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I actualy saw the source code for MS-DOS (IBM in the early days shipped PC-DOS branded version and non IBM kit could buy MS-DOS). I can't recall if it was vers
by Zenst 14y ago
I actualy saw the source code for MS-DOS (IBM in the early days shipped PC-DOS branded version and non IBM kit could buy MS-DOS). I can't recall if it was version 4.x or 5.x (think it was 4.x) and the only thing that struck me was the use of some Sun boot loading code without any visable (c) signs in comments apart from soemthing along the lines "This is from Sun for boot loader to work...".
But history does have its ability to make things unclear over time so can see why people argue about 2000 year old books, let alone software in our own lifetimes.
Only thing I feel sad about is that OS/2 was not open sourced 10 years ago.
Still in another 10 years or so people will be writting stories about how Linux was a rip of from Minix and other historical things without any hope of changing the past.
RIP Gary Kildall.
- andrewf 14y agoMy unqualified guess: something to do with the Sun386i, an x86 Sun workstation which ran a port of SunOS and could virtualise MS-DOS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun386i http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun386i
- Zenst 14y agoYou may very well be right, though I would of expected some (c) signs in the source (assembler). Sadly I don't have access to those sources any more, so I won't be able to verify it. Also more I think about it the more I believe it was 4.x I saw and that with what you pointed out about Sun may very well be the case, especialy given the additions to volume ID'd (more than one disc) being added for that version. One day the source may officialy be publicly available and that will be a interesting day. That said it does appear as if the 6.x source code was leaked and illegaly available from a quick google, but that's another story.