9 ms·
The single best thing about DOS in 2025 is that it is the base for the best virtual machine, DOSBox. If something runs in DOSBox it will always run. DOS softwar
by 3036e4 1y ago
The single best thing about DOS in 2025 is that it is the base for the best virtual machine, DOSBox. If something runs in DOSBox it will always run. DOS software can not rot. No APIs change. And DOSBox has been ported to almost every platform, including browsers and phones.
Of course it would be nice to also see that kind of stability in modern systems, but since that seems to be impossible for no good reasons the next best thing is to run applications in a dead OS like DOS that has good emulators.
- zzo38computer 1y agoThis is a benefit of DOS (and other older systems which can also be emulated). This is a benefit which applies even if you are not using a DOS system. This is why I had sometimes suggested making programs for older systems, that it would then have this benefit whether or not you actually have those older systems. (I am not sure that it is actually the "single best thing about DOS", but it is a good benefit anyways.)
- cyberge99 1y agoThis is because DOS stopped. It effectively ended development, whereas Linux is still evolving.
- 3036e4 1y agoYes, but if someone created a "LinuxBox" emulator that provided a stable, never changing, fixed target for Linux software, I would be happy to have that installed everywhere and use it the same way I use DOSBox now. That would be possible even if Linux itself keeps evolving and diverging away from whatever version is emulated in that LinuxBox. But it would require a dedicated community of some critical mass that could agree on the importance of never falling to the temptation of ever upgrading any APIs bundled in that LinuxBox.
- yusina 1y agoPeople already complain that Debian stable is like a year or two old. So that's that.