SvarDOS is an open-source project that is meant to integrate the best out of the currently available DOS tools, drivers and games.
DOS development has been abandoned by commercial players a very long time ago, mostly during early nineties. Nowadays, it survives solely through the efforts of hobyists and retro-enthusiasts, but this is a highly sparse and unorganized ecosystem. SvarDOS makes it easy to find and install applications using a network-enabled package manager.
When installed, SvarDOS is a minimalist DOS system that offers only the most basic tools for system administration. It is up to the user to install additional packages.
Care is taken so SvarDOS is 8086-compatible. This applies exclusively to the "base" operating system, though - extra packages may require a 386+ CPU.
SvarDOS files are published under the terms of the MIT license. This applies only to SvarDOS-specific files, though - the packages may be subject to different licenses (GPL, BSD, Public Domain, Freeware...).