With your new operating systems (i.e. Windows XP), does DOS exist/run in the background? Thanks.

ScottGem

No, DOS effectively ceased to exist with Win 95. However it is possible to open a command prompt in all versions since Win 95. This command prompt allows you to execute "DOS" commands.

Nez

Dos is dead...Long live Dos...
http://www.opus.co.tt/dave


Microsofts first product BASIC (invented in 1964 by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz) is for the Altair 8800,the worlds first PC?
IBM let Microsoft build it's OS,because they did'nt trust anyone else!!
Bill Gates and Paul Allen buy Q-DOS from company called Seattle Computer Products,in 1980.
August 1981,Microsoft Dos is born.

Good viewing,
Nez

psi42

Thanks for the link.... I didn't know anyone had ported lynx to DOS...

ScottGem

The way I heard the story, IBM went to Microsoft to license Microsoft BASIC for their new PC, which was then the standard for personal computers since its what Apple used. They asked Bill Gates to recommend someone to do an operating system for them. Gates referred then to Digital Research which had CP/M, then the standard for non Apple computers. From there the story varies a bit. I've heard various versions but they all boil down to the head of DR dissing IBM by delaying or declining to meet with them. So IBM went back to Microsoft and asked them to develop something. Gates recalled Paull Allen mentioned a small Seattle shop that had developed an OS. So Gates sent Allen to buy it (for $50K). He then turned around and licensed it (under very favorable terms) to IBM and the Microsoft domination of the industry was born.

Nez

Excellent article ScottGem.I've done a bit of phishing (sorry,fishing ),and discovered that Digital Research,owned by Gary and Dorothy Kildalls,had at that time sold over 500,000 copies of it's OS.Although it was 8bit,they had a 16bit in the pipeline.When IBM turned up for a meeting with them,Gary was out flying his plane,and Dorothy baulked at the draconian non-disclosure agreement.Ha ha!!

Cheers,
Nez.

ScottGem

I always keep forgetting Gary's last name. I remember his first name was Gary, but not the Kildalls. Maybe now I will remember. Yes the first time I heard the story, it was that Gary kept the IBM suits waiting while he was out flying. At that time you didn't keep IBM waiting so they left and went back to Gates.

You might want to see if you can get a copy of Pirates of Silicon Valley. This movie about the history of Microsoft and Apple uses some literary license in relating the story, but covers the bases pretty well.

The real loser in the development of personal computing was Xerox. Much of what we use today came out of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The mouse, ethernet, graphical user interface, and more were first developed there. Xerox basically gave it all away by letting Steve Jobs tour the facility. had Xerox kept control of what PARC developed, they, not Microsoft or IBM would be in control of the computer industry.

pablo123

MS-DOS is dead but
other DOS'es is live
I am a happy freedos user
command line is for technical support
but for end users
is GUI's
SEAL, WINDOS or DESKVIEW
DOS is more powerful

labman

I think Microsoft already had 16 bit RS DOS running on the Motorola 6809. Maybe it was quicker to buy something for the Intel chip than convert RS DOS.

I used the more powerful C DOS on my Color Computer. I went form it, to MAC, to Linux, doing very little with DOS or Windows.

traka

The irony of this thread is, I am looking for any form of BASIC language tutorials.
I use a program that runs script code written in BASIC, but have no help files or tutorials to learn to write BASIC, to better what the mainframe program does with script written in the BASIC code.

Anything will do, the more I read about it the more I get the hang of understanding the lingo.
Much appreciated