Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004, Jim Howard wrote:

> There is a version of MS-DOS that will run without Win98. It is called
> MS-DOS 7.10 . Someone got permission from Microsoft to GNU GPL license it. I
> run it on my system and it appears to work fine. I was trying to locate the
> url where I downloaded it from. You might do a search on the internet for
> it.
>
> james
>
> I am looking for a way to use Win98 DOS without needing to use Win98, on a
> DOS/linux computer, that will let me defrag without having to boot some
> other DOS from a floppy disk first.


After much searching I found:

    http://newdos.yginfo.net/msdos71/index.htm


You can download a boot disk .img file, or a pair of installation files 
(the first is 1.2MB, the second probably similar) for MS-DOS 7.10.

I found another site that said you may not be able to defrag your hard 
drive with the defrag from 7.10 and would be told this is to protect long 
file names.  Perhaps this is only if you have long file names (I don't 
outside of linux partitions).   In this case they suggest using 
defragd.exe instead.

I already put Win98 on the ASUS that would not boot linux without Win9X, 
but I have three other computers with the same problem, on which to try 
7.10.  One is still in use with linux on it.  They are my favorites - 
233MHz and 3 ISA slots.  Many thanks!

I think there is no Xvesa problem with 7.10 - probably only if you use 
smartdrv.exe, as in Win98.  So this and FreeDOS and DR-DOS should all 
work with  BL and Xvesa.

7.10 supports 32bit and long file names but the defrag from it does not.

Sindi Keesan