Comment by marttt
1 day ago
Re: distraction free writing machine -- another option would be a FreeDOS/SvarDOS-based system: https://www.theregister.com/software/2025/04/26/build-your-o...
No kidding. Lots of fun to see a system actually boot in about 1 second.
That aside, I've installed all kinds of systems on my trusty 2009 Dell Mini 9, a fanless netbook. For years, this was a CLI-only Tiny Core Linux system, currently running SvarDOS. While on Linux, I even used it to live record 1,5-hour long radio shows via an old Mbox2 audio interface and some CLI recording software. Created a huge ramdisk just in case, but everything went well. Netbooks are weird and interesting machines.
Thanks! This is really really tempting, but I guess this leaves Wi-Fi on the table, right?
I want to run it offline, but still be able to sync my writing on-demand when I'm done.
Yeah, wifi on DOS is doable, but very limited in speed and not exactly straightforward to set up (so much that I haven't seriously considered trying myself). Here's an overview and a writeup:
https://help.fdos.org/en/hhstndrd/network/wifi.htm
https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wireless-networking-in-dos/