-={ 2016-10-27 10:47:11.160592030+11:00 }=-

Hey Tony!

 TL> I figure a "classic" DOS system uses no more than 1MB RAM, if
 TL> using a DOS extender, you might need 4 MB or so.

For the brief time I ran freedos using qemu, the above matches my observations.
  I did note that with kvm enabled it ran at the full tilt 2.4GHz albiet with
only one core (<- not surprising).  I didn't try running any 32 bit apps but I
imagine there shouldn't be an issue there.

For the record, using qemu-arm on a x86_64 host was noticably slower and in
fact PAINFULLY slower in comparison given that kvm doesn't work when emulating
arm processors on x86_64 hosts.  I am told that the real thing (eg raspi) is
much better/faster than a virtuallized raspi on a x86_64 host unlike freedos on
 the same host which won't even pretend to install, neverfmind actually boot
and run, on a x86_64 machine.

In conclusion, a phoney-baloney 16 bit DOS is much better than a phoney-baloney
 32 bit raspi on a x86_64 host which flies in the face of reality.

Stinkin' reality.

Life is good,
Maurice

... Hyge sceal gehealden, hond gewealden.
    The mind must be restrained, the hand trained.
--- GNU bash, version 4.4.0(1)-release (x86_64-atom-linux-gnu)