DR DOS 8.x
DR DOS is an MS-DOS compatible operating system from Digital Research that evolved from their earlier CP/M-86 based products Concurrent DOS and DOS Plus.
DR DOS was compatible with most PC/MS-DOS software, including Windows 3.1, disk utilities, debuggers, networking software, and TSRs.
Version 5 was especially successful as it beat Microsoft to the market with the ability to free up more of the 640k base memory, something that was badly needed at the time.
Later versions included even more powerful features, including a graphical shell called ViewMAX based on Digital Research GEM, disk caching, LapLink style file serial/parallel transfer, power management, built in help, an undelete tool, SuperStor disk compression, and a task switcher.
Over all, it was considered a very good product, and it appealed to power users.
DR DOS also played a key roll in giving computer manufactures leverage against Microsoft.
Release notes
In 2002 Lineo was bought out. Former employees created Devcelogics LLC that continued to sell DR-DOS for use in embedded systems. In 2004 Devicelogivs released DR-DOS 8.0.
DR DOS, Inc. was then created as a spin-off and released DR-DOS 8.1.
While DR-DOS 8.0 was based on DR-DOS Kernel 7.03.[46], 8.1 is instead based on OpenDOS/Enhanced DR-DOS 7.01.xx.
Shortly after release, it was discovered 8.1 as well as 8.0 contained works from FreeDOS, none of which were credited and source was not provided. When the FreeDOS project pointed out this was a GPL violation, DR-DOS, Inc pulled both 8.1 and 8.0 from the market.
Note: It appears 8.1 was distributed as a file set. To install, create a boot disk using "Bootdisk.img" and manually copy all files to a DOS folder.
Downloads
| Download name | Version | Language | Architecture | File size | Downloads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DR DOS Inc DR-DOS 8.1 (3.5-1.44mb) |
8.1 | English |
|
1.67MB | 6 |
|
Devicelogics DR-DOS 8.0 (3.5-1.44mb) |
8.0 | English |
|
2.71MB | 1 |