Since its 20th anniversary, FreeDOS has maintained a steady interest level and continued to serve as a platform for running legacy applications on modern systems. While it remains a backward-looking operating system, it has adapted to changing needs by incorporating new features and innovations, such as a package manager and support for FAT32 file systems2. FreeDOS has also seen contributions from a dedicated community of developers, who have helped keep the project alive and relevant.
MS-DOS version 6.22 is known as the last standalone version of the Microsoft Disk Operating System, released in 1994. It was the final release before MS-DOS became integrated into the Windows operating system. MS-DOS 6.22 added features such as the DriveSpace disk compression utility and improved memory management. It was widely used on IBM-compatible personal computers and played a significant role in the history of personal computing.
PD-DOS, later renamed FreeDOS, was created by developer Jim Hall in June 1994. He announced the project on the comp.os.msdos.apps discussion group on Usenet as a response to Microsoft's shift towards Windows and away from MS-DOS.