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idisjunction

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Everything posted by idisjunction

  1. Are you suggesting that writing an operating system is easy just because Linus figured out how to do it? Yes. A free 9x operating system, like a free Unix system, will not exist unless someone actually sits down and writes the kernel. And it never will be. That is beyond the scope of the project. Even if it were the goal of the project, it doesn't use clean-room reverse-engineering, so the code will always be suspect. If you see the code, you can't write it. It's an extreme shot in the dark. Your hunting for somebody who: 1. Knows how to write kernel code. 2. Wants to write a 9x-style kernel 3. Is willing to make it open-source You're being optimistic, I'll grant you that. Provided that they want to write it. To quote "Linux is not Windows": By and large, most people do not care if a modern 9x kernel exists, as they have moved on to other operating systems, such as XP/Vista, OS X, or Linux. The people who still use 9x operating systems probably also do not care. Look at the reasons many people still use 9x: 1. Compatibility. If Microsoft can't guarantee that future versions will be 100% compatible with 9x programs, how could an open-source project? Look at the truble Wine has had. 2. Installation. You won't believe how many people don't even know what a driver is. If they pop in and install a copy of {Insert Project Name Here} and their sound card doesn't work, they are going to be extremely unhappy. 3. Getting it. I moved off of Windows 9x shortly before I moved off dial-up (towards the end of 2006). Coming from that type of background, I would assume that the people who need a free 9x most, people who don't do it for the "sport" of getting it to work on new stuff or "sticking it to the man", are dial-up users. Many of them might not even have a CD burner. So you would need a a free ShipIt -like service. I don't think your user base is going to be large enough to pay for such a service. Even most Linux distos can't do that, which is why Ubuntu is so popular. I have a pretty good hunch.
  2. I did. And, as I said, there was no GNU kernel available, only GNU tools, like gcc or bash. Thats why Linus wrote the Linux kernel. You also have no free 9x kernel, only free programs, like MinGW or Mozilla Firefox. ... is not an open-source replacement for the 9x kernel. It adds certain missing API functions that the kernel did not originally have. That's like saying that if I hack my BIOS so that it has an extra string in it that says "Hi!", and help others to do it, I've written a free BIOS. I'll call up FSF right now, and tell them coreboot is wasting it's time. Unless KernelEx can operate with NO PROPRIETARY CODE FROM MICROSOFT, it is not even a "free" program.
  3. Then "substituting" is just the beginning... Then might I point out that GNU was for a long time (and mostly still is) a non-existent operating system? The only reason those tools are used at all is that Linus Torvalds was dedicated enough to write a kernel. The GNU Hurd has never been fully written, even though it has been planned for 20 years. Gathering free software does nothing of any practical value if you have no one to write the replacement 9x kernel.
  4. One nice thing about Linux is that there is no shortage of audio editing tools. Try out Audacity (also available for Windows). http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ It's also in Ubuntu's repository sudo apt-get install audacity You might also want to try Jokosher. http://www.jokosher.org/download sudo dpkg -i nameofpackage.deb
  5. Abandonware is software that is no longer sold or supported. That doesn't mean you are free to distribute or sell it. Should the company want to re-release it at some point, you would be taking from their profits.
  6. But that's not "open-sourcing" anything. There's nothing to stop anyone from writing a program that replaces certain files, like notepad.exe, with a free replacement. The problem (and thus the usefulness) of such a project is that it does not fix any underlying problems or provide any innovation. Installing Wine Gecko may be more secure than IE6, but it doesn't change the fact that eventually Gecko won't run on 9x. Providing an OpenGL version of Solitaire doesn't change the fact that new video hardware won't support 9x. Providing a free disk defragmenter won't change 9x's file size limit, or the limitations of the FAT32 file system. 9x needs SMP, not VLC.
  7. It's a W98 limit too. W9x uses a 32 bit filepointer to keep track of the read/write location in the file. This limits the filesize to 4GiB. Fat32 uses a 32 bit field to store the filesize, which gives the same limit. How the he** do you guys burn DVDs?
  8. The "security" of NTFS is useful only if the operating system can use the permissions features. 9x cannot, and probably never will, be able to implement those types of partitions. Even Linux, with a comparable security model, currently does not. It sets all permissions to Administrator. Not too much of a problem, since most XP users are administrators anyway, but it's still not a good way to do things. Plus, NTFS has something called "streams". Data can be hidden in a stream in a way that is almost undetectable. When you open a file with hidden streams, it can load up a sort of "trojan horse." http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Alt...ta_Streams.html
  9. You could try something like this: http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/A.Jaw.Venema/logoview.html Just add it to your AUTOEXEC.BAT
  10. If it's a 3.1 app, it should run fine under 9x.
  11. I am currently using Kubuntu 7.10 in it's x86-64 flavor. Almost all of the applications are 64-bit. Whether they are fully optimized, or whether they have only been compiled I cannot say. Konqueror, Firefox, MPlayer, Amarok, etc... are all 64-bit. You may have some trouble with Flash, because Adobe currently only has it compiled for 32-bit systems. If you want Wine, you'll have to get it from the Wine website. Other than that, it has been much the same as the 32-bit version for me.
  12. Even if you patch FreeDOS to boot off of an NTFS partition, you still have to patch Windows 98 to run off of FreeDOS.
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