Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Microsoft Revisits the '80s With MS-DOS, Word for Windows Source Code,

On 04/05/2014 03:05 PM, Jim Seymour wrote:
> On Sat, 05 Apr 2014 13:57:48 -0400
> James Knott <james.knott@rogers.com> wrote:
>
> > Kracked_P_P---webmaster wrote:
> > > On 04/04/2014 05:56 PM, CVAlkan wrote:
> > > > Not sure if my recollections are correct, but I don't believe
> > > > either DOS (before 2.x) or the DOS version of Word were written
> > > > by Microsoft. I seem to
> > > > recall that both were purchased and re-branded.
> > DOS was bought from Seattle Computer Products and it was originally
> > intended to be a hardware test system, while waiting for CP/M-86,
> > rather than a proper OS.
> > > Do not remember 8 inch ones.  I remember 10 inch, and then the 5.x
> > > inch ones. [single sided and then double sided]
> > The first floppies, as invented by IBM, were 8".  There never were
> > 10" floppies.
> 8", 5-1/4", then 3-1/2".  The first Winchester drives were 10", IIRC.

Maybe I got confused.  I thought my "10 inch" was from a DEC system.  It 
was sure big.  Maybe they used a different type.  I donated it to a 
college teaching staff for demoing old tech, along with my samples of a 
punched card program, and some paper tape.

> DOS *was* originally designed and written by SCP, but I do not recall
> it being a "test" system.  Digital Research was essentially ignoring
> the new Intel processors, and the people that formed SCP finally got
> tired of waiting for something that showed no signs of ever
> happening, and created what became DOS.  That was half of a
> double-screw up by Gary Kildall, who formed and led DRI.  The 2nd
> screw-up (this story is apocryphal) was him leaving visitors from IBM
> to meet with his wife, rather than him.  IBM decided DRI was not
> serious, stopped in to see Gates, Gates bought "DOS," and the rest is
> history.  So is DRI.
>
> I still have a well-thumbed and somewhat yellowed CP/M 1.4 User's
> Manual on my bookshelf :)  Says "Distributed by Lifeboat Associates"
> on it.  Anybody remember them?
>
> Regards,
> Jim
I hated CP/M and had to deal with an early college computer center that 
had IBM [brand and not clones] PC-XTs and a few of them actually had a 
graphics card and not the original 80x40 characters type of display.  
They all were double single-sided floppy 5.25 inch.  The other rooms had 
old Apple [before Macs] and they had CP/M OS options, and the next room 
had DEC terminals to the mini-mainframes. While I was there a math 
professor brought in the "new" Apple computer called a Macintosh.  We 
also a 10 inch screen portable PC-AT or XT that weighted over 40 pounds.

The next college center had both DEC terminals and a few dual floppy PCs 
that were connected to the DEC system via a terminal emulator called 
Kermit, if my memory is correct.  I used its upload/download abilities 
to save all my work for that college onto the floppies and also did some 
editing at home.  My first PC I had at home was a "clone" from a kit 
that cost about half of the IBM prices.

Those were the days of the early home PC market and the beginning of a 
PC in every home idea.  Before them, most home computer devices were toys.



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