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The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

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Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#151

Post by InfiniteRand »

detaro wrote: post #52
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they they have to support that linux distro, with all the drivers, update etc.,... And the FreeDOS just works. Doesn't do much, but what it does, it does well.

but the Linux they are shipping underneath that FreeDOS also works. And they also offer Linux preinstalled, so they need to "support" that to whatever amount anyways.

The pre-installed Linux works, but it doesn't have to work for all the driver and functionality edge cases that a real FreeDOS machine would definitely not support.

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#152

Post by detaro »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #141
detaro wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you use DOS still for industrial stuff you usually do it because you need some old-fashioned interface (i.e. real serial or parallel ports are the usual example). Which is going to work great from inside a VM, not.

Having worked in this world, I have sometimes patched DOSBox to communicate with all types of extravagant hardware, even ISA cards (look hard enough and you'll find even Core motherboards with ISA slots...).

Sure, but you presumably don't buy FreeDOS in a VM off-the-shelf for that, but setup the specific right thing for your use cases.

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#153

Post by lproven »

mc4ndr3 wrote: post #16
mcculley wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it is for customers running weird old legacy hardware (e.g., lab devices, manufacturing, that only runs on DOS).

FreeDOS is known to not run well inside of virtualization. A proper host install would be far more capable.

That is not true.

In fact, if you just boot FreeDOS 1.3 in VirtualBox, you'll see it detect the virtual NIC, load a TCP/IP stack and acquire an IPv4 address, then report it.

It is mostly developed and run inside VMs these days, AFAICS.

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#154

Post by ale42 »

necovek wrote: post #120
ale42 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but inside a VM. What access to real hardware (e.g. to communicate with the outside world) does the user get?

Whatever is configured with QEMU: everything if that was the use case.

But it looks like their setup is not configured to give access to hardware, at least I didn't see any options on the command line.

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#155

Post by mtrower »

quietbritishjim wrote: post #97
mtrower wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Shipping your PC with "some linux distro" means you have to support that linux distro. But they do offer to ship with a Linux distro, even apart from this strange frankensystem option. Did you miss where straight Ubuntu is a pre-install option?

Yes and they charge for that, so that's consistent with what the parent comment said.

Erm...no? Look at the screenshot in the article. There is no charge for Ubuntu in that shot, only for Windows.

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#156

Post by quietbritishjim »

mtrower wrote: post #155
quietbritishjim wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and they charge for that, so that's consistent with what the parent comment said.

Erm...no? Look at the screenshot in the article. There is no charge for Ubuntu in that shot, only for Windows.

Oops, you're right. I did look at the screenshot before but totally misread it (probably because Ubuntu is just blank in the price column rather than $0, and there's no horizontal lines (thanks Tufte)).
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