The floppy disk contains the oldest version of 86-DOS thought to still exist. Although long-abandoned for far more advanced successors, MS-DOS remains a pivotal piece of computer history. Released to ...

In context: Back in 1980, Tim Paterson was creating a new operating system he called QDOS or Quick and Dirty Operating System. The system was later renamed 86-DOS, as it was being designed to run on ...

Unlock the full InfoQ experience by logging in! Stay updated with your favorite authors and topics, engage with content, and download exclusive resources. In this episode, Thomas Betts chats with ...

Microsoft’s MS-DOS (and its IBM-branded counterpart, PC DOS) eventually became software juggernauts, powering the vast majority of PCs throughout the ’80s and serving as the underpinnings of Windows ...

Fond memories of beige machines. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Add us as a preferred source on Google Ah, the PC in the spare ...

30 years ago today, Microsoft bought the rights to the Quick and Dirty OS, re-branded it as MS-DOS, struck a deal with IBM, and made history. Share on Facebook (opens in a new window) Share on X ...

TL;DR: Microsoft will likely never release the original source code of Windows into the wild, but the company is clearly interested in sharing important episodes of its software development history.

Reader Steve P. sends in this question: “I’m running Windows 2000 and want to upgrade my system BIOS. The instructions say to create a bootable disk with the format a:/s command. However, the /s doesn ...

Microsoft arguably built its business on MS-DOS, and on Tuesday the software giant and the Mountain View, CA-based Computer History Museum took the unprecedented step of publishing the source code for ...

Back in the early ‘90s, at the television station where I worked, we had a newsroom computer system that the reporters, anchors, and producers used to write and produce the newscasts. The system ...

That screenshot seems to be MS-DOS 5.0 or later. How many end users had hard drives when 4.0 was released? Click to expand... We had a 20MB hard drive in a PC-XT clone made by Sanyo which was running ...

“People think it’s this veneer,” he added. “That the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like.