FreeDOS 1.4 Released: New Features, Tools, and Installation Tips

FreeDOS project has just released version 1.4, a fully open‑source, DOS‑compatible operating system that requires a bare‑metal BIOS for installation.

This version appears a little over three years after 1.3 and six years after 1.2, indicating a faster development pace that pleases retro‑technology enthusiasts.

Key changes include:

New Freecom shell with external xcopy and move commands.

Updated fdisk partition tool that fixes several serious bugs.

Michael Brutman's mTCP suite, enabling DOS to access TCP/IP networks.

mTCP also provides the NetDrive tool for accessing local or Internet file shares. Similar utilities such as Jaroslav Rohel's NetMount and the lightweight EtherDFS (which uses raw Ethernet frames) are mentioned.

As with many Linux‑style distributions, FreeDOS components come from multiple independent projects, so some updates may lag and the changelog can be sparse.

… FreeDOS kernel remains the same as in FreeDOS 1.3 because a new kernel is not yet ready.

FreeDOS 1.4 can run Windows 3.1 in standard mode.

The system now includes a polished menu‑driven launcher called PGME and a file manager.

Since version 1.3, the development and packaging approach has shifted to resemble testing branches of Linux distributions, with monthly test builds posted to the freedos‑devel mailing list. This release bundles the latest changes, removes some less‑used components (e.g., certain graphical shells), and offers smaller Bonus CD and main distribution images.

Full and slim USB images are provided, each containing virtual hard‑disk images for use in virtual machines.

A floppy version supplies three disk images for 1.4 MB (3.5″ high‑density), 1.2 MB (5.25″ high‑density), and 720 KB double‑density drives—rare for PC‑compatible hardware.

Testing in VirtualBox shows that the default 32 MB memory allocation for a VM named “DOS” is insufficient for the Live CD; a minimum of 48 MB is required, though 128 MB or more is recommended for full functionality, allowing the OS to switch to a virtual disk and use the FDIMPLES package to install additional software onto a RAM drive.

FreeDOS is considerably larger than classic MS‑DOS and requires at least a 386‑class CPU; floppy images are highly compressed, which may cause slower decompression on 1980s hardware.

Editor: 万能的大雄

Related articles:

SvarDOS: DR‑DOS Open‑Source OS Revival

WordStar 7’s Last DOS Version Released for Free

Microsoft Open‑Sources MS‑DOS 4.0 Under MIT License