RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2026-06-10, 06:00:

The other DOS alternatives, whilst I am sure do have advantages, are not 100% compatible with MSDOS. So, if a trouble-free experience is a primary goal, I am confused why the others are even considered?

Sometimes the goal is pushing the hardware to the max, rather than trouble-free experience...

See eg. PC DOS 7.10 - far from trouble-free, an incomplete product that's never been officially released.
But it's probably the only DOS supporting FAT32 on a 286, so it has its niche...

Currently in-progress to Pre-Release 5, there is IONDOS:

IONDOS
------

An ION is small, powerful, and electrically charged.

IONDOS is a live/bootable, HDD installable, 8088 compatible, and excessively tiny DOS distribution.

It is free for non-commercial purposes. It is based around existing closed (but still free) and open source components with some exclusively developed for it, and others modified to suit its needs.

Short (and not complete) list of features:
- Multiple boot menu options for improved backwards compatibility
- Command-line auto completion
- Command-line scroll-back buffer
- Full clipboard support in DOS
- Long File Name support (LFN)
- FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 file system support (up to 2 TB volumes)
- Drivers for USB, CD/DVD-ROM, ZIP/JAZ and ethernet devices
- Universal sound card driver that offers an all-in-one solution
- Comprehensive mouse driver with wheel support
- RAM support beyond 64 MB (up to 4 GB)
- Big resizable RAM drives up to 2 GB in size
- 635 KB of Conventional RAM free to run most demanding DOS games
- Diagnostic and repair capabilities
- Text editors for regular use
- Graphic User Interface for compressing files in RAR format
- Antivirus scanner that can detect more than 9000 virii
- Disk image creation and file extraction (floppy and cd)
- Intuitive file managers that follows the popular two panel paradigm
- Network communication programs
- Easy to use hard drive preparation and installation tool
- Power management including CPU slowdown and several associated commands
- Flexible Memory Management tools
- VESA tweaking utilities
- A working system for PCs with even an 8088 CPU and 256 KB memory
- Built-in HELP summary and full external manual

It comes in a single 1.44 MB floppy disk.
Release estimate: between mid-June till the end of this year (worst case scenario).

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2026-06-10, 20:37:

theelf wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:14:

HDD space is never enough !! jeje

Right now in my 286 machine i have a internal 32GB CF and a 128GB USB pendrive, and im getting short

How did you get the 286 to support storage that large?

ezdrive for the internal CF card and a picogus for the pendrive

jakethompson1 wrote on 2026-06-09, 17:19:

cyclone3d wrote on 2026-06-09, 16:20:

Most people have forgotten this, but MS-DOS 6.22 was available for free via the MS ftp site as well as a host of other things before they took the ftp down.

I recall the 6-to-6.22 "StepUp" upgrade being there, but not the full version.

You could install 6.22 from scratch. All you had to do was make the first floppy bootable then and run a sys command on your boot hdd and then run the "step up" install if I remember correctly.

The supplement disks were also available on the ftp.

theelf wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:14:

HDD space is never enough !! jeje

Right now in my 286 machine i have a internal 32GB CF and a 128GB USB pendrive, and im getting short

Are you watching 4K porn on your 286? 🤣

appiah4 wrote on 2026-06-11, 06:32:

theelf wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:14:

HDD space is never enough !! jeje

Right now in my 286 machine i have a internal 32GB CF and a 128GB USB pendrive, and im getting short

Are you watching 4K porn on your 286? 🤣

well, no 4k, but some Jenna Jameson 320x200 avi can be a good idea!

*wonders what codec would even be fast or lean enough on a 286 to work properly.

Grzyb wrote on 2026-06-10, 11:35:

Hey, DOS 3.30 is fine! It's the best option for an XT with 640 KB RAM and up to 32 MB HDD. For newer machines, too limited indee […]
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ppgrainbow wrote on 2026-06-10, 05:34:

Mediocre versions of MS-DOS: 3.3 (and earlier), 4.0 and 4.01

Hey, DOS 3.30 is fine!
It's the best option for an XT with 640 KB RAM and up to 32 MB HDD.
For newer machines, too limited indeed - DOS 3.00-3.30 limits, with a riddle
Right tool for the right purpose!

Hi, I don't mean to bother anyone but I'd like to add that it is possible to use UMBs on DOS 3.x, too.
Parts of DOS 3.x can also be moved into UMBs, comparable to how it's possible on DR DOS 5 and up (MS-DOS 5 was response to it).
It needs older third-party utilities, however, such as QRAM (dos-up.sys) because DOS 3.x can't do it on its own yet.
I've probably mentioned this a few times, but there's an article from 1987 (-year of PC-DOS 3.30 btw-) that explains how to get past 640KB on an PC/XT.
The reason I mention this is because DOS 3.x era had many interesting OEM versions of DOS.
Compaq DOS 3.31 and the original DR DOS 3.31 just being one of them.
There's also DCP, for example. The last DOS from "the other" Germany. It uses a different spelling/wording, for example.
So perhaps there might be still an historical interest to fiddle with older releases of DOS on a fully expanded PC/XT.

wierd_w wrote on 2026-06-11, 15:41:

*wonders what codec would even be fast or lean enough on a 286 to work properly.

msvideo1

On old XT machines with little resources the best option are IMHO, DR-DOS 3.41 or Novell DOS 7.0 (Not 7.01 or others).

Novell DOS 7.0 has the less RAM resource footprint of all DOSes at 48KB, beating MS-DOS 3.31 which needs 55KB.

DR-DOS 3.41 was a like MS-DOS 3.31 but on steroids. I remember using it embedded in ROM on a handheld wireless warehouse bar code scanner in the 90's. It booted and run telnet, logged into an AIX 4.3 AS/400 server application for warehouse management on a then SP500 company. It was a solid beast that never failed (and I used it and abused it profusely, like everyone of its more or less 400 users over there did).

theelf wrote on 2026-06-11, 23:33:

wierd_w wrote on 2026-06-11, 15:41:

*wonders what codec would even be fast or lean enough on a 286 to work properly.

msvideo1

^FLI/FLC (Flick) via Autodesk Animation Player for Windows/MCI (my samples: FLI and FLC).
Windows 3.0 MME had an animation codec, too. It used *.MMM file extension (screenshot).
They're no videos formats with sound, though. Animation Player allows syncing with other devices (audio etc), I vaguely remember.

Jo22 wrote on 2026-06-11, 23:55:

^FLI/FLC (Flick) via Autodesk Animation Player for Windows/MCI (my samples: FLI and FLC). Windows 3.0 MME had an animation codec […]
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theelf wrote on 2026-06-11, 23:33:

wierd_w wrote on 2026-06-11, 15:41:

*wonders what codec would even be fast or lean enough on a 286 to work properly.

msvideo1

^FLI/FLC (Flick) via Autodesk Animation Player for Windows/MCI (my samples: FLI and FLC).
Windows 3.0 MME had an animation codec, too. It used *.MMM file extension (screenshot).
They're no videos formats with sound, though. Animation Player allows syncing with other devices (audio etc), I vaguely remember.

Beside lovely FLIC files, that love because was part of my childhood, did not test much other options, but believe me, after tried everything, the most easy and good way i found to have fullscreen good resolution video in a 286 is msvid1. The problem is need too much space, but quality is very good and fast