[donatj]

It’s odd to me these days to see a DOS defender. I grew up on DOS, but these days would take a Linux command line over it any day. I guess you need X to do anything graphical on Linux whereas pure dos games exist?

[kevin_thibedeau]

You can have framebuffer applications running without X. Not really much different than DOS other than the kernel is still mediating hardware access. Notably, you can build Qt apps that run without X.

[marttt]

I use Tiny Core Linux in framebuffer mode every day. Ali G. Rudi's framebuffer tools were a huge inspiration: https://litcave.rudi.ir/

I've also been curious about fbui (in-kernel windowing system). Not sure how well it works with current kernels, though: https://github.com/8l/fbui

Having really modest needs, I even made an effort to use FreeDOS for essential tasks (writing, PDFs, some scripting), but gave up quickly as I cannot live without a good PDF pager or (for some tasks) soundcard support. I also had trouble with constant fan noise on DOS (you'll need some hacks to maybe get around this). It is still mind blowing how fast FreeDOS (or e.g. the even more barebones SvarDOS) boots. It took literally about 2 seconds to greet myself with the good old "C:\>".

Also, it is a system that fits inside the head of even an ordinary person. This is really refreshing these days.

[Gordonjcp]

In the olden days we used SDL ports of games that used a framebuffer, just the same as in DOS.

[alophawen]

In the olden DOS days, we used stuff like Allegro to make games that used the framebuffer.

[GTP]

Allegro is still a thing among some hobbyists, I used it years ago for dome experiments first on Windows and then on Linux.

[alophawen]

That's so cool to hear! I have fond memories of Allegro and DJGPP

[donatj]

I wonder, Does a version of Doom exist doing this? Every version of Doom I have seen for Linux over the years required X

[ghostDancer]

I recall compiling several versions years ago.

https://hackaday.com/2022/06/09/a-linux-distribution-for-doo... including some converting it to ascii

[chungy]

Any port that uses SDL (which is most of them) can be made to run like this.