions as well as obvious limited resources on my end of the wire, I would personally appreciate to receive all your detailed bug and problem reports regarding *any* issue of DR-DOS (for example, those you might once have sent to Caldera or Lineo), (realistic) feature and usability suggestions, etc... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Matthias Paul, Ubierstrasse 28, D-50321 Bruehl, Germany http://www.rhrz.uni-bonn.de/~uzs180/mpdokeng.html -----------------------------------------------------------------