The Origins of DOS

[Jim Covington]

I think that's an overall TRS-80 sales volume, not year 1.

Several sources on the web support this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80
http://computing.marzopolis.com/70s/tandy-trs-80.php
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/tandytrs80.html
http://www.trs-80.com/trs80-1.htm


Allison wrote:
>> Subject: RE: The Origins of DOS
>>   From: "Chandra Bajpai" <cbajpai at comcast.net>
>>   Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 11:10:20 -0400
>>     To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'"	<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>>
>>
>> How big was the TRS-80 Market to support all thoses DOSes?
>>     
>
> In the first year of sales the total was over 250,000 units.  I'd suspect
> that by in year three (1981) there were at least 25-50,000 of those capable of 
> supporting a disk and possibly more.
>
>
> The big three of disk based systems were:
>
> CP/M   (multiple platforms)
> Apple  (appledos)
> TRS-80 (TRSDOS, Newdos, LDOS)
> NS* Horizon (s100) NS*DOS (also cp/m)
>
> Not in any order. There wer others but volumes were generally far lower.
>
>
>   
>> I remember when NewDOS/80 and I just remember it being fast.  Any idea who
>> wrote that?
>>     
>
> That was the Apparat version if memory serves.
>
> Allison
>
>   
>> -Chandra
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org]
>> On Behalf Of Fred Cisin
>> Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 10:24 PM
>> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>> Subject: Re: The Origins of DOS
>>
>> On Fri, 27 Oct 2006, Warren Wolfe wrote:
>>     
>>> [TRS-DOS]
>>>     It was its own universe, Jim.  The links and questionable parentage
>>> of the original version of DOS are tied directly to CP/M, which was the
>>> first O/S for personal computers that any significant number of
>>> businesses embraced.  And, Windows came out of the DOS world, and now
>>> dominates as few products have dominated before.  (Note: I am NOT
>>> claiming this is a GOOD thing.)
>>>
>>>     From what I can tell, TRSDOS was not a rip-off of anyone's software,
>>> and nobody bothered to rip it off, so it's pretty much out of the world
>>> of O/S scandal.
>>>       
>> There WERE several imitators of TRS-DOS (although still for TRS-80),
>> including NEWDOS, DOSPLUS, and the semi-legitimate offspring LDOS.
>>
>>     
>>> It actually was pretty decent, and had a few ideas of
>>> merit that didn't make it into the mainstream world for a while.  It was
>>> just totally tied to Radio Shack computing, and suffered a mortal wound
>>> when IBM came out with their PC.  No fault of its own.
>>>       
>> Rasio Shack AVOIDED expanding TRS-DOS into other semi-related hardware
>> platforms.
>>
>> --
>> Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com
>>     
>
>
>