DOS Software

Anything else unrelated to gaming can go here.
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MrFlibble
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DOS Software

Post by MrFlibble »

Since I take interest not only in DOS games but also in other DOS software as well, I thought I'd be posting places on the net where such stuff can be found. Also, in no particular order:

Free Software for DOS
A very nice and very comprehensive database of free downloadable DOS software, split into categories.

Garbo Shareware and Freeware Programs Library
Well yeah, it's not only DOS but it's probably one of the largest and oldest shareware databases around.

Interesting DOS Programs
The site offers a selection of various DOS programmes, as well as links to other sites and various information.

Useful DOS SOftware
A list of various DOS software by Joe Foster, author of The Star Commander, a DOS file shell that supports Commodore 64 file transfer and conversion.

MS-DOS Downloads at Old OS Wiki
A selection of shareware and freeware MS-DOS programmes and utilities.

XTree Fan Page
A very informative source about a rather popular old DOS file manager, XTree.

Volkov Commander
The official page of the popular shareware Norton Commander clone from ex-USSR.

DOS Tools
This is a large site with a variety of downloads; I found the link to it at the FreeDOS website.

DOS Websites Directory
A categorized list of links to numerous DOS-related web resources (I suspect some links might not work though).

DOS Programs
Another quite extensive list of DOS-related websites.
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Post by dosraider »

This should be everyone's first step towards a 'better, more complete' dos :
http://www.4dos.info/4dinfo.htm
http://www.4dos.info/v4dos.htm
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by MrFlibble »

Oooh, nice, thanks for the link! ^_^
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Post by MrFlibble »

Hmm, apparently the Garbo archive is down for good, however, here's a (partial?) mirror:
ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/pc/garbo/

There may be other mirrors too.
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Post by dosraider »

Sadly enough this happens more when the person(s) who maintain such servers/sites retire.

Ah well, let's move on to moderner stuffs *sigh*
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by MrFlibble »

Here's another nice FTP with various DOS software:
ftp://delphi.hs-niederrhein.de/pub/dos/

[Edit] And another one:
http://www.qumran.org/ftp/local/dos/app/
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Post by MrFlibble »

Apparently Microsoft had released the full version of Word for DOS v5.5 for free:
Check it out, Microsoft released Word for DOS 5.5 for free, it was originally a Y2K fix, but instead of just a patch, they posted the full version of Word for DOS 5.5... (yes, this is from Microsoft's official web site)..this will give you an EXE file, you have to run it and then run Setup.

Word for DOS 5.5

I just downloaded and ran it on my modern PC (Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz), it runs fine, although you can't see the splash screen, because my PC is too fast, lol. There are long pauses whenever you access a file for Windows to convert FAT32 to FAT16 apparently. It appears Word 5.5 doesn't recognize long file names either.

Tried loading a modern MS Word file, it was all gibberish. Even saving a file in Word 6.0 format with OpenOffice did not fix.

--Brian
[source]

Turns out it's old news, but still fun nonetheless :)

On another note, HyperDisk is said to be a nice shareware disk caching programme. Get it here: HYDK431.ZIP
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Post by dosraider »

MrFlibble wrote:Apparently Microsoft had released the full version of Word for DOS v5.5 for free: ...etcetera ....
Honnestly, why would you use an obsolete soft (if not for ol'times sake) when you can use LibreOffice?
http://www.libreoffice.org/
LibreOffice will certainly do for home use.
MrFlibble wrote:On another note, HyperDisk is said to be a nice shareware disk caching programme. Get it here: HYDK431.ZIP
Not to be a pain in the a*se, keep in mind that whilst that little soft certainly had lots of merit back in the days, on anything recenter than a P2 (or even P1?) it's completely useless.
And if used with dosbox it's certainly a HD read/write bottleneck.
On the other hand, if you're still running some older 286-386 it will most certainly improve things. Those older HDs and chipsets were slow as a snail . (I somehow doubt you would benefit on a 486/DX2 ....)
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by Quadko »

Honnestly, why would you use an obsolete soft (if not for ol'times sake) when you can use LibreOffice?
I didn't know about libreoffice, thanks for the link. But does it run on dos? :D

A few years ago I was looking for a dos word processor/editor to see if the lack of distraction would make for a better and more productive writing environment for an amateur like me with aspirations to someday be a novelist. And it would run great on a throwaway computer! (The software setup worked, but me writing didn't, at least not for the foreseeable future.)

