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The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

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Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#61

Post by colejohnson66 »

timClicks wrote: post #60
bayindirh wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, don't forget the Minix running inside a small embedded processor inside your processor or platform controller.

I occasionally wonder what an operating system running below ring 0 would be used for. I haven't thought of anything compelling, apart from being a backdoor.

Supposedly, it’s for low level system management functions. As in, stuff that could be done in hardware, but doing it in software is easier. Kindof like System Management Mode (SMM), but even lower.

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#62

Post by watersb »

I'm surprised no one has guessed power and thermal management as a reason for running DOS on top of QEMU/Linux.

I have no idea.

If the laptop is running FreeDOS on "bare metal", what happens when you close the lid and put it in your backpack?

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#63

Post by mtrower »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #46
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #33

What gets me is... what's the point ? If you don't want to fight MS about selling PCs with no OS, ship some Linux distro. DOS was a nice option when you needed to support bare-metal stuff like flashing the BIOS without a modern OS getting in the way, but I would be shocked if that worked here - basically, I can see reasons to ship DOS, but they're all mutually incompatible with a virtual machine. And if you're going…

Shipping your PC with "some linux distro" means you have to support that linux distro. Selling it with freedos, you only have to support freedos, and people who buy that option will install something else anyway.

> 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?

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#64

Post by mtrower »

zozbot234 wrote: post #34
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #33

What gets me is... what's the point ? If you don't want to fight MS about selling PCs with no OS, ship some Linux distro. DOS was a nice option when you needed to support bare-metal stuff like flashing the BIOS without a modern OS getting in the way, but I would be shocked if that worked here - basically, I can see reasons to ship DOS, but they're all mutually incompatible with a virtual machine. And if you're going…

> If you don't want to fight MS about selling PCs with no OS, ship some Linux distro. And that's exactly what they're doing. They just did the bare minimum work to be able to fit that Linux setup under their pre-existing "FreeDOS" SKU. And the real point of that SKU is for sophisticated users to wipe the whole thing clean and set up their own OS install. It still works perfectly for that.

How does this "FreeDOS" option work better for that than selecting the straight Ubuntu option they offer, and wiping that clean?

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#66

Post by hnlmorg »

detaro wrote: post #49
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some countries also prohibit selling laptops without any OSs because they're unusable in that way, so this is a way to sell a technically "fully usable laptop" for people who'll install linux anyway.

which leaves the question of why going through the hassle of creating this mess instead of just Linux.

According to the article, they already do have a Linux option.

I’d wager the FreeDOS is a legacy option because they’ve supported it in the past an figures have shown it sells. Even if those figures don’t take into account how many of those legacy FreeDOS installs were for other alternative OS like Linux (though it could also be BSD, Haiku, Illumos, ReactOS or others).

Or there genuinely might still be FreeDOS users out there. Eg running industrial applications. Though I’d wager they’d be more likely to run DosBox and not on laptops either. But “industrial applications” covers such a wide spectrum of uses so never say never.

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#68

Post by walterbell »

mtrower wrote: post #64
zozbot234 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't want to fight MS about selling PCs with no OS, ship some Linux distro. And that's exactly what they're doing. They just did the bare minimum work to be able to fit that Linux setup under their pre-existing "FreeDOS" SKU. And the real point of that SKU is for sophisticated users to wipe the whole thing clean and set up their own OS install. It still works perfectly for that.

How does this "FreeDOS" option work better for that than selecting the straight Ubuntu option they offer, and wiping that clean?

It avoids HP paying Canonical and/or taking support calls on hundreds of Ubuntu feature packages.

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#69

Post by userbinator »

walterbell wrote: post #68
mtrower wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this "FreeDOS" option work better for that than selecting the straight Ubuntu option they offer, and wiping that clean?

It avoids HP paying Canonical and/or taking support calls on hundreds of Ubuntu feature packages.

The Ubuntu option appears to be free too.

Re: The weird Hewlett Packard FreeDOS option

#70

Post by petre »

mcculley wrote: post #40
ndiddy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird old legacy hardware that only runs on DOS generally requires real-time access to stuff like ISA cards or parallel/serial ports, so this wouldn't work for that use case since the computer doesn't have any of those.

I have a weird old nylon cutting machine connected to a DOS machine over a serial port. It would not work with a USB/RS-232 adaptor?

That's orecisely how we run our thread 3D printer. It even has a serial (UART) to USB chip on board and it's connected to a RPi3 boc running Linux and Octoprint.
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