Any recommendations for a decent QEMU frontend for Android? I want to run FreeDOS on my phone. Preferably something on F-Droid!
#FreeDOS
@jbz if it's not offering #SourceCode then it's not #OpenSource!
- Besides, #Microsoft themselves published #MSDOS under #MIT license so using #DRDOS seemed irrelevant to a degree.
- Not mention @freedosproject / #FreeDOS is also an option?
Still refactoring and have to make it work on real iron, but my 3D engine already works on #dosbox . For now it supports Linux, #Dreamcast and DOS / #FreeDOS
I've been silent for a bit so I think it could be fun to share what I'm working on: BRIDGES.ROM, a proof-of-concept polyglot binary that is at once a valid:
- BIOS bootable disk image
- DOS .exe binary
- Win32 .exe binary
- Game Boy ROM
- Game Boy Advance ROM
- Raspberry Pi kernel
- Super Nintendo ROM
- PlayStation disc image
So far, the first three are working.
It'll be a very, very simple demake of Death Stranding.
The journey is the goal, but I'm making steady progress. The hardest bit so far was engineering the very first bytes to be a valid MZ header, x86 code and ARM code.
I've come to the conclusion that I'll need to write a custom linker, so that's my project for the weekend!
Success With FreeDOS on a Modern Platform
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/03/04/success-with-freedos-on-a-modern-platform/
![<div><img alt="" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" height="450" src="https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/freedos-featured.jpg?w=800" style="margin: 0 auto; margin-bottom: 15px;" width="800" /></div><p>Last summer we took a look at FreeDOS as part of the <em>Daily Drivers</em> series, and found a faster and more complete successor to the DOS of old. The sojourn into the 16-bit OS wasn’t perfect though, as we couldn’t find drivers for the 2010-era network card on our newly DOS-ified netbook. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwLIgdRj5bI" target="_blank">Here’s [Inkbox] following the same path</a>, and bringing with it a fix for that networking issue.</p>
<p>The video below is an affectionate look at the OS alongside coding a <em>TRON</em> clone in assembler, and it shows a capable environment within the limitations of the 16-bit mode. The modern laptop here can’t emulate a BIOS as it’s UEFI only, and after trying a UEFI-to-BIOS emulator with limited success, he hits on a different approach. With just enough Linux to support QEMU, he has a lightweight and extremely fast x86 BIOS platform with the advantage of legacy emulation of network cards and the like.</p>
<p>The point of <em>Daily Drivers</em> is wherever possible to use real hardware and not an emulator, as it’s trying to be the machine you’d use day to day. But we can see in a world where a BIOS is no longer a thing it becomes ever more necessary](https://files.mastodon.social/cache/media_attachments/files/116/172/557/021/277/995/original/b95cfe40dc1fc73b.jpg)
Success With FreeDOS on a Modern Platform https://hackaday.com/2026/03/04/success-with-freedos-on-a-modern-platform/
#Retrocomputing #Bios #Dos #Freedos #UEFI
I installed FreeDOS on an older laptop (Lenovo ideapad s205) and so far I am impressed! It would be much easier if there was any up to date documentation though - currently in-OS help is a good start but references non-existing external wiki (wiki.freedos.org), which has been “moved”. Or rather: nuked and replaced with some absolute basics under help.freedos.org
Dick move, if you ask me…
Positive surprise: contrary to what existing documentation says, usb drives work seamlessly - insert, reboot, works.
Now I am off to see if I can find packet driver for my Realtek Ethernet…
By my reading, that new California age verification act requires that #FreeDOS, a real-mode unprotected operating system targeting 30 year old hardware, implements effective age verification 😄
Personally I think @freedosproject is a really good option and still is after Microsoft #OpenSource'd #MSDOS 4.0 under a permissive (#MIT) license.
