DOS ain't dead

On February 16, 2016, ReactOS 0.4.0 (alpha) was released.

Changes: "A much requested feature for ReactOS was support for 16bit DOS applications. On Windows this support is provided by the NT Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM) and the ReactOS implementation of it was first formally released in version 0.3.17. Needless to say since then the ReactOS NTVDM has seen considerable improvement to the point where many of the testers are sharing examples of old DOS games resurrected. And one of the biggest advantages to the way in which NTVDM is implemented in ReactOS is that support for it will continue on non IA-32 platforms, including AMD64 and even ARM."

Website: https://www.reactos.org/

Downloads: https://www.reactos.org/download

Hi all,

i'm intersted to try reactos on a puntium 3 700mhz , but this pc don't have cd rom.
At boot i can choice the use of usb floppy legacy.

How i can install react os with this resources?

Thanks

Roberto

> i'm intersted to try reactos on a puntium 3 700mhz , but this pc don't have
> cd rom.
> At boot i can choice the use of usb floppy legacy.
>
> How i can install react os with this resources?

I don't think you want to, it's not stable enough yet. It's more like an interesting demo than something to use full-time. "Just use Linux (with WINE)!" I didn't mean to get anyone's hopes up falsely.

Not sure if Grub4dos can boot an .iso, I'm not familiar with it, but you can read here, if interested:

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/menu.htm

Thanks for the point.

It is nice to see DOS compatibility will stay alive in Windows, at least under ReactOS.

Also seems that development speed, is now progressing again, after lots of 0.3.x back and forths releases.

> On February 16, 2016, ReactOS 0.4.0 (alpha) was released.
>
> Changes: "A much requested feature for ReactOS was support for 16bit DOS
> applications. On Windows this support is provided by the NT Virtual DOS
> Machine (NTVDM) and the ReactOS implementation of it was first formally
> released in version 0.3.17. Needless to say since then the ReactOS NTVDM
> has seen considerable improvement to the point where many of the testers
> are sharing examples of old DOS games resurrected. And one of the biggest
> advantages to the way in which NTVDM is implemented in ReactOS is that
> support for it will continue on non IA-32 platforms, including AMD64 and
> even ARM."
>
> Website: https://www.reactos.org/
>
> Downloads: https://www.reactos.org/download

---
Visit my personal blog at https://www.javiergutierrezchamorro.com

If you don't have a working CD, try getting an external USB one. I don't think ReactOS support alternative ways of installation and USB support is pretty new so it's questionable if live USB would work on all chipsets.

Good news is it mostly works ok in Virtualbox. Although it tends to get stuck from time to time and not everything "under the hood" is yet implemented.

It has a very limited support for hardware out of the box. But it supports at least some Windows drivers (sound/graphic drivers should work, although you might have to use inf files instead of the installers).

But first thing is, you have to make it boot. I haven't had luck with that. I tried 2 laptops and 1 pc. It stopped at various stages.

I guess, if your PC is similar to what popular emulators emulate, it might work. If it does, even if it's not yet complete, it might even be usable. But, as I said it tends to get stuck. One app can slow down and block the whole system for a long time.

Good news is that a lot of apps for Windows XP (and earlier) at least somewhat work.

If you decide to try it, let us know how it worked. I'm really curious to see it running on a real system. :)

> If you don't have a working CD, try getting an external USB one.

LOL. Sorry about that. No. Unfortunately USB support is too new. That likely won't work.

Well, I did a quick test in VMWare (installation CD).
Yes, NTVDM can run Doom now (no sound) :)
http://rayer.g6.cz/1tmp/ros_doom.png
but it is still quirky, e.g. DJGPP programs throws strange error at start-up:
http://rayer.g6.cz/1tmp/ros_7z_bug.png
Also some DOS programs can hang whole reactOS, sometimes jut NTVDM breaks and system needs reboot or close/open new window.

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

Hi guys,

test today : quite useless..
usb stack and notepad working (read rtf files) paint work only with bmp :( and cause crash..
No internet browser embedded..

The files in my ext3 hdd are not recognized..( i use precise puppy linux)

Seem a good solution , but actually it's unusable also for a basic work..
maybe in future.

Roberto iw2evk

> test today : quite useless..
> usb stack and notepad working (read rtf files)

I didn't use their Notepad, but aren't you thinking of Write or Wordpad?
I just don't remember Notepad supporting .RTF (which format MS considers obsolete anyways, AFAIK).

> paint work only with bmp :( and cause crash..

A lot of things crash, it's still "alpha". Chalk it up to no full-time developers or maybe the complexity of it all (esp. trying to be binary compatible, which is an important but thankless job).

> No internet browser embedded..

That's not quite true, they have a Gecko-based browser that they (still)
call Internet Explorer, but it's very slow.

> The files in my ext3 hdd are not recognized..( i use precise puppy linux)

IIRC, this is the first release to support (read-only) NTFS.

> Seem a good solution , but actually it's unusable also for a basic work..
> maybe in future.

They've accomplished a ton, but yeah, it still needs more work.

> Seem a good solution , but actually it's unusable also for a basic work..
> maybe in future.

Yeah, like it was 10 years before. As I told, maybe in 2100... :)

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

I installed ReactOS 0.4 on Pentium Pro 200, here you can enjoy true user experience
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjGmVs7rXOY

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

I almost hate to bring this up, it's highly off-topic, but ...

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DevelopersCanRunBash...lAndUsermodeUbuntuLinuxBinariesOnWindows10.aspx

So MS does (again) have interest in binary compatibility on NT (but not for DOS or OS/2, is anyone really surprised??).

And no, this is not related to (dead) SFU/Interix, (recompiled) Cygwin, or even Hyper-V (Win8 Pro 64-bit) VMs or containers.

*BSD already had Linux emulation, and even qemu-*-user supports (only) BSD, Darwin, and Linux.

Heck, even DOS had a few old ELF toolsets that helped (barely) with compatibility.

Honestly, this is good news. But we'll have to wait and see how it pans out.

> I almost hate to bring this up, it's highly off-topic, but ...
> So MS does (again) have interest in binary compatibility on NT
> (but not for DOS or OS/2, is anyone really surprised??)

NO, I deprecate them all. BTW, I don't need Windows 10 ... I already have Windows 95 !!! (and I'm unwilling to share it !!!)

> On February 16, 2016, ReactOS 0.4.0 (alpha) was released.
> Changes: "A much requested feature for ReactOS was support
> NT Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM)

What's new:

- Updated project page (looks poorly on most browsers now)
- signing service got abolished
- There are severe problems with M$WCRT.DLL as documented on project page ... reportedly fixed in code repository ... so waiting for 0.41

---
This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> ... so waiting for 0.41

Wait no more.

> > ... so waiting for 0.41
> Wait no
> more.

OK, what's new?

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> > > ... so waiting for 0.41
> > Wait
> no
> > more.
>
> OK, what's new?

https://reactos.org/wiki/ChangeLog-0.4.1

https://www.reactos.org/project-news/reactos-041-released

"Note that presently only the ISO images have been released. VM images will be released by the end of the week."

> https://reactos.org/wiki/ChangeLog-0.4.1

Hm, nothing about NTVDM...

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> > https://reactos.org/wiki/ChangeLog-0.4.1
>
> Hm, nothing about NTVDM...

If you read their minutes, you will find that [TheFlash] is busy with his real life and SVGA/VESA support in rosvdm is deferred.