FreeDOS 1.4 Released: A Step Forward in Stability and Functionality

On April 5, 2025, the operating system [FreeDOS 1.4](https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.4/) was officially released. The project’s source code is [available](https://github.com/FDOS/kernel) under the GNU General Public License v2.0. The previous version, FreeDOS 1.3, was launched in February 2022.

«Since the release of FreeDOS 1.3, a lot has happened in the DOS community. Developers added new features, fixed bugs, provided translations, updated programs, and wrote documentation. A huge thanks to all the amazing developers, testers, community members, documentation authors, translators, and everyone else who contributed to making FreeDOS 1.4 possible!» the project team explained.

The new version of [FreeDOS](https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.4/report.html) features substantial [improvements](https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.4/readme.txt) made by the international development team, including an updated version of the FreeCOM shell (0.86). However, it still relies on the old kernel version 2043 with FAT32 file system support, as the new one is not yet ready.

The release of FreeDOS 1.4 is «focused on stability» and comes with an updated installer, newer versions of popular tools such as Xcopy (1.8b), Move (1.4), Fdisk (1.4.3), mTCP (a TCP/IP application suite for DOS), Format, and the text editor Edlin. Additionally, the build includes updated HTML help files, and the FDHelp utility has been rewritten from scratch and is now at version 1.1.0.

Currently, FreeDOS 1.4 cannot run Windows for Workgroups in expanded mode but is capable of running Windows 3.1 in standard mode.

A free project called PD-DOS was initiated in 1994 by programmer Jim Hall, who later renamed it to FreeDOS. FreeDOS 1.0 was released on September 3, 2006, followed by FreeDOS 1.1 on January 1, 2012, and FreeDOS 1.2 on December 25, 2016.

Some vendors supply PCs and laptops with FreeDOS pre-installed as a cost-effective alternative to the more expensive Windows operating system.