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  I'm trying to connect undergrad technical writing students with opportunities to gain experience. I'd like to find open source projects that need help with documentation: writing the docs, editing the docs, converting the docs (like from latex to HTML, from nroff to markdown, etc), … things like that. Please reply here! *I may include these suggestions in an article

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  It was 32 years ago today (June 29, 1994) that we announced what became the FreeDOS Project. https://www.freedos.org/ We welcome everyone to contribute by writing code, testing, debugging, documenting, translating, advocating, .. or anything else that helps FreeDOS. Also join the email list: developers hang out on freedos-devel, general questions are on freedos-user. https://www.freedos.org/forums/

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  Here's something fun to try on FreeDOS! Use Open Watcom FORTRAN77 with the graphics extensions to draw the #MandelbrotSet #fractal https://www.both.org/?p=14481

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  I boot #FreeDOS using #qemu on my #Linux desktop, most of the time. Here's one way I transfer files between Linux and FreeDOS. A virtual floppy makes this really easy. Just mount the virtual floppy on Linux, and copy my files as usual. 💾 https://www.both.org/?p=14441

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  I recently sat down with the FreeDOS beta 1 distribution from 1998, to show where things started. This includes a bootable FreeDOS kernel. While some apps don't work on this early kernel, many other programs work fine, including DOOM and Lotus 1-2-3. Check out the article for more, with lots of screenshots. It's a great step back in time! https://www.both.org/?p=14397

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  Would you like to see what FreeDOS was like in the very early days? I shared the Alpha 5 and Beta 1 distributions on our website, as part of our anniversary. In this article, I show what it's like to install Alpha 5 and some of the commands from that version: https://www.both.org/?p=14364

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  If you'd like to see what FreeDOS looked like in the early days, I have shared the Alpha5 and Beta1 "distributions" on Ibiblio. These were *very early* and require a minimal DOS environment to start from. Alpha5 is just tools, Beta1 was the first version to include Pat Villani's kernel. https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/pre-1.0/

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  Did you know we have a "store" where you can get FreeDOS tshirts, stickers, ties, mugs, and other items? https://www.zazzle.com/store/freedos *FYI that we don't make any $$ from the store, it's only there so folks can get FreeDOS stuff.

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  I had a zip drive on my computer at the time, which I used for backups. It was great! Until I had the click of death. Then I dropped zip drives. I think I burned a monthly CDR for backups until I eventually got a USB flash drive. https://www.xda-developers.com/zip-drives-dominated-90s-vanished-almost-overnight/

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  FreeDOS includes a FORTRAN 77 compiler as the Open Watcom FORTRAN compiler. If you're interested in trying out FORTRAN, here are a few points to get you started: https://www.both.org/?p=14100 1️⃣ Programs are column sensitive 2️⃣ DO loops 3️⃣ No WHILE loop 4️⃣ DOUBLE PRECISION variables 5️⃣ Output with FORMAT

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  The f2c program helped me to compile FORTRAN 77 programs on #Linux in the early days when Linux didn't yet have a FORTRAN compiler https://www.both.org/?p=14140 I should try to compile f2c on FreeDOS sometime. We don't really need it, thanks to Open Watcom FORTRAN, but it would be an interesting throwback experiment to compile #FORTRAN programs with just a C compiler For added #retro fun: I wonder if BCC will support f2c? 🤔

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  When I was an undergrad physics student, I used emTeX on DOS to write my lab reports in #LaTeX And yes, emTeX runs great under #FreeDOS 🤓 Here's a demo of how to write, process, and view a few sample emTeX documents: https://technicallywewrite.com/2026/05/04/emtex

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  I always encourage more folks to learn a bit of C programming, so they can write their own programs, like command line tools. Here's an example that shows how to write a program like Unix 'seq' to generate a sequence of numbers. https://www.both.org/?p=14036 FreeDOS doesn't have a 'seq' command, so if you want one, this is how you'd write it.

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  I like using #FreeDOS to explain how a computer starts up. DOS is simple enough and small enough that you can see the moving parts. And once you see how it works in DOS, you can understand more complex systems like #Linux https://www.both.org/?p=13889