30-Year-Old Operating System 'PC-MOS/386' Finally Open Sourced (github.com)

PC-MOS/386 "was a multi-user, computer multitasking operating system...announced at COMDEX in November 1986," remembers Wikipedia, saying it runs many MS-DOS titles (though it's optimized for the Intel 80386 processor).

Today Slashdot user Roeland Jansen writes: After some tracking, racing and other stuff...PC-MOS/386 v5.01 is open source under GPLv3. Back in May he'd posted to a virtualization site that "I still have the source tapes. I want(ed) to make it GPL and while I got an OK on it, I haven't had time nor managed to get it legalized. E.g. lift the NDA and be able to publish."

1987 magazine ads described it as "the gateway to the latest technology...and your networking future," and 30 years later its release on GitHub includes sources and executables. "In concert with Gary Robertson and Rod Roark it has been decided to place all under GPL v3."

Comments

Re:GPL DOS

[drinkypoo]

So, there is now a GPL operating system that will run DOS applications. That's pretty interesting.

You mean, besides FreeDOS?

Worked great in an office setting

[Anonymous Coward]

I loved PC-MOS/386 "back in the day" -- way back in the day. Even visited their headquarters at one point and attempted to get a dev job at one point.

My employer who sold software for trucking companies used it as the cheapest alternative for small office settings where several dispatchers shared one beefy (for the time) computer with cheap terminals attached.

It really was remarkable for the time how they made DOS multi-user.

back in the day

[spaceman375]

As long as we are indulging in retro-praise...

I was really impressed with an OS named Pick. It was essentially a database, but a plain 286 with 2 megs of RAM could run 10 terminals and four printers while doing a tape backup with no lag. Mind you, all it did was ascii; no graphics or sound. But the concept was impressive: Since nobody could make a CPU as complex as they needed, under the OS was less than 100k that emulated a more complex CPU, and the OS itself was written in assembler for that virtual CPU. Pick was actually the first OS to run on the original RISC processor from IBM because that virtual CPU was so close to the real hardware 20 years later. When IBM wanted an OS for the first PC they tried to get Pick before DOS. The owner was hanging upside down in gravity boots when he laughed at them because he said it was too complex to run on their weak hardware. What can you expect from a guy named Dick Pick? True story, but I loved that stupid OS.

Re: it ran on a 80386

[red_dragon]

The first few x86 processor models came as follows: 8086: 16-bit registers, 16-bit data bus, 20-bit address bus 8088: cost-reduced version of the 8086 with 8-bit data bus 80186: new architecture, aimed at embedded applications, contains a lot of glue logic that required separate hardware on 8086 systems, same register/data/address sizes 80188: same as above but with 8-bit data bus 80286: new architecture, 24-bit address bus, protected mode

Re:GPL DOS

[HornWumpus]

In the time it took you write that post, you could have looked.