Krono Jr. FREE GUI for DOS systems and clones

What is it?

Krono Junior (KR Jr) is a fast, small (less than one megabyte), ultra-easy (dummy-proof) and free GUI for M$-DOS and clones such as Free-DOS and DR-DOS. I hope that some day it will also work on a stripped-down Linux (or similar) kernel or maybe even my own ASM OS kernel. KR Jr has very minimal system requirements and will work on a 386 with 1MB of RAM and a VGA card (no mouse or hard drive required)!

Why?

The main purpose of KR Jr is to make an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) for use on older PCs with minimal 32-bit hardware (386 and better). I started the project because I live in Argentina where many people who need PCs only have older computers like 386's that cannot be used because of their slow speed. With KR Jr, people will be able to extract better performance from their old hardware instead of having to buy new computers. Here, a new PC costs about $2,000USD and the average worker earns only 200 pesos per month, so a new PC is just a dream. I have my own PC made with pieces from crap I found in the streets!

Another great thing about KR Junior is that someone with an old 386 or 486 in the garage can build a fast system with a user-friendly GUI for free by installing a DOS clone like DR-DOS or Free-DOS and KR Jr. Then the PC can be loaded with other basic software such as games and text editors and given to someone who is in need of a computer (such as a relative or friend). In other words, KR Jr is great for charity and can even help get more computers into third-world schools. With KR Jr, old junk 386's and 486's become usable machines at an affordable cost. PC's for all!

Other stuff

I have a working prototype of KR Jr that has been in testing for more than six months on PC's ranging from 386's to Pentium III's. KR Jr works nice and fast on all of them. I use KR Jr on my own 486DX2 all the time (I used it to replace the crappy, slow, heavy Win 3.1). Using KR Jr, I can even play Doom 2 with only 8MB of RAM! KR Jr can power down ATX, reset, reboot, flush cache, use a mouse (or emulate one using the keyboard if necessary) and use two mouse buttons to simulate the middle mouse button. It also supports FAT32 and LFN with support for EXT2FS hopefully coming in the future.

KR Jr currently works on DOS and DOS clones and hopefully there will be a Linux version at some point. The idea is that KR Jr should always be able to fit on a 1.44MB floppy or even a 360K floppy for a stripped-down version. The system is currently single task but there are plans to add multitasking with native executables running on virtual CPUs sharing slices of time from the real CPU (I am readin books about this right now). My girlfriend even uses KR Jr to do her university work and listen to audio CDs.

The current status of KR Jr is beta. I have several friends using it and they are all happy with it. It is written in C, using DJGPP and the Allegro library, with really nice graphics created in the GIMP. It supports themes to change the appearance of the GUI with resolutions of 320x200 to 1024x768 @ 8bpp (in the future, it will support 16bpp, 24bpp, etc.) I am planning to rewrite it in C++ and make the desktop a class to allow the user to have several desktops open at once, replacing N*rt*n Commander, with drag 'n' drop, etc.

Currently, KR Jr is only available in Spanish but it will be ported to English, soon. I am trying to figure out how to make a universal database to get the program to work in many languages.

Who am I?

I am a university student in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I'm in my third year and I am 19 years old. I study Systems Engineering (Ingenieria de Sistemas Informaticos).

In the zone are endurance, for that, here we are, figthing the empire of devastation. IMF, eat my shorts!

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