Microsoft MS-DOS: Difference between revisions
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==Windows on top of DOS== | ==Windows on top of DOS== | ||
==DOS | ==DOS catapults Microsoft to the limelight== | ||
It can be said with a degree of certainty that the original deal Microsoft made with [[IBM]], where MS-DOS was ''licensed'' to run on IBM's computers instead of ''sold'' outright to them, was the chief enabling factor in Microsoft's rise to its current status as the largest software vendor in the world. IBM's "great folly" with DOS was the assumption that "people pay for the hardware; no one makes money on software." IBM chose Microsoft over Gary Kildall's [[Digital Research Inc.]], the company which produced [[CP/M]]. CP/M was the most common third party command-line operating system available to that time, and served as the operating system for the previous generation of computers (such as some [[IMSAI]] machines) | It can be said with a degree of certainty that the original deal Microsoft made with [[IBM]], where MS-DOS was ''licensed'' to run on IBM's computers instead of ''sold'' outright to them, was the chief enabling factor in Microsoft's rise to its current status as the largest software vendor in the world. IBM's "great folly" with DOS was the assumption that "people pay for the hardware; no one makes money on software." IBM chose Microsoft over Gary Kildall's [[Digital Research Inc.]], the company which produced [[CP/M]]. CP/M was the most common third party command-line operating system available to that time, and served as the operating system for the previous generation of computers (such as some [[IMSAI]] machines) | ||
In fact, IBM offerred three OSs for the original PC — PC-DOS, [[CP/M-86]] and the [[USCD P-system]]. CP/M had been the standard for 8-bit machines used in business and the P-system, a Pascal-based portable virtual machine was fairly widespread in education and used on the [[Apple II]]. Many expected one of both of those two to dominate the market; DOS was initially the dark horse. One reasom it won was that it had better license terms; IBM offerred PC-DOS free on some systems and clone makers offerred MS-DOS free. | |||
There were other reasons, some complex controversies, and a range of rumours. CP/M-86 was (like many or even most large software projects) late and initiaslly buggy; opinions on the details differ widely. One story [http://www.i-programmer.info/history/people/305-gary-kildall.html?start=1] that became widespread was that CP/M-86 missed out on the IBM contract because [[Digital Research]] founder [[Gary Kidall]] missed a meeting because he did not come in from his yatch. | |||
Revision as of 10:04, 7 August 2012
MS-DOS is Microsoft's command line Disk Operating System, originally bought and modified to run on the original IBM PC. It used a command line interface because affordable IBM PC-based home computers of that era were not capable of running a Graphical User Interface yet. The DOS command line interface came to define the stereotypical "hacker typing away on a keyboard" method of using computers in the 1980s.
The original IBM PC first booted to its BIOS, and then the BIOS booted the first 512k sector of disk, which containted the DOS Master Boot Record.
DOS applications
Windows on top of DOS
DOS catapults Microsoft to the limelight
It can be said with a degree of certainty that the original deal Microsoft made with IBM, where MS-DOS was licensed to run on IBM's computers instead of sold outright to them, was the chief enabling factor in Microsoft's rise to its current status as the largest software vendor in the world. IBM's "great folly" with DOS was the assumption that "people pay for the hardware; no one makes money on software." IBM chose Microsoft over Gary Kildall's Digital Research Inc., the company which produced CP/M. CP/M was the most common third party command-line operating system available to that time, and served as the operating system for the previous generation of computers (such as some IMSAI machines)
In fact, IBM offerred three OSs for the original PC — PC-DOS, CP/M-86 and the USCD P-system. CP/M had been the standard for 8-bit machines used in business and the P-system, a Pascal-based portable virtual machine was fairly widespread in education and used on the Apple II. Many expected one of both of those two to dominate the market; DOS was initially the dark horse. One reasom it won was that it had better license terms; IBM offerred PC-DOS free on some systems and clone makers offerred MS-DOS free.
There were other reasons, some complex controversies, and a range of rumours. CP/M-86 was (like many or even most large software projects) late and initiaslly buggy; opinions on the details differ widely. One story [1] that became widespread was that CP/M-86 missed out on the IBM contract because Digital Research founder Gary Kidall missed a meeting because he did not come in from his yatch.