The original mailing lists for discussing MSDOS ports of GNU software no longer exist (they became quite inactive around 1992). The GNU project is primarily interested in 32-bit or better machines. Questions about 16-bit ports typically should not go on one of the GNU newsgroups, but may be appropriate on one of the OS/2 or DOS programming groups.
GNUish exists now as primarily an archive for the original GNUish ports (in the `GNUish93' directory), updated ports of GNU software, and some selected tools which assist in the creation of ports or are not available as GNU ports. Additions to the archive and corrections to this document are welcomed.
Users of 386 or better machines might consider Linux, emx,
or djgpp; all are exceptional work based on GNU software.
Linux is a Unix-like environment based on the kernel by Linus Torvalds. There are many "distributions" consisting of the kernel, development tools, and applications. The Debian Project is a volunteer effort to create a high-quality distribution. Information on Debian can be found by www at http://www.debian.org.
Linux can run many DOS programs, but users interested in OS/2 and DOS may wish to examine the work of and Eberhard Mattes (emx) and DJ Delorie (djgpp) and derivatives; these ports have their own set of mailing lists and distribution points.
Users interested in the djgpp development environment can start with the web page http://www.delorie.com, The collection is available via http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/ or ftp://ftp.simtel.net/simtelnet/gnu. The newsgoup `comp.os.msdos.djgpp' is a good source of information.
Mattes' emx development package is available on `ftp.leo.org'.
There is a mailing list for emx programming information. The
listserver reports:
This mailing list is for users of Eberhard Mattes' emx development environment. It is the proper forum for questions about emx and also bug fixes, misc comments, and whatever pertains to emx. The emx-list is managed internally by the Majordomo mailing-list program. To be added or removed from the emx-list or to retrieve past articles posted to the emx-list please send mail to majordomo@IAEhv.nl. If you include the word "help" as the message body, "listserv" will return a list of valid commands and options.