Retro Stream: The new version of FreeDOS took 5 years
After waiting for 5 years, FreeDOS was finally updated to the official version of 1.3. FreeDOS is a free and open source operating system compatible with MS-DOS, the original DOS has long been an antique, but FreeDOS is still active and constantly adding new features.
FreeDOS is capable of supporting 286, 386 to modern PC hardware, FAT32 file systems and CD and USB devices. The update also brought the LiveCD version, which reduced the number of floppy disks required by ZIP compression by half.
LiveCD is a bootable system that comes with many Linux distributions, making it easy for users to experience the operating system without installing it on a hard drive, and now FreeDOS 1.3 also has this feature. FreeDOS 1.3, which offers basic features, has a capacity of 20MB, while the LiveCD version, which integrates a large number of tools and games, has a capacity of 375MB.
Basically what the original DOS can do, FreeDOS can do. Compared to the orthodox DOS system, FreeDOS can also support UEFI booting. In addition to nostalgia, FreeDOS can also facilitate running some antique DOS programs, performing low-level tasks such as hardware firmware updates.
Incidentally, there is an open source Windows-like system: ReactOS, the latest version is 0.4.14, and its development goal is to be compatible with Windows NT systems.
Compared to FreeDOS, which can replace DOS, ReactOS is much less complete. If you are interested, you can experience both systems with the help of virtual machines.
PCIe 5.0 is expected to unify the graphics card power supply interface:
The NVIDIA RTX 40 series and the AMD RDNA3 architecture RX7000 series are expected to be available within a few months, and it is not surprising that they will both use the PCIe 5.0 interface and possibly use a unified power supply interface.
Recently, a number of hardware manufacturers announced new power supplies that comply with the PCIe 5.0 power supply standard, and the 16PIN interface (of which 4PIN is the signal line) can provide up to 600 watts of power supply capacity. GIGABYTE claims that the next-generation PCIe 5.0 graphics card requires a 16PIN power cable or three 8PIN to 16PIN risers. The adapter solution apparently only provides a maximum of 450 watts of power supply capacity, which is comparable to the 16PIN interface without a 4PIN signal line.
In the game PC, multi-graphics solutions have withdrawn from the historical stage, a 16PIN power supply cable can meet the power supply needs of the flagship single card, simplifying the number of cables and optimizing the chassis air duct.