Chapter 368.   The valuable DOS Freeware page

Links to valuable free Dos programs working on low equipped computers.

This material appeared originally at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7737/, in 1996. Now it is incorporated inside the Italian document ``Appunti di informatica libera'', and it might be reached at the URI <http://a2.swlibero.org/the_valuable_dos_freeware_page.html>. Questo materiale è apparso in origine, nel 1996, presso http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7737/. Adesso viene incorporato nel documento «Appunti di informatica libera» e può essere raggiunto attraverso l'URI <http://a2.swlibero.org/the_valuable_dos_freeware_page.html>. L'intento dell'autore è solo quello di continuare a curare un vecchio lavoro che potrebbe essere ancora utile, nonostante si tratti di riferimenti a software in parte libero e in parte solo gratuito, oltre che evidentemente obsoleto.

Web-Counter: since 1996/08/25.

• 368.1   Introduction

• 368.2   OS and GUI

• 368.3   Utility

• 368.4   Network

• 368.5   Compilers

• 368.6   Typesetting

• 368.7   More Dos software sources

• 368.8   Search engines

368.1   Introduction

The Dos operating system meant much for many people. Today, proprietary Dos-like operating systems seem to be no more developed. In this situation, the only possible future for Dos is the ``free'' software, and it is not just a matter of money anymore.

Unfortunately, ``free'' is a word with many meanings. Today, this is still the biggest obstacle to the future of the Dos world. There is so much software for Dos, with so many different license agreements. The typical Dos user doesn't mind to it. But this problem prevents the realization of big serious projects based on it.

Today, the Dos world needs philosophy, and the GNU idea is still the right one (<http://www.gnu.org>).

The author of this space would like to list here only ``free software'' in the sense stated by the Free Software Foundation, but it is impossible, as there isn't enough good real free software for Dos.

The listed software is meant to work on i286 and below.

It is attempted to give some kind of classification about the legal condition of the software presented here. The definition used might be outdated, or there might be other wrong assumption. In particular, the definition ``public domain'' means here, in most cases, that there is the source, but there is no clear license statement.

Beside the URI links of some FTP services there is an additional ``search link'' that queries a FTP search engine for the same file. These additional links should be used when there are troubles with the main links.

Anyone can link this document anywhere, so, there is no need to ask for it. Anyway, it is better to link to this document using at the file name <http://a2.swlibero.org/the_valuable_dos_freeware_page.html>.

In the future, many links may disappear on this page, because of more selective choices concerning software license.

368.2   OS and GUI

• FreeDOS ⁽¹⁾ <http://www.freedos.org>

• FreeGEM ⁽²⁾ <http://www.cableone.net/eathan/gem.htm>

368.3   Utility

archive, backup

• Gzip ⁽³⁾ - .GZ archive compressor and extractor. <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/compress/gzip124.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=gzip124.zip>

• TAR ⁽⁴⁾ - portable TAR - DOS/UNIX backup, compressor, with hardware support. <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/arcers/tar320g.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=tar320g.zip>

• Untgz ⁽⁵⁾ - .TGZ, .TAR, .GZ, .ZIP file extractor. <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/arcers/untgz095.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=untgz095.zip>

• Info-ZIP ⁽⁶⁾ - .ZIP compatible compression and extraction utility. <http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/> <ftp://ftp.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/MSDOS/>

• Restaur ⁽⁷⁾ - Replacement for Dos Restore, <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/diskutil/restaur1.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=restaur1.zip>

communication

• DosFax ⁽⁸⁾ - Send a fax using Dos command line <http://www.Adr.de/speicherplatz/cs/dosfax.htm>

• Bgfax ⁽⁹⁾ <http://www.blkbox.com/~bgfax/>

• Rifs ⁽¹⁰⁾ - Disk sharing over a serial line, <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/lan/dosrifs2.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=dosrifs2.zip>

directory, file

• WCD ⁽¹¹⁾ - Powerful chdir for Dos and Unix <http://www.xs4all.nl/~waterlan/>

disk

• Fips ⁽¹²⁾ - Non-destructive splitting of hard disk partitions <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/diskutil/fips15.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=fips15.zip>

• Part ⁽¹³⁾ - MBR partition manager <http://www.intercom.com/~ranish/>

help

• NG_clone ⁽¹⁴⁾ - Norton Guides clone <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/txtutl/ngclon11.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=ngclon11.zip>

shell

• DC ⁽¹⁵⁾ - The Dos Controller - A Norton Commander clone <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/fileutil/dc-sk.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=dc-sk.zip>

system

• Cmos ⁽¹⁶⁾ - Save/Restore extended C/MOS <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/sysutl/cmos93cd.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=cmos93cd.zip>

• KGB ⁽¹⁷⁾ - Utility to monitor some Dos functions and reporting into a log file <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/sysutl/kgb104.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=kgb104.zip>

text

• Vim ⁽¹⁸⁾ - VI improved, a small text editor that can handle very big files with low RAM <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/editor/vim53d16.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=vim53d16.zip>

See also:

• Richard L. Green, Free software for Dos

  <http://www.geocities.com/rlcgreen/softlib1.htm>

368.4   Network

packet driver

• PC/TCP Packet Driver Collection ⁽¹⁹⁾ <ftp://ftp.crynwr.com/drivers/> <ftp://ftp.crynwr.com/drivers/pktd11.zip>

