4 ms·

Oh yeah, odd. Anyway, I’m aware of alternate mainframe OSs but I’m not sure how common using one was. Other than OS2, alternate OSs for other systems were rathe

Oh yeah, odd. Anyway, I’m aware of alternate mainframe OSs but I’m not sure how common using one was. Other than OS2, alternate OSs for other systems were rather rare, though it is worth noting that they were not forbidden or blocked.

jech 5mo ago
> I’m aware of alternate mainframe OSs but I’m not sure how common using one was. Extremely common at major universities and research centres. CTSS, ITS, TENEX, Multics, Unix and even VM/370 were all alternate operating at some point. > Other than OS2, alternate OSs for other systems were rather rare, You weren't there, were you? A lot of people replaced MS-DOS with DR-DOS before Microsoft deliberately broke it with Windows. A little later, a number of people were running Unix System V on their PCs, to the extent that there was a regular column about Unix in Byte.
- code_duck 5mo ago
  Didn’t Microsoft somehow ruin Dr DOS? Not technically, but didn’t they sue them or something? Which would mean this is the same issue, 40 years later. Yes, I was there on the 80s, but I had a Commodore 64. We did use GEOS, if that counts. I was not present for the 70s.
  - jech 5mo ago
    > Didn’t Microsoft somehow ruin Dr DOS? They added some obfuscated code to Windows 3.1 that made it refuse to run on DR-DOS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 5mo ago
  > at major universities and research centres So not common outside of ivory towers, no?
  - tliltocatl 5mo ago
    Before IBM PC computer's weren't particularly commonplace outside of ivory towers either.
    - LocalH 5mo ago
      You're forgetting the big three, all of which predated the 5150 PC - Commodore PET, Apple II, and TRS-80.
  - cestith 5mo ago
    I went to a regional state university. We had an older IBM mainframe with a hypervisor and the students and faculty were all users on MUSIC/OS. This was in the early/mid 1990s.
  - nerdsniper 5mo ago
    That was a huge fraction of computing at the time. Before 1992 or so, the only people I was aware of that was into computers were all associated with a University. Typewriters were still actually very common.

jech 5mo ago

> I’m aware of alternate mainframe OSs but I’m not sure how common using one was. Extremely common at major universities and research centres. CTSS, ITS, TENEX, Multics, Unix and even VM/370 were all alternate operating at some point. > Other than OS2, alternate OSs for other systems were rather rare, You weren't there, were you? A lot of people replaced MS-DOS with DR-DOS before Microsoft deliberately broke it with Windows. A little later, a number of people were running Unix System V on their PCs, to the extent that there was a regular column about Unix in Byte.

code_duck 5mo ago
Didn’t Microsoft somehow ruin Dr DOS? Not technically, but didn’t they sue them or something? Which would mean this is the same issue, 40 years later. Yes, I was there on the 80s, but I had a Commodore 64. We did use GEOS, if that counts. I was not present for the 70s.
- jech 5mo ago
  > Didn’t Microsoft somehow ruin Dr DOS? They added some obfuscated code to Windows 3.1 that made it refuse to run on DR-DOS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code
rTX5CMRXIfFG 5mo ago
> at major universities and research centres So not common outside of ivory towers, no?
- tliltocatl 5mo ago
  Before IBM PC computer's weren't particularly commonplace outside of ivory towers either.
  - LocalH 5mo ago
    You're forgetting the big three, all of which predated the 5150 PC - Commodore PET, Apple II, and TRS-80.
- cestith 5mo ago
  I went to a regional state university. We had an older IBM mainframe with a hypervisor and the students and faculty were all users on MUSIC/OS. This was in the early/mid 1990s.
- nerdsniper 5mo ago
  That was a huge fraction of computing at the time. Before 1992 or so, the only people I was aware of that was into computers were all associated with a University. Typewriters were still actually very common.