The Origins of DOS

[Stan Barr]

Hi,

Jules Richardson said:

> Fred Cisin wrote:
> > On Fri, 27 Oct 2006, Jim Isbell, W5JAI wrote:
> >> OK, where did TRSDOS fit in?  It was before MSDOS as far as sale to the public.
> > 
> > TRS-DOS, Apple-DOS, and CP/M were the three biggest players in
> > MICROcomputers before MS-DOS came along.
> 
> Although both TRS-DOS and Apple-DOS were pretty much insignificant outside of 
> the US, I would have thought. I don't think RS or Apple ever could have 
> developed a world market the way the CP/M guys did.
> 

Both Apple and RS were big enough in the uk circa 1978/9 on to support a 
number of dedicated hardware and software suppliers. Both were used
quite a bit by small businesses* that couldn't afford cp/m kit, as
well as hobbyists like me.  (I got a TRS-80 Model 1 around the beginning
of '78 - still got it...)
The Apple II was also rebadged and marketed by ITT, in a silver case IIRC. 

* I wrote and maintained some small business software for the TRS-80
in the early days.  Computers were very new to most people at that time
and users required a lot of (profitable) hand-holding!
-- 
Cheers,
Stan Barr  stanb at dial.pipex.com

The future was never like this!