Re: Apple ]['s Disk operating System?

[percim@odyssee.net (Mark Percival)]

On Sat, 01 Mar 1997 06:37:08 +0000, Ruel@ix.netcom.com wrote:

>Paul Creager wrote:
>> For that matter, they didn't even write MS-DOS.  They bought QDOS (Quick
>> & Dirty Operating System) from a Seattle company for chump change,
>> renamed it MS-DOS, and the rest is history.
>
>I was told that MS-Dos was a derivative of the original PC-Dos that
>MicroSoft wrote for IBM.

Up to DOS 3.3, I don't believe there even was a official Microsoft
version of DOS.  All versions were marketed as PC-DOS from IBM even
though Microsoft actually wrote it.

DOS 4.0 was the first time I remember seeing two separate products
marketed from both IBM and Microsoft (around 1987?).  DOS 4.0 (and
later DOS 5.0) was marketed as different product from both IBM and MS
but in actually were almost identical.  Both contained the same new
features.

This started to change with MS DOS 6.0 beating IBM's product out the
door.  IBM (in a straight marketing move) decided to call their new
version of DOS, PC-DOS 6.1 even though they didn't have a version 6.0.
MS's upgrade then became version 6.2 (and 6.21 & 6.22 over the Stacker
compression thing) while IBM responded with version 6.3.  The vesions
of DOS issued in this time period were slightly different showing the
increasing split wetween the two computer giants.

Today only IBM still supports DOS in the form of PC-DOS 7.0.
Microsoft's DOS 7.0 is a very different product being the base for
which Windows 95 runs upon.

Two observations, 1) have we gotten *way* off topic and 2) I'm getting
old!

Mark R. Percival
Montreal, Quebec
percim@odyssee.net

An Apple II fanatic since 1979.