Releases/Beta8
The FreeDOS Beta 8 "Nikita" distribution was released 7 April 2002.
Codename
Since the previous Beta release had a "Britney Spears" codename, Aitor (FreeDOS developer) suggested to Jeremy (release coordinator at the time) to give Beta 8 a codename based on Peta Wilson's character from a 1997-2001 TV series.
History
This Wayback snapshot says "2002-04-07 Jeremy Davis has posted the FreeDOS Beta 8 ("Nikita") Distribution."
Hot-fix releases
Release notes
THE FREEDOS BETA 8 ("Nikita") DISTRIBUTION
RELEASE NOTES
Jeremy Davis <je...@computer.org>
07 April 2002
This document based on prior Release Notes
written by Jim Hall
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the Beta8 distribution!
Please visit the FreeDOS web site ( www.freedos.org ) for more
information on FreeDOS, including updates or possible problems with
the Beta 8 distribution. Please read the errata.
Please read and understand the licensing information for all programs
you install and use.
For a list of programs available in this distribution see the file
programs.txt, which includes information such as program name, license
(copying information, note some programs may be available only for
non-commercial use), and primary location to obtain program.
In the meantime, some notes and things you need to watch out for:
* You should generally use the latest kernel with included programs;
format 0.85 requires at least kernel build 2024f and emm386 0.4
requires at least kernel build 2026. Other programs may have
similar requirements.
* Format now includes bad sector checking. It does not yet support
FAT32 partitions.
* The MINI and FULL distribution now use the same boot disk image.
The choice of Mini or Full is presented at boot time. MINI consists
of just the BASE install set and boot disk; whereas FULL includes
the BASE install set, boot disk, and optionally the remaining install
sets (EDIT, GUI, LANG, UTIL, and the source sets). Other than
the BASE set (which is required), you only need to download those
sets you wish to install.
* The Fat32 enabled kernel, while may be available, should be
considered experimental. The included utilities may not support
Fat32 and may exhibit other anomalies when using it. It may
also be compiled using 80386 specific instructions so only use
on 386 or higher based computers.
* This distribution is provided in a form suitable for 3.5inch
1.44MB floppies, and defaults to using the standard (Fat12/Fat16
only) kernel.
* Other floppy formats {3.5inch 720KB, and 5.25inch 1.2MB & 360KB}
may also be provided [install disk images for each type, and install
sets divided into sizes to allow the extracted files to fit].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FreeDOS is a trademark of Jim Hall.
It was claimed as a trademark to prevent its possible abuse or misuse.
The name FreeDOS may be used by the FreeDOS community to refer to
programs that are part of the FreeDOS operating system, or to associate
their programs with FreeDOS.