Re: Windows vs. Linux

On 2006-08-02 12:41:44, Alex Martelli wrote:

Microsoft did *NOT* write DOS

Well, they didn't write most of DOS 1.0. But it seems they did write (or at
least specify) most if not all of the rest up to DOS 6.22 or so. Which is
possibly considerable.

Part of the CP/M compatibility did include the use of / as flag-indicator
(the use of \r+\n as line ending also comes from CP/M -- in turn, CP/M
had aped these traits from some DEC minicomputer operating systems).

At the time, probably pretty good reasons for using the slash as command
line flag indicator.

Internally yes (indeed, they developed Xenix, before later selling it to
SCO), but that does not mean that "DOS was written on Xenix" because DOS
was *not* written in Microsoft, as above mentioned.

I probably should have said "everything between DOS 1.0 and DOS 6.22" was
written on Xenix, to be more precise :)

And, as an aside, I'm sure that MS would have sold more of their Xenix if
the market had wanted it. But the market really wanted DOS...

Gerhard

.

Relevant Pages

  • Typical PS/2 OS system requirements
    ... The problem is that I don't know the system requirements of theses OSes. ... DOS and OS/2 seem to be relatively modest, but maybe AIX and Xenix are so "ancient" that they are even more modest ... ... stuff" like a 5,25" drive, because the support for all kinds of MCA devices is better on these systems. ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware)
  • Re: SCO gets $50 million investment
    ... It was much faster in initial program load ... >than the DOS version. ... It was sold as I had several customers using Xenix. ...
    (comp.unix.sco.misc)
  • Re: UNIX application installation & configuration process
    ... applications that run only there] after working with DOS 2.0 for ... There are retro-computing folks aiming to tinker with Xenix. ... However, we are lacking the "Development Supplement", which includes the C compiler and header files to develop on the Xenix 2.3.4 platform (that Xenix is a UNIX System V Release 2 for the i386)... ... Do you per chance have the Xenix Development Supplement floppies around? ...
    (comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc)
  • Re: Windows vs. Linux
    ... they didn't write most of DOS 1.0. ... (or at least specify) ... The issue was that I wrote that "Microsoft wrote DOS on Xenix" ... of these use the backslash:) ...
    (comp.lang.python)
  • Re: Microsoft Hatred FAQ
    ... And the market wanted the Microsoft OS. ... such as DR DOS. ... Imagine that your corner store charged $1 for a Coke, $0.90 for a Pepsi, ... But in the case of Microsoft, there was no practical "elsewhere" to go to. ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)