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FreeDOS 1.4 is Out
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FreeDOS 1.4 | The FreeDOS Project
A lot has happened in DOS since FreeDOS 1.3. Developers have been adding features to FreeDOS, fixing bugs, making translations, updating programs, and writing documentation. Many thanks to all the cool developers, testers, contributors, testers, documentation writers, translators .. and everyone else who made FreeDOS 1.4 happen!
The new version has several cool changes, including: [...]
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FreeDOS 1.4 released
Version 1.4 of FreeDOS has been released. This is the first stable release since 2022, and includes improvements to the Fdisk hard-disk-management program, and reliability updates for the mTCP set of TCP/IP applications for DOS.
This version was much smoother because Jerome Shidel, our distribution manager, had an idea after FreeDOS 1.3 that we could have a rolling test release that collected all of the changes that people make over time. Previous to this, each new FreeDOS distribution (like 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3) required bundling up packages into a "release candidate," and we would go through several iterations of updating the release candidates.
Jerome's method of building the FreeDOS distribution made it easier to automate a test release, which we decided to update every month. As the test releases accumulated enough changes to warrant a release, we could then make the next test release a "release candidate" which would iterate to the next version of the FreeDOS distribution. Since 2022, we've released monthly test releases. Thanks Jerome!
LWN covered FreeDOS last year for its 30th anniversary.
Later report:
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FreeDOS 1.4 Released
Even in 2025 there are still many applications for a simple Disk Operating System (DOS), whether this includes running legacy software (including MS-DOS games & Windows 3.x), or (embedded) systems running new software where the overhead of a full-fat Linux or BSD installation would be patently ridiculous.