DOS ain't dead

Reading the Wikipedia entry about DR-DOS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR-DOS#After_Novell) noticed DR-DOS versions I were not aware. At that time, I tried 7.04 and 7.05 kernels being quite buggy, but it seems new kernels come later:
- DR-DOS 7.04
- DR-DOS 7.05
- DR-DOS 7.06
- DR-DOS 7.07
- DR-DOS 7.08

Any idea where to get them?

Thanks.

---
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> Reading the Wikipedia entry about DR-DOS
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR-DOS#After_Novell)
> noticed DR-DOS versions I were not aware. At that time, I tried 7.04 and
> 7.05 kernels being quite buggy, but it seems new kernels come later:
> - DR-DOS 7.04
> - DR-DOS 7.05
> - DR-DOS 7.06
> - DR-DOS 7.07
> - DR-DOS 7.08
>
> Any idea where to get them?
>
> Thanks.


AFAIK, the final version released by Caldera was v7.03

Those other versions you are thinking of are probably
the Enhanced DR-DOS from Udo which are all based upon OpenDos v7.01
(for which the SRC cde was released and Udo continued to enhance)

Version 7.01.08 was the last one Udo made before he vanished from the web.

http://www.drdosprojects.de/index.cgi/download.htm

http://www.drdosprojects.de/cgi-bin/download.cgi/d110721b.zip

---
--
http://glennmcc.org/

> > Reading the Wikipedia entry about DR-DOS
> >
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR-DOS#After_Novell)
> > noticed DR-DOS versions I were not aware. At that time, I tried 7.04 and
> > 7.05 kernels being quite buggy, but it seems new kernels come later:
> > - DR-DOS 7.0[45678]
> >
> > Any idea where to get them?
>
> AFAIK, the final version released by Caldera was v7.03

Caldera/Lineo/DR-DOS Inc. ... whatever you want to call the various offshoots.

7.03 is still sold ($79 USD) at http://drdos.com/products/dr-dos/ .

> Those other versions you are thinking of are probably
> the Enhanced DR-DOS from Udo which are all based upon OpenDos v7.01
> (for which the SRC cde was released and Udo continued to enhance)
>
> Version 7.01.08 was the last one Udo made before he vanished from the web.

No, they apparently aren't based upon Udo's work at all.

They aren't even official versions, apparently, just random enhanced versions for OEMs and whoever else (Ontrack? Seagate?). At least according to Wikipedia (which I'm sure M. Paul was involved with).

For instance, my old-ish (2010?) Dell laptop has diagnostics based upon what they call "Dell Real Mode Kernel", but it's really a (barely) enhanced version of DR-DOS.

http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=DRMK

Exactly, they were custom versions over the 7.03 official code base.
As oposite Enhanced DR-DOS were done over 7.01/7.02 source code:
- 7.04: August 19, 1999. FAT32 and LBA from Ontrack's Easy Recovery 5.
- 7.05: November 30, 1999. From Seagate Technology's SeaTools.
- 7.06: From Wightman. Combined the kernel files into a single binary executable.
- 7.07: From Paul introduced new bootstrap loaders and updated disk tools in order to combine support for CHS and LBA disk access.

Found 7.05 available at http://www.drdos.net/err705.htm
But no clue about 7.06 or 7.07
Any help?

> Found 7.05 available at http://www.drdos.net/err705.htm
> But no clue about 7.06 or 7.07
> Any help?

"7.05 is an Ontrack version of DR-Dos and not one intended for use or re-distribution" ... not exactly encouraging.

I don't understand your fascination with this.

"[Ontrack] modified the kernel to support FAT32 and drives > 8.4Gig." Doesn't FreeDOS already do all of that? AFAIK, yes, so what's the problem?

"Just use FreeDOS!" (It's free!)

I am a big fan of DR-DOS, mainly because of TASKMGR + EMM386 / MULTI.

Currently I am running a mix of 7.03, and some updated files that come with 8.0 with latest EDR-DOS kernel.

But EDR-DOS, is giving me some issues with FAT32, and switching to MS-DOS 8 or 7.1 or Fredos 1.2/1.1 with QEMM386 is not as powerful to me.

So, when I was aware of 7.06, and specially 7.07 kernel, with LBA and FAT32 created by Mathias Paul, was very interested in trying it.

But after some days looking, there is no way...

Any idea of 7.07?

> I am a big fan of DR-DOS, mainly because of TASKMGR + EMM386 / MULTI.

Which is limited to 64 MB per task (maximum), which isn't a lot these days.

Are you really saying it's better (for you) than Win9x or eCS (OS/2) or DOSEMU or even VirtualBox?

> Currently I am running a mix of 7.03, and some updated files that come with
> 8.0 with latest EDR-DOS kernel.

I don't know why you hold out hope for a dead OS (specifically DR-DOS, since 7.03 was the last official major release way back in 1998/99 times).

> But EDR-DOS, is giving me some issues with FAT32, and switching to MS-DOS 8
> or 7.1 or Fredos 1.2/1.1 with QEMM386 is not as powerful to me.

FreeDOS with QEMM386 ... not sure if QEMM fully works there, but it was never truly designed to. Probably uses undocumented stuff (or rare bugs, who knows).

File a bug if you can prove it behaves differently. (At least two kernel devs did do some debugging for INTERLNK recently.)

