[pwsid]

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 :D


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]

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

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

[ScottGem]

IBM let Microsoft build it's OS,because they did'nt trust anyone else!!
Nez

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 :D ),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 more quick 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

[labman]

Check your local library. If it is like mine, the only computer books on the shelf are 20 years old, the hay day of basic. Might check used book stores or thrift stores.

Then there are the crazies at Glenside Computer Club. They may still be doing something with basic. I think most of the basics were alike in syntax.
http://rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K="Glenside+Computer+Club"/v=2/SID=e/l=WS1/R=1/IPC=us/SHE=0/H=1/SIG=124p317sj/EXP=1108412902/*-http://discover-net.net/~dmkeil/coco/cocodoc.htm

[mateo_salta]

Was it 95 that you could still quit out to dos or was that over with, I know xp preaty much did away with dos and changed that to some kind of command thing

[ScottGem]

was it 95 that you could still quit out to dos or was that over with, i know xp preaty much did away with dos and changed that to some kind of command thing

It was Win 95 that did away with DOS as I said in a previous note. Prior to Win 95, Windows was a shell that ran on top of DOS, so you still loaded DOS then Windows. With Win 95, Windows became the OS rather then a shell. With Win 95 and 98 you retained the ability to reboot to a Command prompt. For compatibility Microsoft still called this a DOS prompt. With all Win NT based versions and starting with Win Me on the Win 9x side, that ability was effectively eliminated. The ability to open a command prompt within Windows still exists in all versions.

[fredg]

Hi,
This original posting really turned into a history lesson, amont other things.
Hope someone learned something from it!
fredg

[Dosfreak]

Dos is awesome and better than windows in a lot of ways one is that it has a high stability.It rocks on my IBM PS/note 425c as my os.Anyone who still uses dos on it's own is cool and should be honored. All my cpu are from the '80s so all I can really do is dos one of my cpu's doesn't even have a hard drive and has a 5 1/4 floppy drive that is about it. I spend all day working on my cpu to have the power to go out and lose all my doc's. I am srry I just love Dos no matter which version it is I even had a program made that lets me on the internet from dos costed enough but it is faster than on windows. I have had a lot of bad expereinces with windows9x and XP I liked it when Windows was like Dosshell it just ran on top of dos. That is why if I have to I will use Windows3.x or below 1.0 does the job that I need done. If you have an old computer that you are going to throw out send it to me at 31 E.Brookside AVE. Akron,OH 44301. I will pay you $5 once I get it by sending it to the return address all of you out there as my whitness if not I will send it back. Which one of you doesn't like dos I will be very dissapointed at you for being weird. Any of you who also have dos5.0 or below and don't want it or don't ever plan on using it send it over here too for free though.

[traka]

Dosfreak
I have my DOS pc's mothballed in the hope one day I find suitable network cards and revive the programs I used on those hardrives.
Both are 486's, one HD has a source code and compiler of a program I am trying to emulate in excel ( number crunchers) and the other has a compiled program of the same source code I still use from time to time.
The "wish-list" is I hope to fire them all up at the same time, networked to XP, then fireup a Linux PC that's stored away to, and have them all networked in harmony.
Out of all these phases I been through the past 10 + years, the DOS systems have never failed.