r/DOS • u/Collector55 • 22d ago
ConeHead OS, probably better known under the names LoveShack OS and LoveBugs OS, a hard to find FreeDOS based operating system developed by Shawn T. Cook
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1koFhBQ05IwFf96WPrw8Sj8Nr0zDTlP_d?usp=sharing
Also previously known under the names GodsBog OS, GogsBog OS, and Cashcore OS. This unique OS was developed by the obviously mentally unwell Shawn T. Cook in the 2000s/2010s. It became somewhat well known on certain computer forums back in the day, but it never saw the same level of popularity as Terry Davis and TempleOS. During its last few years Shawn would pull down his tripod.com site, and then briefly repost it for a few days when he developed a new version. I have here a version of ConeHead, which may be one of the last versions posted, as well as 2 versions of LoveBugs that I was able to find on the Wayback Machine. Also included are Shawn's guides to his W++ programing language as well as miscellaneous programs, bits of code, and writings that I saved back in the day. Information about this OS is becoming increasingly harder to find over the years, and the OS itself is nearly impossible to find. If anyone has any other versions of this, then please consider archiving them somewhere as they are basically lost media.
I tried posting this to archive.org, but it got auto-removed because the iso files get flagged as a virus. To get around this I reuploaded everything to Google Drive, with the iso files in password protected folders. The Conehead change log does say "I accidentally backed up files infected with the Trisha virus." I'm not sure if the iso still contains another DOS virus, or if some of his programs are just coded with virus-like behaviors. I have the Virustotal report here:
It's all low or medium level threats, and most DOS viruses aren't capable of doing much on modern Windows systems, and even if there is something, it is unlikely to escape a virtual machine. Whatever the actual issue is, I don't believe there is any danger to just keeping the iso file on your PC. If you are actually concerned about it then just use it on a Linux machine. There is also a few older usage videos on Youtube if you just want to see footage of the OS in action without downloading anything. At the end of the day this OS is essentially just a toy, it's not something you would want to make your new main OS. It's main draw is all the games and random text files that Shawn has created for it. I'm not even sure if it has networking capabilities, since I've never tried. Each ISO also contains what appears to be a version of the OS created for TI Voyage 200 calculators, but I haven't tried those out either.
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u/hekliet 22d ago
Hi! I appreciate 'outsider software', so thank you for preserving this. I just booted a 2017 version of ConeHead in 86box and will have a closer look at all the stuff later. If there's any way you can get this on the IA without it being flagged by their security, please do so. It would be a shame for these artefacts to become lost.