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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."
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."
I actually tried to make that POS work (to run a multiuser dial in host) back in the late 80s.
Run away, stunk to heaven. IIRC only worked with _one_ rs232 UART (which had to do all the buffering in hardware). Didn't work well with that one. Just no. Waste of effort and money.
I should not remember those details...my brain's garbage collection is very lazy.
I'll download a copy, but only to burn it onto CDs to shoot at. Shades of '30-06 retiring' netmare 2.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
So, there is now a GPL operating system that will run DOS applications. That's pretty interesting.
You mean, besides FreeDOS?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
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.
Many years ago Apple sold a device with a custom OS called the Newton. Apple sold Newtons for about 5 years (1993-1998) but never released the OS under a free software license. Today some users still own, repair, and use Newtons but they do so with no respect for their software freedom. Whatever problems Apple built into the Newton's software (whether on-purpose or accidentally) cannot be fixed by its users no matter how technically skilled or willing those users are.
PC-MOS/386 currently requires a nonfree compiler (the Borland compiler) but now that PC-MOS/386 is free software it can be ported to systems so it will compile with free software compilers, thus avoiding the problem of free software with nonfree dependencies (what was originally known as "The Java Trap" named after free Java programs that depended on Sun's formerly nonfree Java software). We went from having no software freedom with PC-MOS/386 to being free to port and improve PC-MOS/386 as we wish! So PC-MOS/386 now that it has been released as free software treats you better than Apple treats Newton users. Thanks PC-MOS/386 developers for respecting our software freedom!
Digital Citizen
"One does not simply reboot" - Boromir
Sometimes I actually miss the complexity of assembler. Or maybe I just hate the 12 layers of abstraction that encompasses so many things these days. In a way it's not complexity of assembler I miss: it's the simplicity of knowing exactly what the computer is going to do.
So, there is now a GPL operating system that will run DOS applications. That's pretty interesting.
If there were still sufficient "must have" DOS applications that could benefit from a little source code tweaking ("because I can!")
An old Ham called me up and wanted a way to run DOS on his W10 computer. He had programs he'd been using since the early 90's, his Windows 95 computer gave up the ghost, and he didn't want to change. I gave him some hints, but he didn't like it when I said the best idea was to start using software that wasn't written 30 years ago.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
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.
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
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
In Soviet Russia, Jesus asks: "What Would You Do?"