THE FREEDOS BETA 8 ("Nikita") DISTRIBUTION

RELEASE NOTES

Jeremy Davis <jeremyd@computer.org>
07 April 2002

This document based on prior Release Notes
written by Jim Hall

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Welcome to the Beta8 distribution!

Please visit the FreeDOS web site ( http://www.freedos.org ) for more
information on FreeDOS, including updates or possible problems with
the Beta 8 distribution.  Please read the errata.  

Please read and understand the licensing information for all programs
you install and use.

For a list of programs available in this distribution see the file
programs.txt, which includes information such as program name, license
(copying information, note some programs may be available only for
non-commercial use), and primary location to obtain program.


In the meantime, some notes and things you need to watch out for:

* You should generally use the latest kernel with included programs;
  format 0.85 requires at least kernel build 2024f and emm386 0.4
  requires at least kernel build 2026.  Other programs may have
  similar requirements.

* Format now includes bad sector checking.  It does not yet support
  FAT32 partitions.

* The MINI and FULL distribution now use the same boot disk image.
  The choice of Mini or Full is presented at boot time.  MINI consists
  of just the BASE install set and boot disk; whereas FULL includes 
  the BASE install set, boot disk, and optionally the remaining install
  sets (EDIT, GUI, LANG, UTIL, and the source sets).  Other than
  the BASE set (which is required), you only need to download those
  sets you wish to install.

* The Fat32 enabled kernel, while may be available, should be
  considered experimental.  The included utilities may not support
  Fat32 and may exhibit other anomalies when using it.  It may
  also be compiled using 80386 specific instructions so only use
  on 386 or higher based computers.

* This distribution is provided in a form suitable for 3.5inch
  1.44MB floppies, and defaults to using the standard (Fat12/Fat16
  only) kernel.  

* Other floppy formats {3.5inch 720KB, and 5.25inch 1.2MB & 360KB}
  may also be provided [install disk images for each type, and install
  sets divided into sizes to allow the extracted files to fit].


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  FreeDOS is a trademark of Jim Hall. 
  It was claimed as a trademark to prevent its possible abuse or misuse.
  The name FreeDOS may be used by the FreeDOS community to refer to 
  programs that are part of the FreeDOS operating system, or to associate
  their programs with FreeDOS.