The FreeDOS 1.3 RC1 distribution was released 3 February 2019.
History
FreeDOS 1.3 RC1 was made available in several formats:
- FD13FLOP.IMG - Basic FreeDOS installation boot floppy image.
- FD13LITE.IMG - Plain DOS system only! USB stick image.
- FD13FULL.IMG - Plain DOS system and Full install USB stick image.
- FD13LGCY.ISO - Contains all the packages as FD13-FullUSB. However, it is a bootable CD image designed for older hardware.
Two prototypes of LiveCDs are being provided with RC1. However, one will be discarded for FreeDOS 1.3 final, depending on feedback. Both types have some live FreeDOS packages at boot and support temporarily installing/removing more by using FDIMPLES. Also, both will automatically start networking support when used inside VirtualBox or VMWare. Otherwise, you will need to manually start it.
- FD13LIVE.ISO - FreeDOS LiveCD along with support for a Plain and Full installation. Requires 64MB of RAM (more recommended).
- FD13LIVE.ISO - FreeDOS LiveCD along with support for a Plain and Full installation. Requires 128MB of RAM.
Further information about the two LiveCDs are detailed in the Release Notes, below.
Changes
The FreeDOS 1.3 RC1 distribution is based on the package lists documented in FreeDOS 1.3 Packages.
The contents of the LiveCD are BASE + FDI requirements + a few useful and simple utilities. Note that we will continue to fine tune packages in the LiveCD if needed for FreeDOS 1.3 RC2.
Release notes
The release notes were published in plain text format. Original version is shown below:
### FreeDOS 1.3-RC1 Installation media.
README.TXT
The simple "before you choose and install" document.
(All zip archives contain a copy of this README file.)
verify.txt
Contains MD5, SHA256 and SHA512 hashes for all of the different release
files.
FD13-Floppy.zip
* FD13FLOP.IMG - Basic FreeDOS installation boot floppy image.
FD13-LiteUSB.zip
* FD13LITE.IMG - Plain DOS system only! USB stick image.
* FD13LITE.VMDK - An Virtual Machine Disk description file to simplify
attaching the LiteUSB image to a virtual machine (like VirtualBox and
vmWare) as a hard drive.
FD13-FullUSB.zip
* FD13FULL.IMG - Plain DOS system and Full install USB stick image.
(Also, includes may extra packages that are not installed in the
"Plain DOS" or even the "Full Install". These extras can be installed
later using FDIMPLES or another package manager)
* FD13FULL.VMDK - An Virtual Machine Disk description file to simplify
attaching the FullUSB image to a virtual machine (like VirtualBox and
vmWare) as a hard drive.
FD13-LegacyCD.zip
* FD13LGCY.ISO - Contains all the packages as FD13-FullUSB. However, it
is a bootable CD image designed for older hardware. It uses the classic
El Torito Boot CD-ROM format. Some modern computers and virtual machines
are known to have issues booting CDs that use this ancient specification.
Unless you have a computer that requires this type of bootable CD, we
recommend using the LiveCD media.
Two prototypes of LiveCDs are being provided with RC1. However, one will be
discarded. Both types have some live FreeDOS packages at boot and support
temporarily installing/removing more by using FDIMPLES. Also, both will
automatically start networking support when used inside VirtualBox or vmWare.
Otherwise, you will need to manually start it.
So, let your voice be heard on which (if any) LiveCD you prefer.
FD13-LiveCD1.zip
* FD13LIVE.ISO - FreeDOS LiveCD along with support for a Plain and Full
installation. Requires 64MB of RAM (more recommended).
Pros: Lower RAM requirement and superior management. In fact, using less
than 64MB it is capable of bring up some portions of FreeDOS on a most
important first basis. The more RAM you've got -- the bigger your temporary
DOS drive will be. Uses less space on the LiveCD leaving more room for
additional packages in the future. Also, it's also kinda cool to watch boot.
Cons: Complex multi-stage startup process requires a little longer to boot.
Some systems may have issues activating the RAM drive under FreeDOS.
FD13-LiveCD2.zip
* FD13LIVE.ISO - FreeDOS LiveCD along with support for a Plain and Full
installation. Requires 128MB of RAM.
Pros: Faster boot time. SysLinux & Memdisk handle creation of a RAM drive
and may have wider system support.
Cons: Fixed DOS drive size and a very hard RAM requirement. Don't meet the
requirement and the system will lockup on boot. Got gigabytes of RAM? Oh
well, it will mostly be unused. Pre-installed packages that generate COM
executable files in the %DOSDIR%\LINKS directory have issues. However,
they do install fine when running the FreeDOS live from the CD.