Nearly two months to the day after rumors circulated that the open source MS-DOS operating system project FreeDOS was "dead," version 1.0 has been released by its creator, Jim Hall. The free to download operating system comprises a variety of programs that are licensed mostly under the GNU GPL, though a small number are protected under other licenses. It is also available for purchase at Linux CD Mall for $6.95.
FreeDOS is targeted at users of old DOS-based games, to run old software that only supports DOS, or as support for systems, such as cash registers, that feature an embedded DOS system. Hall says, "Honestly, I think most of the people out there will probably download FreeDOS to play old DOS games inside a PC emulator. Personally, I love DOOM and Dark Forces. Those were great games! But don't discount the embedded systems market. There are lots of embedded systems designers that still use DOS, and are very happy to see FreeDOS reach 1.0 status because it legitimizes their use of FreeDOS in the embedded systems they sell."
