How to Contribute

FreeDOS has always been about developers coming together to write code. In that spirit, I'd like to suggest a few things I think would be great for the next release of FreeDOS.

If you're a beginner:

• Test FreeDOS programs and report any bugs
• Test games on FreeDOS and report any problems. For example, some people have problem with HIMEMX and some DOS games
• Test other DOS programs and report a bug if they don't work properly on FreeDOS (usually if the program relies on some MS-DOS feature or compatibility that might not exist in FreeDOS)

If you've got some programming experience:

• Port FreeDOS utilities to OpenWatcom C and NASM (currently our preferred C compiler and Assembler for FreeDOS)
• Port GNU utilities to FreeDOS
• Create a new alternative shell, similar to COMMAND.COM but with more advanced features
• Add international language support to a FreeDOS program that currenly only supports one language
• Update the FreeDOS Help, either as a complete re-write, or an update to the existing HTML Help program or its content
• Fix open bugs in FreeDOS programs. If you can't find the current maintainer, ask on the freedos-devel email list.
• Fix bugs in the FDISK program. Some people report that FDISK doesn't create the MBR correctly, for example
• Fix bugs in the XFDISK program. For example, some people find this runs too long when under a virtual machine.
• Fix multi-language support. For example, MKEYB GR (to add the German keyboard) mixes up z and y under VirtualBox, but KEYB GR works fine
• Become the maintainer of a FreeDOS program that no longer has a developer

If you're a highly skilled DOS developer:

• Create a DOS package of the GNU C Compiler (GCC) that is capable of creating 16-bit DOS applications (no extender)
• Add new features to FreeDOS, such as a good GPL-licensed CDROM driver
• Add CJK support, probably as a driver that uses graphics mode to display double-byte glyphs
• Write a guest tool like VMSMOUNT for VirtualBox
• Write a driver for modern sound cards
• Add some kind of UEFI bootstrap BIOS emulator, perhaps implemented as an IPL