FreeDOS 1.4 released

Version1.4 of FreeDOS has beenreleased. This is the first stable release since 2022, andincludes improvements to the Fdisk hard-disk-management program, andreliability updates for the mTCP set of TCP/IP applications forDOS.

This version was much smoother because Jerome Shidel, ourdistribution manager, had an idea after FreeDOS 1.3 that we could havea rolling test release that collected all of the changes that peoplemake over time. Previous to this, each new FreeDOS distribution (like1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3) required bundling up packages into a "releasecandidate," and we would go through several iterations of updating therelease candidates.

Jerome's method of building the FreeDOS distribution made it easierto automate a test release, which we decided to update every month. Asthe test releases accumulated enough changes to warrant a release, wecould then make the next test release a "release candidate" whichwould iterate to the next version of the FreeDOS distribution. Since2022, we've released monthly test releases. Thanks Jerome!

LWN covered FreeDOSlast year for its 30th anniversary.