4 Years in the making..
After 12 months of waiting we are in the closing stages of one of the most advanced DOS distributions ever conceived. So whats new then? and what do we have planned for the M4 release?

Live CD 2012 Starts off with the first release from the FreeDOS group in around 6 years with added new features like Native USB support (limited to INTEL & VIA chipsets) & updated Native FreeDOS applications which we have added to the base BootCD from DOSCORE (codename:deathstar). We have also added & updated the NDIS support and added automated options for SMB support at a DOS level. Sound card Support has also been automated so that now when the live CD detects a Sound-blaster, ESSAUDIO, VIA, AC97 compatible chipset the driver is loaded as needed to save memory. Unfortunately until someone ports the ALC sound-card platform to DOS sound support is limited
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Aura M3 codename:deathstar 1302 2012 – The New Stuff! well the one thing that will set this GUI apart from the rest is it ability to utilize TCP/IP (based on wattcp) and the opportunities Aura now has in terms of new application development.

Setup App 1.1 ok now you can run the setup application which allows you to run Fdisk to setup your drives then the Install batch file (later to be an exe) to install the freedos base & doscore networking. The setup currently downloads new files from the doscore server to make updates to the fresh install. the only con is you must right click on the icon for fdisk & install and click execute. this is still a w.i.p but it does work thus far.

TCP Applications Http Client, FTP Client, Pop3 Client are the current TCP applications in development. the actual wattcp library has been integrated into the Aura Kernel which also opens the window for native SMB file share over networks at a gui level and not just a dos level. (which have code for SMB DJGPP but it has not yet been integrated)

Batchinator this program allows you to write a batch script (in a text box) and click run and you can run the commands from this program. its bit of a cheat till we have a working cosole which is also in development.

The Roadmap to M4

so a quick reflection… M1 was the Aquisition of the Ozone code and a first initial release with updates to the code. M2 was huge advancements on the livd cd front including Automated TCP/IP and preliminary coding & research of the wattcp code. M3 is the integration of the dos based networking to user interface implementation with example applications as proof of concept.

So what does this mean for future milesawaystone 4?, basically M3 is very stable but still has many buggy things from Ozone which we intend to phase out making ozone and its code non-existant. M4 is more likely to take forever so if you waited for m3 then get ready to wait for m4 for a very long time!! haha. M3 will still be in development in terms of applications and updates but there wont be many changes to the kernel code from m3 and its later builds.

M4 is intended to be a final beta release before the final Aura OS is released which will still be based on Freedos instead of reactOS.

it has been our goal for the past 3 years to have a live freedos based distro that gives dos users networking on the go and internet capability without too much hassle whilst maintaining the old nerdy dos experience. so thank you all for your support and feedback and we hope you really enjoy this next release we are very excited and we will have one more suprise for you very soon also so keep an eye on the site

peace ,
JFK Chelson Aitcheson of Doscore

Chase Finn of Finncomputers.com