• WATTCP ⁽²⁰⁾ - TCP/IP library routines <http://www.wattcp.com/>

• DOS PPPD ⁽²¹⁾ - Dos port of Linux PPP packet driver <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/pktdrvr/dosppp05.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=dosppp05.zip>

• Comring ⁽²²⁾ - packet driver emulating ethernet over serial link(s) <http://wizard.ae.krakow.pl/~jb/ComRing/>

TCP/IP

• WATTCP apps ⁽²³⁾ - some common client application using WATTCP library <http://www.smashco.com/wattcp/apps.zip>

• MiniTelnet ⁽²⁴⁾ - TELNET client <http://www.smashco.com/wattcp/mt.zip>

• Bobcat ⁽²⁵⁾ - Text based web browser <http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/bobcat.htm> (derived from DosLynx, <ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/WWW/DosLynx/>)

• PCroute ⁽²⁶⁾ - IP routing program for IBM PC <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/network/pcrte224.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=pcrte224.zip>

• PPRD ⁽²⁷⁾ - Turn a dedicated PC (XT/AT) into a LPD server <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/lan/pprd200.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=pprd200.zip>

• NCSA Telnet ⁽²⁸⁾ - Telnet, Ftp,... NCSA <http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/PCTelnet/> <ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Telnet/DOS/> <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/ncsatlnt/>

• NOS (KA9Q) ⁽²⁹⁾ - A complete mini TCP/IP system <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/tcpip/> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=e920603.zip>

  To use NOS you need documentation, for example the package <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/tcpip/intronos.zip>

• SSHDOS ⁽³⁰⁾ - SSH client for Dos <http://sourceforge.net/projects/sshdos>

• Talk ⁽³¹⁾ - Talk client for Dos <http://www.smashco.com/wattcp/talk-13.zip>

• ABC-nslookup ⁽³²⁾ - DNS query clients for Dos <http://www.smashco.com/wattcp/nslb01a.zip>

See also:

• Marc S. Ressl, Dos Internet Pages

  <http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/>

• Smash-Co Communications, TCP/IP for MS-DOS

  <http://www.smashco.com/wattcp.asp>

• The U-M Software Archive

  <http://www.umich.edu/~archive/msdos/communications/wattcp/>

  <http://www.umich.edu/~archive/msdos/communications/packet/>

368.5   Compilers

assembler

See the FreeDOS project (<http://www.freedos.org>) for assembler compilers.

batch

• BAT2EXE ⁽³³⁾ - Compile batch files for speed <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/batchutl/bat2ex15.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=bat2ex15.zip>

C/C++

See the FreeDOS project (<http://www.freedos.org>) for C and C++ compilers.

Perl

Perl ⁽³⁴⁾ - Practical Extraction Report Language <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/perl/>

Rexx

• BREXX ⁽³⁵⁾ - Rexx interpreter for Dos/Unix <http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/languages/rexx/brexx/html/rx.html>

xBase

• nanoBase ⁽³⁶⁾ - Mini, but nearly complete xBase <http://a2.swlibero.org/nanobase_1997.html>

See also:

• David Muir Shamoff, Catalog of free compilers and interpreters

  <http://www.idiom.com/free-compilers/>

368.6   Typesetting

• Nro ⁽³⁷⁾ - A Nroff implementation for Dos <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/txtutl/nroff1.zip> <http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=ftp&amp;q=nroff1.zip>

• Ghostscript ⁽³⁸⁾ - ``GNU'' original edition - PostScript previewing, conversion, and printing <ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/gnu/>

• emTeX ⁽³⁹⁾ - TeX-LaTeX distribution for Dos <ftp://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/msdos/emtex/>

368.7   More Dos software sources

• <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/>

• <http://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/>

368.8   Search engines

• <http://www.alltheweb.com/?c=ftp>

• <http://www.shareware.com/>

Appunti di informatica libera 2003.01.01 --- Copyright © 2000-2003 Daniele Giacomini -- daniele @ swlibero.org

---

1) FreeDOS   GNU GPL

2) FreeGEM   GNU GPL

3) Gzip   GNU GPL

4) TAR (Dos)   public domain

5) Untgz   GNU GPL

6) Info-ZIP   free software with special license

7) Restaur   cannot be sold for profit

8) DosFax   public domain

9) Bgfax   promised to become free software

10) Rifs   cannot be sold for profit

11) WCD   GNU GPL

12) Fips   GNU GPL

13) Part   public domain

14) NG_clone   public domain

15) DC   public domain (no license at all, and no sources)

16) Cmos   public domain

17) KGB   public domain

18) Vim   free software with special license

19) Crynwr packet driver collection   GNU GPL

20) WATTCP   free of charge library

21) DOS PPPD   mixed licenses

22) Comring   GNU GPL

23) WATTCP apps   cannot be sold

24) MiniTelnet   free software with a special license

25) Bobcat   GNU GPL

26) PCroute   cannot distribute modifications

27) PPRD   software non libero: licenza Artistic

28) NCSA Telnet   public domain

29) NOS   public domain

30) SSHDOS   GNU GPL

31) Talk   GNU GPL

32) ABC-nslookup   UCB BSD

33) BAT2EXE   public domain

34) Perl   GNU GPL or Artistic

35) BREXX   public domain

36) nanoBase   GNU GPL

37) Nro   public domain

38) Ghostscript   GNU GPL

39) emTeX   LPPL but some files have different conditions