Re: [cobalt-users] RAQ2 Sendmail & Hotmail

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jens Kristian Søgaard wrote:

> Well, if you really want to know, I'll tell you :-)
> 
> My source is the quite authoritative Andrew S. Tanenbaum, whom I
> presume you already know (otherwise, read up on his debate with Linus
> Torvalds on why Linux is obsolete). I quote his book, "Modern
> Operating Systems" (a very commonly used text book in undergraduate
> classes in Operating Systems):
> 
>         "At that time [approx. 1980], Microsoft was engaged in selling
>         UNIX under license from AT&T Bell Labs"
> 
> This was _before_ the introduction of the IBM PC.
> 
> I know that the BASIC interpreter was even earlier, approx. 1975...

So you just shouldn't have said:  "started out being a company reselling
Unix licenses... :-)" <smile>.  It's the "started out" that was
misinformation.

> To quote Microsofts own homepage:
> 
> Microsoft Announces XENIX OS
> 
>     8/25/80: Although the company grows by only two employees, sales
>              more than triple. Microsoft announces Microsoft XENIX OS
>              (enhanced version of the UNIX operating system), a
>              portable operating system for 16-bit microprocessors. It
>              is an interactive, multi-user, multi-tasking system that
>              will run on Intel 8086, Zilog Z8000, Motorola M68000, and
>              DEC PDP-11 series. All of Microsoft's existing system
>              software (COBOL, PASCAL, BASIC and DBMS) will be adapted
>              to run under the XENIX system, and all existing software
>              written for UNIX OS will be compatible as well.

At this time, as I believe I've said before, Microsoft was selling more
copies of Xenix than any other company, and more than any other company
was selling of Unix.  They had the largest commercial base of unix/Xenix
in the world (and they gave it all up for Windows <smile>).

> > The earliest copies had their own tape-drive operating system, and
> > didn't require any kind of DOS or any other operating system for that
> > matter.
> 
> Hmm, but didn't these microcomputers mostly run CP/M?

Only later.  At first they didn't have disk drives, which CP/M
required.  You booted the Mits Altair by flipping switches on the front,
to teach the tape driver to load whatever you wanted to load into it. 
The earliest BASIC tapes had a mini tape-operating system built in; I
may actually have some copies left in storage somewhere.

Gary Kildall didn't write CP/M for anything other than floppies as I
recall; it was people like us (I was a VP at Lobo at the time) who added
hard-disk support.

> I remember using these damn things :-)

As do I.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672
Riverside, CA  92517
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