FreeDOS is fantastic for pre-installed, Windows-less systems, to prove to manufacturers that you’re not just going to go and pirate Windows after the fact (since that’s the biggest reason OEMs won’t allow sales of hardware without an OS).

These days, FreeDOS typically gets used in a few areas:

1. Running classic DOS games. I really liked those old DOS games (Commander Keen, Jill of the Jungle, Ultimate Pinball, DOOM, Duke Nukem, BLOOD, Star Wars: Dark Forces, etc.) but you just can’t run them anymore without a DOS system. FreeDOS does this very well.

2. Embedded systems. DOS is a small operating system platform, and doesn’t take much in terms of system resources (CPU, memory) to run. It’s not multitasking, but embedded systems typically focus on doing one thing at a time, so a single-task kernel like FreeDOS is excellent.

3. Running DOS-based business software. There are a few companies that still have a need to run old DOS-based applications to support their business. FreeDOS works just like MS-DOS, so you can run these old apps there too.

Speaking of open source, I just fired up a new open source computer last night. the OS? FreeDOS! And yes, I love it. It’s not perfect, but it’s very functional for what it’s built to do.

The program is Finale Songwriter (they bought me Alegro, but I didn’t have the system requirements).

Microsoft’s arbitrary server restrictions are almost as bad as that Windows 7 every-two-hour-reboot nonsense. I actually had this happen at work once — we had installed a Windows 2003 Small Business Server because we needed a server-class operating system to run some software 24/7. We have an existing domain, on a Windows 2003 Server (note the lack of Small Business Edition). Thinking that I didn’t really need the 2k3SBS server to run a domain of its own, I joined it to the domain, reconfigured the RAID array and installed the software, then went home and called it a day. About an hour later, I got a call from one of the folks still working, saying that everyone in the site had gotten a message saying the server was going to shut down due to a licensing issue. That licensing issue being, you’re not allowed to install a small business server into an existing domain without first taking control of all the domain’s functions and doing all sorts of crazy shenanigans (as detailed here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884453

Not only did the server automatically restart itself, scheduling itself to do so once every hour and a half, just to cow me into adhering to some arbitrary and ludicrous rules, but it messaged my entire freaking domain telling everyone it was going to happen, repeatedly, until I remoted in and shut the thing down. Beyond being an annoying inconvenience, it was an embarassment.

Seriously, this is truly fucked. I do believe that I am all set to just nix the last of Vista from my computer and go all out Ubuntu. Ubuntu loves me and won’t do the randomly stupid and really irritating shit that Vista does and I’m pretty damned certain that it won’t go fucking the folks that had to deal with the early stages bugs, so Microsoft could work them out before officially releasing Vista.

Although the worse abuse, is when the proprietary software deletes the music you wrote during the trial period, when you pay for the full version three weeks before the trial period is up. Seriously fucking did that to me.