The Computer Chronicles - Operating Systems (1984)

youtube ^ | circa 2012 | The Computer Chronicles

[Signalman]

Computer Chronicles was a show on PBS back in the 1980s. This episode features, among others, an interview of Gary Kildall, the inventor of CP/M, an 8-bit operating system which preceded QDOS and MS-DOS, both of which were based on CP/M. Kildall was the founder of Digital Research Inc. (DRI).

[cymbeline]

“When GUI became the human interface I found computers useful”

GUI is to command line whar AI is to writing it yourself.

[Dalberg-Acton]

MS-DOS 3.3 was the best Microsoft DOS as far as capability with the smallest memory usage.
Windows 2000 was the best Windows OS. MS got Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) software engineers to build it for them.

[Poser]

I liked CP/M.

[sasquatch]

While at Intel, built an sdk 85 from a reject pcb and down graded components. Worked good.

[jdt1138]

I visited PARC during that time but don’t remember the conference. Yes, My first computer was based on the RCA1802CPD (Ceramic) and I used it at a science fair or two. Soldered together from a ‘kit.’

[jdt1138]

MS-DOS was not “based” on CP/M. There are similarities, just as there’s similarities between DEC and IBM systems. If you wanted CP/M on an Intel 8086/8088 you got CPM-86, and some people did. I ran my CP/M on an Osborne 1 and a Coleco Adam. dBase II used with Adam’s Digital Data Pack is NOT recommended. Right on man. I had the Kaypro II with CP/M and all that wonderful software. So many bashed the Kaypro because it could not be expanded hardware wise but it was already maxxed out. Anyway the next year, 1984 I think, an 8088 daughterboard came out that allowed me to run MS-DOS on the Kaypro II. Truly useful stuff that allowed me to excel at work.

[Paal Gulli]

"...Windows is a piece of shit. Always was."

Careful, the Shit Anti-Defamation League might sue you for libel.

[Captain Compassion]

Wrote a lot of code with CP/M.

[Waverunner]

A friend had a TRS80 business machine, I learned Z80 assembly language, basic , and cobol.
I had a Heathkit Zenith HZ100, an s100 bus machine that had an 8085 and an 8088 processer.
It would boot cpm on the 8085 and msdos on the 8088.
I had basic, fortran, and pascal on it.

[Dick Bachert]

[Captain Compassion]

First computer I personally owned was an IMSAI 8080. You could program the thing with a version on CP/M or use the front panel. Also had a Kpro, TRS 80 and generic 8080 and 8086 computers.

[Captain Compassion]

Good ole Trash 80.

[Dr. Sivana]

My S-100 box was equipped with those “more reliable” North*Star hard sectored floppy drives!

I only had one experience with a hard sector floppy, the Lanier "No Problem". I had hoped to convert the disks to some thing newer using CP/M Uniform, but the hard sector business provided an impenetrable wall.

[ShadowAce]

[ShadowAce]

This is going to seriously date me, but my first computer was a Commodore 64, used to write programs in Basic on it. 64K of memory, backup was to a cassette tape.

Hah! noob.

[Dr. Sivana]

My S-100 box was equipped with those “more reliable” North*Star hard sectored floppy drives!

The NorthStar had the nicest cabinets. Years later I saw one for sale in a used -computer store. I wanted to have it just for the case, but they wanted too much. The State-Surplus store (Connecticut) had the Exxon computer. If I had money and room for novelties, I might have bought that.

[Paal Gulli]

"Oh the 80286. What a POS compared to the 80386.

Mine wasn't. I had the only 286 I ever saw with a 287 math coprocessor installed. I (not so jokingly) called it "the world's fastest 80286."

The problem was, when new the 80287 cost like it was made from diamond-encrusted platinum. By the time I found one I could afford (in a used PC shop), the i586s were on the market. But I bought the chipset anyway because I wanted to run emm386.exe on my 286, which (IIRC) only could be done on a 286 if you also were running the 80287 coprocessor.

I was hanging on to a utility I'd got off some old BBS when computers still ran on steam that would let me steal UMBs and recruit them to emulate conventional memory. After which I could boot to DOS and run the "mem" command and it would show 672k conventional memory free.

640k my ass.

Unfortunately, the UMBs I'd stolen for this were needed by the video BIOS. So any time I tried to do anything requiring changing video modes, like loading Win3.1, or any graphics-based DOS program, it would lock up.

So it was it good for bragging rights, but nothing else.

Come to think of it, maybe it was a POS after all :-(

[Dr. Sivana]

dBase II. I preferred Paradox.

Paradox didn't exist yet, and certainly would never run on a Coleco Adam!

The reviewers also preferred Paradox. Corel has let it wither. It ihas been unchanged for more than a decade, and is not available in 64-bit.

I moved from dBase II and III+ to FoxPro, but now mainly use FileMaker Pro.

[Dr. Sivana]

There was actually a pin-compatible competitor for the 80287 chip from Weitek, so SOMEone must have been buying them!

[ducttape45]

I remember CP/M from way back in the early 1980’s when it came standard on Air Force computers, Zenith Z-100’s. Talk about nostalgia. There was an Air Force MSgt who actually had CP/M and MS-DOS 2.1 dual booted on her computer. Can’t tell you how many times I screwed up one of those when I tried to edit the “Command.com” file. LOL This was right about the time Gates stole it and repackaged it as MS-DOS.