After some attempts, turned out the most important thing for such a tool would be the word wrapping. I tried a bunch of editors and word processors, including digging up a copy of WordPerfect. They were all terrible, at least at the one thing I really needed! Only Word for DOS 5.5 acted correctly and just worked. With that I had a nice little writing station, if only I made use of it.

All that to say, while I agree and don't see a good reason to use it in Windows (and of course it won't read modern word documents!), it's the best thing I know if you want to do any writing in Dos.

Also, while probably no one really cares, as I recall the license was "here is a convenient full install, if you already have a license for it." I don't think it was ever released as a free license, just a download made available for people who needed it (Y2K fix) rather than them messing with patching. On the other hand, if I recall correctly, modern MS licenses for Offices also cover "previous versions", so if you have office you might be 100% legit. But again, in my completely amateur and non-lawyer opinion, probably no one cares as long as no one tries to make a business off of distributing MS Word for Dos. ;)
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Post by dosraider »

Quadko wrote:A few years ago I was looking for a dos word processor/editor to see if the lack of distraction would make for a better and more productive writing environment for an amateur like me with aspirations to someday be a novelist. And it would run great on a throwaway computer! (The software setup worked, but me writing didn't, at least not for the foreseeable future.)
Me can't help wondering what your publisher would think when you send a Dos copy in ..... :laugh:
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by dosraider »

To be complete:
Quadko wrote:.... But does it run on dos? :D
Mostly forgotten, but if you want a better editor than the basic MsDos edit there are also the FreeDos editors, several of them developed for FreeDos.
Google 'freedos edit' and you'll certainly find something to your likings.
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by Quadko »

...what your publisher would think...
I love your sense of humor, you always make me laugh. Thanks!

Interesting, I didn't think about the FreeDos work, I'll have to check that out. I haven't played with it in years. At the time, I found a lot of variations on the Dos Edit program, but they are all really programmer / code / script focused, so typing paragraphs with wordwrap was a pain. Lots of the old programs have a wordwrap feature, but Dos was "too slow" to run wordwrap all the time, so you had to issue wordwrap commands.

Even other word processors like WordPerfect seemed to take that approach, as I recall. Or maybe that one had other problems. :) I tried to track down a WordStar install for Dos, but it's amazingly still for sale and also pricy on ebay (at least when I looked a few years ago). I guess if MS Word for Dos wasn't available from the MS ftp site, it would probably be in the same situation.
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Post by dosraider »

Site you could check, maybe you'll find something you really like ....
http://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/txtedit1.htm
*If I may recommend some: VCE and Pedit, friends of moi use them and they are pretty happy with those .... believe it or not, they are professional column writers for local newspapers, bloody still working on P2 MsDos laptops, the ol'dinosaurs !!!*
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by MrFlibble »

dosraider wrote:
MrFlibble wrote:Apparently Microsoft had released the full version of Word for DOS v5.5 for free: ...etcetera ....
Honnestly, why would you use an obsolete soft (if not for ol'times sake) when you can use LibreOffice?
http://www.libreoffice.org/
LibreOffice will certainly do for home use.
Yeah, I know about LibreOffice and OpenOffice :) What interested me in the case of MSWord for DOS is that
  • it's an original piece of authentic DOS software.
  • MS is giving something away for free? doesn't happen too often, right?
dosraider wrote:
MrFlibble wrote:On another note, HyperDisk is said to be a nice shareware disk caching programme. Get it here: HYDK431.ZIP
Not to be a pain in the a*se, keep in mind that whilst that little soft certainly had lots of merit back in the days, on anything recenter than a P2 (or even P1?) it's completely useless.
And if used with dosbox it's certainly a HD read/write bottleneck.
On the other hand, if you're still running some older 286-386 it will most certainly improve things. Those older HDs and chipsets were slow as a snail . (I somehow doubt you would benefit on a 486/DX2 ....)
Thanks for feedback on this! I'm actually looking for a solution to replace SmartDrive for programmes that have been tailored to work with it, and I suppose they might work better with a caching programme even under DOSBox (totally not sure but could be worth a try).
Quadko wrote:After some attempts, turned out the most important thing for such a tool would be the word wrapping. I tried a bunch of editors and word processors, including digging up a copy of WordPerfect. They were all terrible, at least at the one thing I really needed! Only Word for DOS 5.5 acted correctly and just worked. With that I had a nice little writing station, if only I made use of it.
There's a shareware thingie called Boxer, I have only briefly checked it out but it seems to have lots of features, including word wrap, auto format and other things. Get one of the latest DOS versions here: BOXER75A.ZIP