It's not #freedos but I loved this look back at how #linux started
https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/18/linus_torvalds_and_friends/
"Linus Torvalds and friends tell The Reg how Linux solo act became a global jam session"
I was an early Linux adopter, in 1993. Until 1998, I dual-booted Linux and DOS (MS-DOS, then FreeDOS).
🧵
Anyone looking for a simple and easy upgrade to their DOSBox experience should upgrade to the @freedosproject command-line interpreter called FreeCOM.
It's a beautiful thing that essentials like these still receive updates and bug fixes. You get numerous improvements when you switch to this, and it only takes up 2 KB of conventional memory to run.
Personally, I'd just refuse to buy any machine with a #CopilotKey or #Windows11 or #Windows10 or any #Windows preinstalled.
So, I've been thinking about what to install on the #486DX that I fixed recently, and at first I'd thought I'd go with a period correct #MSDOS but then I reconsidered and had a look (in #86Box) at #FreeDOS, which I knew existed but had never used.
I've been playing around with it in the emulator and I'm convinced I want it. It's just so much fun to be back in DOS land again, but with the nifty additions of FreeDOS (such as a package manager) it feels more modern, in a good way.
I'm playing around with networking now to not have to write stuff to floppies in order to run stuff on the dos machine. FTP to my retro files on the NAS, for example. And now I'm exploring the package repository that is accessible through the network-enabled package manager.
Looking forward to installing this on the actual hardware!
3/5 A #DOS based system such as #FreeDOS could be an option. It is an #OpenSource OS and can run on low resource hardware. However, #XFDOS already fills this niche.
Been trying my darnest to get my favorite #vim setup to work on my most favorite OS. :floofHeart:
I figure I share anyway because despite the failure I'm facing now, we really gotten over a few roadblocks in setting up networking and pulling data over https.
curl doesn't have the means to pull data from https out of the box because it lacks the means to generate sufficient randomness for SSL. To correct this, you need a dedicated random$ device driver.
#freedos has the noise driver available for the i386 and Pentium x86 cpus. You get it from the lynx web browser package. Then load that from FDCONFIG.SYS
Unfortunately, I'm now butting up against the fact that vim-plug works with git, and there's no official git app for DOS at this time. I wonder if I can fake it by making a script within %PATH% :floofTeehee:
#retrocomputing
I figure I share anyway because despite the failure I'm facing now, we really gotten over a few roadblocks in setting up networking and pulling data over https.
curl doesn't have the means to pull data from https out of the box because it lacks the means to generate sufficient randomness for SSL. To correct this, you need a dedicated random$ device driver.
#freedos has the noise driver available for the i386 and Pentium x86 cpus. You get it from the lynx web browser package. Then load that from FDCONFIG.SYS
Unfortunately, I'm now butting up against the fact that vim-plug works with git, and there's no official git app for DOS at this time. I wonder if I can fake it by making a script within %PATH% :floofTeehee:
#retrocomputing
Update: Added an internal amplifier and speakers. Need to figure out how to clean this wiring mess up, then 3D print some panels.
A REAL SoundBlaster AWE64 in a briefcase. With 28MB RAM expansion. Designed for Cubic Player. Running FreeDOS. Vortex86 CPU / 512MB RAM. Battery powered, basically a laptop you'd never take to an airport 😆
#retro #retrocomputing #freedos #cubicplayer #tracker #demoscene #music #s3m #mod #awe64 #soundblaster
Bill Gates si scusa per "ogni minuto" trascorso con Jeffrey Epstein
https://go.squidapp.co/n/i27526Q ED ORA ABIURA #UINZOZZ! HAHAHAHA SARAI COSTRETTO AD INSTALLARTI #Linuxfromscratch SU TUTTI I TUOI COMPUTER! VERRAI LAPIDATO MEDIANTE FLOPPY DISK DA 3,5 con #Freedos SOPRA! PASSERAI IL RESTO DELLA VITA SOLO IN UNA STANZA, SENZA WINDOWS. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Client Info
Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.07
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst