🚀 go-pugleaf

If you _really_ want to stick it to the hoarders,
get 'em where it _really_ hurts.  UN*X is elite, but MiSeryDOS
is ubiquitous.  How's about if the FSF or some other outfit
(say the "FPW" I suggest in another article) takes on a "NAND"
project--"Not ANother DOS"?  Something *FREE* that runs
MSDOS and OS/2 programs.  Something with a C compiler and a C++
compiler and a BASIC interpreter and a BASIC compiler and a whole
slew of UN*X-like utilities.  We've got the hard disk space,
you know.

There was a time when everybody had a friend who had developed
a TRS-80 operating system.  Well, everybody get together and
develop a PC operating system.  The utilities must be compilable
under DOS and OS/2, and DOS and OS/2 programs must run on the system,
with perhaps only minor twiddling (such as running them through
a processor that modifies the .exe format slightly).  The project
would resemble the GNU project, at least on the surface.

At least some of the utilities could be taken secondhand from the
GNU project (and thus be bound by the copyleft).  There are some
GNU and other free utilities that come to mind readily:  the GNU
greps, awk, sed, indent; bison; flex; PAX; something using the ZIP format
(that should be a challenge); FreEMACS (if the author is agreeable).

The machines may be smaller, but that makes the challenge greater.
What I've seen done on a miniscule TRS-80 makes me realise that an
IBM-PC operating system can be a moderate marvel, and without being
a memory hog.  (The TRS-80 operating systems used a lot of disk overlays.
48K was enough to run a fairly powerful operating system and applications
programs comfortably.  The better systems let you use memory-based
overlays if you had the room.)

Lets start sharing _good_, _serious_ PC software.  Let's
have a _good_, _real_, _free_ development system.  Let's go
for NAND!

-- 
Barry Schwartz, Chief SAPsucker                  bbs@cdspr.rutgers.edu
Grad Student, Dept. of Elec. and Comp. Engg.     bschwart@elbereth.rutgers.edu
Rutgers University College of Engg.              bbs@hankel.rutgers.edu
Piscataway, NJ 08854    U.S.A.                   rutgers!cdspr!bbs