Dirty Operating News Today

Before Microsoft released MS-DOS, there was 86-DOS. Now version 0.1 is online thanks to a hobbyist’s archival work.

MS-DOS established the "standard" way to operate personal computers during the Eighties, and the text-based operating system was still playing a significant "startup" role in Windows at...

Shutterstock Microsoft launched DOS on 12 August 1981 – the day IBM debuted its Personal Computer. Known as PC DOS on that machine (and marketed as MS-DOS on compatibles), its series of commands and programs soon became the standard for PCs, paving the way for Windows in November 1985. But that first version of Windows was appalling. How did Microsoft achieve operating system dominance and how did it see off rivals as strong as CP/M, which had been around since the mid-1970s? As always in suc...