Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 5th Jul 2011 21:46 UTC, submitted by mpxlbs
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you - we have actually have not one, but two news items on hobby/small operating systems on the same day! You thought the day would never come again, but hey, here we are. You're welcome. Now, what are we talking about? FreeDOS - a test release has been, uh, released for FreeDOS 1.1.
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RE: Why not a decent DOS execution layer?
by andermetalsh on Wed 6th Jul 2011 17:56
in reply to "Why not a decent DOS execution layer?"
Member since:2011-07-06
RE: Why not a decent DOS execution layer?
by Rugxulo on Wed 6th Jul 2011 18:03
in reply to "Why not a decent DOS execution layer?"
Member since:2007-10-09
I appreciate the work done on FreeDOS, but I am disappointed that the community hasn't given us a way to run DOS games on modern OSes, without having to take the DOSBox speed penalty.
They did, way back in 1986 with the introduction of the 386: V86 mode! That's why NTVDM worked at all. Unfortunately, MS didn't keep it up or fix bugs, so it's basically (half) dead these days. And AMD64 just gave them a reason to completely drop it. (And before you ask, no, 64-bit doesn't compensate for the huge speed loss of using a full emulator.)
See, DOSBox aims to run even on non-x86 systems, so a complete emulation is needed, which is slow for 3D DOS games, even for Core/Phenom processors.
Yes, it's slow, basically "fast" 486 speed, at best. You need 1+ Ghz just for that! But it works pretty good for sound and graphics (unlike NTVDM).
Actually, check your dosbox-0.74.conf file, you should be able to (sometimes) enable dynamic core for a partial speedup. Or adjust your fixed cycles. Unfortunately, I was told that a 64-bit compile of DOSBox was even slower (ugh).
BTW, DOSEMU under Linux uses V86 and is fast (and LFNs!) but not nearly as good for games as DOSBox. DOSBox is "officially" only for games, not other DOS stuff (e.g. compiling). Unfortunately, DOSEMU x64 has to jump through hoops just to work half as good as 32-bit (and still fails on lots of stuff, sadly).
I was hoping for a DOS execution layer (for x86 systems), so that we can run DOS games the way we did on Windows 9x (disclaimer: i am not saying windows 9x was good). Make it Windows-only if needed, just make it!
Your only hope these days is virtualization (VT-X), e.g. paged real mode (AMD's SVM) or unrestricted guest execution (Intel, 32nm Westmere). I've not really tested, but various tools (Xen, VirtualBox) claim to support these now.
EDIT: Obligatory DOS (video) gaming reviews link (often with DOSBox setup tips):
http://www.pixelships.com/adg/
RE[2]: Why not a decent DOS execution layer?
by andermetalsh on Wed 6th Jul 2011 18:31
in reply to "RE: Why not a decent DOS execution layer?"
Member since:2011-07-06
DosBOX is ideal for old DOS games until 1995-1996 , and XDosEMU runs very intensive games like Fallout or Blood .
It emulates a Sound Blaster , a GUS and a Midi synth , and , for graphics , a VGA or a Vesa card, and ¡¡¡¡ you could map REAL hardware devices, PCI devices, even access your video card !!!!
As I said, if you have a little Linux setup, you should have both . My Core Duo is not fast enough with DosBox running these Pentium 2 / DOS era games .
RE[2]: Why not a decent DOS execution layer?
by bassbeast on Thu 7th Jul 2011 12:52
in reply to "RE: Why not a decent DOS execution layer?"
Member since:2007-11-11
But why would you go through all that trouble when old boxes are practically (or even) free? I don't know how it is there but here in the USA one can find plenty of give away 700MHz and less which are just perfect for DOS gaming. You can get a 2 port KVM for less than $20 and more importantly for DOS you can pick up an old school Soundblaster card for a couple of bucks. Finish up with a cheap early Nvidia or Voodoo card (The one I have for mine is an old Riva TNT2 which I got for 25c out of a pile at Goodwill) and you have the ultimate Win9x/DOS gaming machine!
So while I'm grateful for FreeDOS and wish them nothing but luck for really old games one can't beat Win9x installed on actual hardware.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.More News »
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Member since:
2011-04-11
I appreciate the work done on FreeDOS, but I am disappointed that the community hasn't given us a way to run DOS games on modern OSes, without having to take the DOSBox speed penalty.
See, DOSBox aims to run even on non-x86 systems, so a complete emulation is needed, which is slow for 3D DOS games, even for Core/Phenom processors.
I was hoping for a DOS execution layer (for x86 systems), so that we can run DOS games the way we did on Windows 9x (disclaimer: i am not saying windows 9x was good). Make it Windows-only if needed, just make it!
Edited 2011-07-06 17:18 UTC