BTW, the company that made it still exists, and they sell modern versions of their editor. Not sure if they accept registration fees for the DOS version though, or if they considered releasing the DOS version for free as some museum stuff.
Quadko wrote:Also, while probably no one really cares, as I recall the license was "here is a convenient full install, if you already have a license for it." I don't think it was ever released as a free license, just a download made available for people who needed it (Y2K fix) rather than them messing with patching. On the other hand, if I recall correctly, modern MS licenses for Offices also cover "previous versions", so if you have office you might be 100% legit. But again, in my completely amateur and non-lawyer opinion, probably no one cares as long as no one tries to make a business off of distributing MS Word for Dos. ;)
Hmm, you're probably right. I kind of didn't think about this possibility - after all, there are companies that do release older versions of their software for free as a promotion for newer, better commercial versions (e.g. what SoftMaker does).
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Post by 486 player »

Another benchmarker: TOPBench:

http://dosbenchmark.wordpress.com/
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Post by MrFlibble »

I've just learned about yet another Norton Commander clone called DOSZIP. Looks pretty cool :)

[Edit] Also found a page which attempts to list all known NC clones:
http://www.rmonet.com/commander/
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Jesus Christ!hehe

@MrFlibble: There are some interesting read on the webpages. Thanks. Saw a couple stuffs from the Commodore 64 era and one of the software is written supposedly entirely in assembly. Awesome read. Thx.
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Post by MrFlibble »

MrFlibble wrote:Also found a page which attempts to list all known NC clones:
http://www.rmonet.com/commander/
Some links there do not work so I thought I'd drop a few here:

Byte Manager
License: Shareware
Homepage: Official Byte Manager Homepage (Wayback Machine copy)
Latest version: 1.23 (bm123.zip)

Crash Commander
License: Shareware
Homepage: http://www.crashproductions.dk/ (site closed)
Latest version: 0.91 (cc091.zip)

DOS Contoller
License: Freeware (unclear)
Latest version: dc-sk.zip

Genesis Commander
License: Freeware
Homepage: Homepage of Genesis Collata Software (Wayback Machine copy)
Latest version: 2.0 (gc200.zip)

Gram's Commander
License: Freeware
Homepage: My Work, Research and Publications (Wayback Machine copy)
Latest version: 3 (?)

UFO (Universal File Operator)
License: Freeware (formerly commercial)
Home page: DEMcom: Why UFO 96?
Freeware release announcement: DEMCOM: UFO 96 is now freeware
Latest version: 96.4 (ufo964e.exe)

Here's yet another extensive list of DOS file managers:
http://freesoft.cyberside.net.ee/FreeSo ... .htm#fmdos

A few more DOS file managers:

Archive Lister
License: Freeware
Homepage: SotSoft, Archive Lister
Latest version: 2.76

Captain Nemo
License: Shareware
Homepage: Products Captain Nemo - The DOS Novell Cross Platform File Manager
Latest version: 1.02 (nemo102.zip)

DOS Command Center
License: Shareware
Homepage: e-merge GmbH Deutschland
Latest version: 5.1 (dccv51e.zip)

The Doszip Commander
License: GPL
Home page: The Doszip Commander
Latest version: 3.36
Older versions can be found here.

HFM
License: Freeware (formerly shareware)
Homepage: HFM file manager
Latest version: 4.04 (hfm404nl.zip)

The Ramsete Commander
License: Freeware
Latest version: 1.5beta (rc150.zip)
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