MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

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ChrisGreaves
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MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Slashdot.org story


"Thirty years ago, on July 27 1981, Microsoft bought the rights for QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from Seattle Computer Products (SCP) for $25,000. QDOS, otherwise known as 86-DOS, was designed by SCP to run on the Intel 8086 processor, and was originally thrown together in just two months for a 0.1 release in 1980 (thus the name). Meanwhile, IBM had planned on powering its first Personal Computer with CP/M-86, which had been the standard OS for Intel 8086 and 8080 architectures at the time, but a deal could not be struck with CP/M's developer, Digital Research. IBM then approached Microsoft, which already had a few of years of experience under its belt with M-DOS, BASIC, and other important tools — and as you can probably tell from the landscape of the computer world today, the IBM/Microsoft partnership worked out rather well indeed."

(later) What's weird is that less then 10 years later someone offered me a copy of Windows 1.? (on a set of four? 1.44 disks). I didn't get into Windows until about 3.x, so, feels strange to me to think that DOS's "shelf life" was only 10 years.
Last edited by ChrisGreaves on 27 Jul 2011, 17:03, edited 1 time in total.
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Bigaldoc
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by Bigaldoc »

Well, well, well... I didn't know that or didn't remember it. I must admit my first experience was with the Apple IIc operating system and Basic.

So, happy birthday remembrance to all of us "old" command line computer users.

cd\
cls

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agibsonsw
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by agibsonsw »

Ms Dos is still living in Windows Vista - I assume it is in Windows 7 as well? Just go to 'Run' and type 'Edit' :smile:

I bet it's still used more than might think as well..

I wonder if Q-BASIC is still lurking around somewhere hidden?

Andy.
"I'm here to save your life. But if I'm going to do that, I'll need total uninanonynymity." Me Myself & Irene.

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ChrisGreaves
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by ChrisGreaves »

agibsonsw wrote:I bet it's still used more than might think as well.
You win, Andy!

Code: Select all

TITLE %0 
:: Christopher Greaves Thursday, July 1, 1999 Sat Nov 12 2005
:: Updated January 3rd 2003 for BigC
:: Updated January 2006 for LapTop Word2000
:: 10:13 PM 03/27/2010 UPDATED FOR ENCRYPTED DRIVE d: MAPPED TO t:
:: 10:29 AM 10/04/2010 Updated for multi-office installation of laptop
:: 7:51 AM 06/05/2011 upgraded to Normal121.dot

:: Re-create the Normal.dot prior to loading Word97

		if "%debug%"=="" set debug=off
		call T:\batLAP\settime
		copy "T:\GREAVES\ADMIN\Templates\Normal.DOT" T:\___spare\%se%.DOT 
		del "T:\GREAVES\ADMIN\Templates\Normal.DOT"
		copy T:\GREAVES\Normal122.DOT "T:\GREAVES\ADMIN\Templates\Normal.DOT" 

:: launch Word
		call "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Office11\OFFICE11\winword.EXE" %1

REM end of Word2003.bat 
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by PJ_in_FL »

Ah, how nice to remember the times when everything I needed to know about the XT on my lab bench was in those colorful pastel denim binders.
PJ in (usually sunny) FL

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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by PJ_in_FL »

Bigaldoc wrote:...So, happy birthday remembrance to all of us "old" command line computer users.

cd\
cls
And "programming" the DOS prompt using ANSI escape sequences!
PJ in (usually sunny) FL

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ChrisGreaves
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by ChrisGreaves »

PJ_in_FL wrote:those colorful pastel denim binders.
:bwaah:
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by ChrisGreaves »

PJ_in_FL wrote:And "programming" the DOS prompt using ANSI escape sequences!
:bwaah:
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Claude
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by Claude »

There are a few basic errors in the quoted text
Meanwhile, IBM had planned on powering its first Personal Computer with CP/M-86, which had been the standard OS for Intel 8086 and 8080 architectures at the time, but a deal could not be struck with CP/M's developer, Digital Research. IBM then approached Microsoft, which already had a few of years of experience under its belt with M-DOS, BASIC, and other important tools — and as you can probably tell from the landscape of the computer world today, the IBM/Microsoft partnership worked out rather well indeed."
The Microsoft Basic was called MBASIC, and Gary Kildall's CP/M-86 was, in Australia at least, initially more popular for the IBM PC than MS-DOS. But, Bill Gates had a better team behind him :yep:
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by agibsonsw »

There used to be around 30 files (or less) that were the operating system and all necessary drivers (there wasn't much to drive, he, he). I even knew their names and, roughly, what each of them was for.

There are now over a hundred-thousand files on my computer. I reckon I should be able to delete two-thirds of these files (at least!) but I've no idea which ones :groan:
(In particular, installing language files should be an opt-in feature.)

Andy.
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by PJ_in_FL »

agibsonsw wrote:There used to be around 30 files (or less) that were the operating system and all necessary drivers (there wasn't much to drive, he, he). I even knew their names and, roughly, what each of them was for.
And they all fit on one 180KB floppy disk! If you had the "high-density" 360KB floppy drive and disks (at about a buck apiece), you could have all those extra files, too!

And then the ultimate was to have TWO floppy drives in the SAME PC! Wow oh wow! Just think! You didn't have to remove the DOS floppy anymore to load your other programs and data files. Man, that was livin'!
PJ in (usually sunny) FL

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ChrisGreaves
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by ChrisGreaves »

PJ_in_FL wrote:And then the ultimate was to have TWO floppy drives ..
Paradise, as I recall it, was twin 360 KB floppies AND 640 KB RAM.
The boot sequence installed a 200 KB RAM disk into which went Buttonware's PCWrite (Ed.exe) and PCFile (PCFile.exe) and a few other Sharwear programs.
There was still room in RAM for the TSR CED.COM and we could fire up programs instanter! without listening to a drive emulate the sounds of a 30-ton anchor scraping across a coral reef ...
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by Bigaldoc »

And THEN, when I swapped my PC for an XT with its HARD DRIVE, me and Visicalc went on a work-oriented rampage!

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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

Post by Bigaldoc »

Writing about my first IBM 10 MB hard drive (later replaced with a 20 MB) reminded me of one of my early attempts at semi-automating of daily tasks: constructing a computer "menu program" with DOS batch files, since all my software was now readily available on the BIG hard drive.

Batch files later evolved into commercially available menu software and sadly the only name I can remember was something called Direct Access. I guess one could say that those early menu programs were the forerunner of later GUI software like Windows.

The good ol' days, huh?

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ChrisGreaves
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Re: MS-DOS Is 30 Years Old Today

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agibsonsw wrote: I even knew their names and, roughly, what each of them was for.
Here you go, Andy.
This is a partial listing of my \Util\ folder.
See how many fre/shareware productivity tools you can recognize.

I'm heading off to play Gin Rummy ...
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