[RULE] Boot-floppy detect (and introduction)

Vegard Munthe vegard at copyleft.no
Wed Jan 22 12:21:47 EET 2003


> Vegard, have you looked at any of the DOS based utilities? Try
> http://www.simtel.net/pub/msdos/sysinfo/

The problem with most of this software is that it is not free (as in
speach[0]). It would be an OK intermediate solution to use 'freeware' or
even 'shareware', but it is not a good final solution.

The reason is that this tool will be used by countless people working on
computer recycling around the world. People who should have the freedom
to use, modify and redistribute this tool if needed. Modification of a
free GNU/Linux tool (or *BSD) will give a user the right to change what
s/he
thinks is shitty, and the right to update information needed. Even though
bootfloppies are black-magic, s/he atleast has the option to learn how
it works.

This is an important point when making tools that alot of people will
need, _espesially_ when dealing with development issues. So, thank you for
that link (I'll try to find time to test them and mix them with
FreeDOS[1]), but making a completely free tool, is still important.

-- Vegard Munthe

[0] http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
[1] http://www.freedos.org/




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