> So, when I was aware of 7.06, and specially 7.07 kernel, with LBA and FAT32
> created by Mathias Paul, was very interested in trying it.

So ask Matthias Paul!

> But after some days looking, there is no way...

"Just use FreeDOS (under DOSEMU, if needed)!"

> Any idea of 7.07?

Nope, sorry. Proprietary software isn't always forthcoming about where to find it, so I have no idea.

Why do you tend to behave like a salesman when you are promoting free software? Do you have some sort of religious belief in FreeDOS, or what?

---
Glory to God for all things

> FreeDOS with QEMM386 ... not sure if QEMM fully works there, but it was
> never truly designed to. Probably uses undocumented stuff (or rare bugs,
> who knows).

QEMM386 9.0 is quite unstable with DJGPP programs on modern HW and it can handle only up to 256MB RAM. I was using it happily in 486/Pentium/PII/PIII era until I discovered Jemmex...

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

Sure. That is why Deskview/386 is not a suitable option. At least not as better as TASKMGR.

> > FreeDOS with QEMM386 ... not sure if QEMM fully works there, but it was
> > never truly designed to. Probably uses undocumented stuff (or rare bugs,
> > who knows).
>
> QEMM386 9.0 is quite unstable with DJGPP programs on modern HW and it can
> handle only up to 256MB RAM. I was using it happily in 486/Pentium/PII/PIII
> era until I discovered Jemmex...

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

> So ask Matthias Paul!
Thing is that his old website at the university is unavailable.
How can I get in touch with him?

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

> > So ask Matthias Paul!
> Thing is that his old website at the university is unavailable.
> How can I get in touch with him?

Guti, you don't get in touch. Japeth's site is in the internet archive though.

> > > So ask Matthias Paul!
> > Thing is that his old website at the university is unavailable.
> > How can I get in touch with him?
>
> Guti, you don't get in touch.
> Japeth's
> site is in the internet archive though.

But this is the author of HX DOS Extender and JWASM, not DR-DOS.

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

> Why do you tend to behave like a salesman when you are promoting free
> software? Do you have some sort of religious belief in FreeDOS, or what?

He is stating a fact that enhancements to the old commercial Doses is not very likely. (and that is even stated mildly).

That is not salesman, that is realism.

> He is stating a fact that enhancements to the old commercial Doses is not
> very likely. (and that is even stated mildly).

I sincerely doubt that there people still interested in DOS who haven't heard about FreeDOS or are not aware of the fact you mentioned above.

---
Glory to God for all things

> > He is stating a fact that enhancements to the old commercial Doses is
> not
> > very likely. (and that is even stated mildly).
>
> I sincerely doubt that there people still interested in DOS who haven't
> heard about FreeDOS or are not aware of the fact you mentioned above.

They just don't act like it

> > So ask Matthias Paul!
> Thing is that his old website at the university is unavailable.
> How can I get in touch with him?

I honestly don't know. Maybe he doesn't follow DOS circles anymore. Maybe he's too busy. For sure he would find his way here (or FreeDOS mailing lists, again) if he really wanted. I do know that he's seemingly very active on Wikipedia, but that doesn't help you much, if at all. Probably not the best place to contact him, but who knows.

I really don't know what exactly you're looking for here.

There are other DOSes with FAT32 support, if (for some reason) EDR-DOS and FreeDOS don't do whatever it is that you want.

1). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_DOS#PC_DOS_7.1 (inside Server Scripting Toolkit??)
2). http://www.datalight.com/products/rom-dos/rom-dos-single-user-version ($55 USD, still cheaper than vanilla DR-DOS 7.03)

Hi,

I know it's bad to dig up old thread but I only want to add some info... The latest version of DR-DOS is 7.07 according to the post from Matthias Paul in 2017 that show some of his folder here :

https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-8774.html?

I try to write to him on wikipedia there in the talk section

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matthiaspaul

And email him here Matthias.Paul@post.rwth-aachen.de

Both without result...

OK DR-DOS is still on sale but not the 7.07 binary, I also know they may have better OSes or other reasons but and as we are not eternal, I fear the files will disappear and never reach some archive.

> I know it's bad to dig up old thread but I only want to add some info...
> The latest version of DR-DOS is 7.07 according to the post from Matthias
> Paul in 2017 that show some of his folder here :
>
> https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-8774.html?

The one (sold for years online, which I bought in 2004 or so) was 7.03 from 1999. AFAIK, I always considered that the last "official" "full" version.

> I try to write to him on wikipedia there in the talk section
> And email him
>
> Both without result...

I have no idea. He's very prolific on Wikipedia. He's a genius, most likely, so he's probably just busy. Back when he helped save the Pat Villani article on Wikipedia in 2011, I mentioned that he should probably have his own article!

> OK DR-DOS is still on sale but not the 7.07 binary,

The drdos.com website has been down for over a year, so I'm not honestly sure if it is sold online anymore, which is a shame. Yes, it was quite dated (hardcoded limits in many files), but it was still a very very good DOS.

> I also know they may have better OSes or other reasons
> but and as we are not eternal, I fear the files will disappear
> and never reach some archive.

I agree, I wouldn't want it to totally disappear.

WayBack has the EDR-DOS website archived, IIRC. Non-commercial only, more or less only kernel and shell, but it's still better than nothing.

Then again, no offense, just use FreeDOS (1.3rc3 from May 31).