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[dipo]

There are some projects who want to provide an environment where you can old dos stuff on newer windows such as xp or vista. (Such as dosbox and FreeDOS...)

Those projects are good, but them are not 100 % compatible. Until now microsoft has not released any source code from DOS 6.22 so I guess it was kinda hard for those project to reverse engineer it.

I think today there is no more source code from DOS 6.22 inside Xp or Vista (since it`s based on NT and not DOS) and if there still is it can`t be much because it`s so long ago.

Microsoft shouldn`t have economy loss if them would make DOS 6.22 legal freeware and release the source code under an Open Source license. No new software is being developed or sold for DOS. Probably also not after it become Open Source. Someone who dislikes windows or microsoft would chose linux or bsd but not DOS because it`s to long not maintained.

Releasing the source code also wouldn`t hurt and it could help those third party projects to become perfect.

I don`t want people to start begging for it or flaming or bitching or whatever. Only being serious and showing their interest in it.

How to start a serious petition?

Maybe abandonia.com with over 30.000 members could be the place to start such a petition? If 30.000 would sign it (if people from other communitys also sign it) this should be enough.

[_r.u.s.s.]

not gonna happen
(i mean microsoft making dos open source)

[dipo]

I think the motto needs to be more "don`t give up before trying".

Micosoft made some Open Source short time ago, them also promised better interop and stop fighting Free Software. Some exampels
http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/default.mspx
http://research.microsoft.com/os/singularity/
http://blogs.msdn.com/dotnetinterop/
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/s...e/default.mspx
and google for microsoft releasing source code

So imho chances are bigger then 0 % !

I would like DOS 6.22 as GPL so other projects can "copy and paste" from it.

[dosraider]

Of course there's always another side to consider:
Now when I'm installing MSDos 6.22 (or whatever MS Dos) I know what I'm getting.
If it becomes 'open source' you can be sure there will be lots of screwed up things in it.

Sad but true.

[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.