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[dipo]

At no point the old version will get lost. No one will every force you to use any new version. If you want you can still stick to the old/normal one.

Nothing to be scared about.

[dosraider]

Scared? Not really, no. LMAO.

But the comp problems does not come from MS Dos, but from the games/applics devs.
Lets face it, even when we were on Dos several games/applics were bugged as hell, and now you would want to adapt MS Dos to those?

The hardiest things to code are those graph card drivers, some are pretty exotic.
Nothing to see with MS Dos itself.

And MS Dos is pretty well documented afterall.

[dipo]

MS-DOS 6.22 is more compatible then dosbox. Dosbox does not have all details of the internals of MS-DOS 6.22. Dosbox and FreeDOS could become better if them would know it.

The simple question is, is it more easy to make an emulator for an old operating system if you know it`s source code or is it harded without the source code. And does it hurt if the source code is available for reference?

I see no disadventage for normal users if the source code would be released. (Someone could argue that crackers may find new exploits but this would be kinda stupid because the OS are not supported since many years and exploits won`t get patched so or so.)

As for closed source drivers and closed source hardware sure it would be even better if them would become Open Source also. Isn`t a bad idea to expand this petition to this requirement.

Some modern graphic cards by AMD have an Open Source graphic driver and AMD also has given out internal details about the card to make this driver even better. So in case of those very old hardware it`s just a matter of asking any details which are currently now not well known.

[dosraider]

Hmmmm, maybe, some valid points you have there.

If a petition will impress MS is another question.
I doubt it.

[dipo]

A petition does not cost much money because server coast. Siging in and writing down stuff isn`t expensive. There is also no legal risk. People ask, them say yes or no or ignore it. That`s all. No curt at all.

For the site who is starting the petition it`s also a good PR. Besides that I am still meaning "try before giving up".

Some people say microsoft is evil. Microsoft is a firm who want to earn money and not a friend. But them are also not the devil. If them think it would be good PR then them are open to it. Here are a few examples where it did work:

- People started a petition that Xp reches end of life (no more security updates) soon -> now Xp is supported until 2014. (microsoft losed a bit money that way because people can save money and do not need to pay Vista, and them can buy Windows 7 then already)

- People did complain about bad interop -> microsoft helped the guys from samba (linux to windows network sharing) by giving out some documentation and samba works better now.

- People did complain that microsoft is fighting Free Software -> microsoft changed it`s policy a bit on it because them recognized that it`s better that way.

[Data]

DOSBox won't benefit from it.
After all you can boot msdos 6.22 inside it if you want.

The things that are missing are probably on purpose.
You might want to spend your time informing the people of dosbox about which games don't work instead of claiming that it isn't 100 % compatible without any proof that it has something todo with the DOS emulated by dosbox. (incase you didn't know the DOS emulation is small portion of what dosbox emulates)

[dipo]

Why you are so sure that no one could profit from it?

All bugs I am talking about are already discussed a lot in their forums. The developers seam not to be able to fix it (don`t want to say bad things about their work, them already did great things without any support from microsoft).

[Adamg]

Sure, I would sign a petition asking Microsoft to release the source code for DOS 6.22. But would Microsoft ever release it? I say the odds of that are about .001%, probably less. :notrust:

[DeathDude]

Originally Posted by dipo

A petition does not cost much money because server coast. Siging in and writing down stuff isn`t expensive. There is also no legal risk. People ask, them say yes or no or ignore it. That`s all. No curt at all.

For the site who is starting the petition it`s also a good PR. Besides that I am still meaning "try before giving up".

Some people say microsoft is evil. Microsoft is a firm who want to earn money and not a friend. But them are also not the devil. If them think it would be good PR then them are open to it. Here are a few examples where it did work:

- People started a petition that Xp reches end of life (no more security updates) soon -> now Xp is supported until 2014. (microsoft losed a bit money that way because people can save money and do not need to pay Vista, and them can buy Windows 7 then already)

- People did complain about bad interop -> microsoft helped the guys from samba (linux to windows network sharing) by giving out some documentation and samba works better now.

- People did complain that microsoft is fighting Free Software -> microsoft changed it`s policy a bit on it because them recognized that it`s better that way.

In regards to that petition about extending XP life, it was actually all the complaints from companies like Dell, Best Buy etc.. that were complaining about how much customers wanted XP instead of Vista and how they were losing sales as a result of only being able to put Vista on their machines, not to mention other businesses who were rolling back their computers to XP after the initial Vista fiasco, so Microsoft finally gave in and extended that deadline.

Honestly a petition especially one that is online is definitely far less likely to even get noticed much less recognized with the potentials for abuse and multiple signings by users, its a neat idea but I doubt Microsoft would even consider it at this point in time, with all the things on their plate right now, 360, Vista, competing with google etc...

[Sebatianos]

If you do feel so strongly about it DIPO, you can acctually start the pettition. It's very easy to open your very own new web site (try zoomshare or some toher extremelly easy to use tool for creating a website) and place the pettition there.

I'm sure there are some people on this forum that would join in and sign the pettition and you can also try and convince other people from other forums you visit to do so.

I don't know why you feel you must convince other people it's a good idea before you want to start a pettition.

The idea itself (even though it won't help any, because Microsoft will not take it seriously and even if they would release MSDOS - whichever version - as open source, the problems still would't be solved) is not bad, so if you are for it, start the petition. It's really easy.