Gene&Ginny
North Kingstown, RI
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Joined: 03/16/2004
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DoubleClutcher wrote: ... I've often wondered how different things would have been if Digital Research had won the IBM PC operating system deal.... Some guy named Bill bought CPM and sold only the "right to use" to IBM, calling it DOS (Disk Operating System), but retained ownership of the DOS product. He got a royaly on every machine sold with a DOS disk.
Gene and DW Ginny
2008 Toyota 4Runner 4.7L V8 w/factory towing option
2002 Sunline Solaris Lite T2363
Reese Dual Cam Straight Line HP Sway Control
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Y-Guy
Tri-Cities, WA
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Joined: 03/04/2002
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Lets see you bring up RV.net on that machine... then I'll be impressed 
Winnebago Sightseer 35J | Custom ATV Trailer | Polaris Sportsmans & Honda Recons
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strollin
San Martin, CA
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Joined: 06/12/2003
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Gene&Ginny wrote:DoubleClutcher wrote: ... I've often wondered how different things would have been if Digital Research had won the IBM PC operating system deal.... Some guy named Bill bought CPM and sold only the "right to use" to IBM, calling it DOS (Disk Operating System), but retained ownership of the DOS product. He got a royaly on every machine sold with a DOS disk.
Actually, Bill didn't buy CPM, he bought a product called "QDOS" (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from a company called Seattle Computer and renamed it MS-DOS.
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Gene&Ginny
North Kingstown, RI
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There was some question at the time if 86-DOS (QDOS) was actually CP/M. There were several stories later on and I have since lost the articles I saved at the time.
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DoubleClutcher
Ridgcrest,CA
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Joined: 12/30/2006
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Looks like I stirred the memories! Lot's of fun days. I wouldn't want to go back to the days of typing command lines for ordinary operations. Everything is tradeoff.
One of the things I liked the most about DOS as a programmer is that I knew what was happening in the machine. If one of my programs crashed I could assume it was my code. With the current operating systems it is a 50-50% chance that the problem isn't mine.
Thanks for all the responses.
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wny_pat
Western NYS
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Y-Guy wrote:Lets see you bring up RV.net on that machine... then I'll be impressed maybe through ICENet?
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DoubleClutcher
Ridgcrest,CA
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Y-Guy wrote:Lets see you bring up RV.net on that machine... then I'll be impressed
There is really very little on RV.net that couldn't be done in the earlier machines. In fact we may be seeing more of it as the current move toward putting online activity on small devices progresses. There aren't resources on these devices to handle the bloated Windows and Mac operating systems.
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eubank
Angel Fire, NM, USA
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Joined: 01/17/2004
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Yeah, I still find myself thinking that it'd be faster to alter an autoexec.bat file than fiddling around with a modern interface. Still, I can't image trying to multitask with one of the old machines like I do with a modern one.
Lynn
http://forum.aardvarkrv.com/blog/
Hayduke Lives!
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rjsurfer
North Carolina
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Nirvana was when I finally got a 4K core memory stack for my VariSystems P-16 cpu.
How did they ever thread those fine wires through those tiny magnetic donuts?
Ron W.
03 Dodge 2500 SRW,SB,EC
2008 Keystone Cougar 245RKS 5th Wheel
DRZ-400SM
DL-650
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joraz
Tucson
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I had one of the old IBM PCs with the two 5 1/4" floppy drives in the front. I remember the day we got it. Unpacked it, set it up and and looked at the three manuals that came with it. That's when I learned these nifty new machines needed something called software! Who knew? Later on, after upgrading my old 8086 processor to a new one with a blazing speed of 5 MHz or thereabouts (it was a V-20 or something like that), I scored a copy of Windows I. It was a full screen analog clock with a second hand. I was thinking, "How could it get any better than this!" I never worked with computers but I had a lot of fun writing Basic and dBase programs. Hours of frustration and fun! After many computers and operating systems I finally retired the PC to a back room and settled on Apple products.
jor
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m105/joroiga/VisitedStatesMap.jpg
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