THE FREEDOS BETA 8 ("Nikita") DISTRIBUTION RELEASE NOTES Jeremy Davis 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 ( http://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.