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| The '''FreeDOS Alpha 5''' distribution was released 10 August 1996. | | The '''FreeDOS Beta 4 "Lemur"''' distribution was released 29 December 1999. |
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| == History == | | == Codename == |
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| We don't have a complete history of the early FreeDOS releases. The 25+ years of DOS history page shows two dates for Alpha 5: 10/97 and 11/97. The page also explains that "The FreeDOS A5 released Nov '97 was the first modern FreeDOS distribution, and was a re-release of the FreeDOS Alpha5." So the date for Alpha 5 should be updated to either 10/97 or 11/97.
| | Jim always wanted to have a mascot for the FreeDOS Project (it's a gimmick.) Linux had the penguin, BSD had the daemon, and GNU had the gnu. Jim hadn't pushed the idea of officially adopting a FreeDOS mascot because he didn't want to get distracted by the noise that would create. Jim named the Lemur distribution as a way of "adopting" a mascot when we really didn't. Plus, Jim always thought lemurs looked cool. |
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| Looks like we had an official Alpha 5 release on Aug 10 1996 per this archived announcement.
| | == History == |
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| See different archive of announcement which also says Aug 10 1996
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| An announcement archived elsewhere dated Jan 28 1996 suggests Alpha 5 will be released early 2/96. This was probably very optimistic; if other release docs show Aug 96, then that is probably correct.
| | This Wayback snapshot says "The Beta4 distribution was released on 29 Dec 1999." Assume that is the correct date. |
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| == Announcement == | | == Announcement == |
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| FreeDOS Alpha 5 release (August 10th, 1996)
| | ..add here.. |
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| INTRODUCTION TO FreeDOS
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| ------------------------------------------------------
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| INTRODUCTION
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| ------------
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| You have in your possession, the product of the combined work of
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| over 50 programmers and software developers from around the world, as
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| well as the end result of literally thousands of hours of work designing,
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| developing, coding, and testing of this software. It is now released
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| to you free of charge, in the hope that it will, in some way assist you,
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| no matter where your journeys will take you. With that said, on behalf
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| of everyone who has contributed to the FreeDOS project, I would like
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| to welcome you to the FreeDOS Alpha-5 release.
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|
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| If you haven't figured it out yet, FreeDOS is a Disk Operating
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| System (OS), which is very similar to MS-DOS. In fact, Free-DOS has
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| been designed to eventually be 100% compatible with all MS-DOS software.
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| As of right now, however, FreeDOS has not reached that 100% mark, and
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| is in fact still under Alpha Development. It would not do much good to
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| release a software that was exactly the same is MS-DOS, so most of
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| FreeDOS has been programmed to provide features and enhancements above
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| and beyond those of MS-DOS. Further, FreeDOS will run on ANY IBM or
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| COMPATIBLE x86 based processor. The best part about FreeDOS to most
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| people is the fact that is 100% Free, you will never have to pay any
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| registration software, or anything of the sort (although any
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| contributions will be welcome).
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|
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| ALPHA TESTING
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| -------------
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| FreeDOS is being released as an ALPHA release. The standard
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| definition for a software to be given a classification of ALPHA is any
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| software which is still under development, and of which the major
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| known bugs HAVE NOT fully been worked out yet. If you are looking for
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| a 100% bug free OS, then it may not be best for you to use FreeDOS
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| at this time. During this testing period, we are asking that you
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| help us out as best as you can be reporting bugs, and other problems
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| that you see. Please refer to the ALPHA.DOC file for additional
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| information, and instructions about this alpha test procedure.
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| GETTING ADDITIONAL HELP
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| -----------------------
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| Because FreeDOS is still under alpha development does not mean that
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| you can not get support for it. In fact, there are many avenue's of
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| support for FreeDOS, and all of it's components and support utilities.
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| That support starts here, with the documentation that you already have,
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| and with this introduction file. The next file that you should read is
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| the FreeDOS Frequently Asked Questions file, otherwise known as the FAQ,
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| it is shipped with the FreeDOS installation, and should be found in your
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| FDOS\DOC directory. The latest version can also always be found on
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| our WWW site, or FTP site.
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| In case you do not already have them, here are those sites :
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| WWW Sites :
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| http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos
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| FTP Sites :
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| ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos
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| In addition, Announcements as well as the latest versions of the
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| Free-DOS FAQ are periodically posted in the following news groups:
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|
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| alt.2600
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| comp.os.msdos.misc
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| comp.os.msdos.programmer
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| alt.msdos.programmer
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| | |
| .. | |