Not to be rude or anything, but is this anything but an idea at the moment? Have you done any work on it? Spent any deeper thoughts regarding it? Any planning?

I'm not sure you grasp the complexities behind this idea of yours. It would take many years to finalise.

I also don't get why you don't want to deal with FreeDOS + QEMU cause, in simple terms, it's exactly like a DOS version of ReactOS which seems to be part of your goal.

OK my development idea came from the something that came before Wine that ran sort of like a micro emulator to run the Windows API only it was built out of DOS instead of NT so it was or should have run Win95 applications back then.

they used something like the Windows desktop only simpler under emulation, and you would need to start the API before you attempted to run a EXE application.

I know this sounds kid of messed up, But I liked it more then Wine fore the old software.

My hope was really to revise the now dead development with the addition of being able to use it as an Live-CD.

I don't have the old software anymore, But I do have an API that should work to start from providing that I can load it to DOS.

I know about ReactOS, but I liked using DOS for its simplicity when programing, or hacking.

I think that NT is OK for people that like to have everything controlled by an unmovable supervisor Aka. a microkernel.

Any thoughts?
Any help?

There's already a project to run Windows applications on DOS.

http://www.japheth.de/HX.html

Runs DosBox/Qemu/ScummVM and the last time I ran it it ran jfduke3d.

Another bizarre post for my "Most Bizarre Posts on VOGONS"-list... (;

Let me get that right: you want to code some kind of emulator (or runtime environment) that emulates DOS, and the Windows API on top of it. To achieve that, you want to continue an already existing, now dead project.

Are you sure you know what you're talking about? I mean, the WINE project is pretty large, and there are lots of people working on it. ReactOS has been in development for ages, and they're still miles away from a stable version. And you want to do something similar on your own? With "foreign", probably badly documented code? I'm not a programmer, but that doesn't sound like the project than can be pulled off in two weeks by a single person. The Qemu/FreeDOS combination is something entirely different from what you're describing in the OP, because Qemu essentially emulates PC (and other) hardware.

I'm not sure, but it seems to me all you need is something like Qemu, BOCHS, VMWare, or any other Emulator/Virtualizer, with the DOS (FreeDOS)/Windows9x combo installed.

I think that this project http://www.japheth.de/HX.html is pretty much what I was talking about,
But I think that it will need some more work to be a good Windows95 like system with the proper hardware support.

As for my cred, I worked extensively with IBM on a ESX like development that might have gone well if not for a drastic cut in staff in 1991.

I think that I will work with HX DOS-Extender for the next steps,
But I will keep you all posted.

Thanks for the help