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Old Operating Systems Never Die

Ole Juul

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I just saw this Technologizer article called Old Operating Systems Never Die. It's nice to see that some people aren't totally out of it when it comes to computer awareness. A quote: Long after there’s not a single soul left running Windows 7, there will be someone, somewhere happily using DOS. He got that right! Interestingly, the article was discussed on /. and many of the comments there are (as usual) noxiously ignorant.
 
BeOS is great; the most fun, responsive, and interesting operating system I've ever used. Glad to see it regenerated with the new Haiku OS.

I've never used an Amiga, but it's on my list. There's an OS/2 disk around here, just need to find/build a compatible machine.

There were two neat little operating systems around a few years ago that booted and ran from Within Windows, Qube and Athene. Interesting projects that never really took off.

The most difficult and unusual operating system I've ever used is Oberon. Makes my brain hurt...

Not sure why Commodore's BASIC made the article's list. As I recall, it's not much different than a dozen other BASIC systems, some of which are still active today. I do recall the Commodore 64 fondly though, Computer Programming in high school ca. 1985.
 
Interesting read, I may have to look into beos/haiku, sounds perfectly obscure for my collection :D

As far as the C= 64 being in there I would guess its due to the sheer volume of them that sold. Lots of competing basic running computers from the day that were all basically (pun totally intended!) the same. Being the number 1 selling home computer probably was all the tipping needed for it to be the 'home' computer to get the nod.

-Lance
 
Interesting read, I may have to look into beos/haiku, sounds perfectly obscure for my collection :D

As far as the C= 64 being in there I would guess its due to the sheer volume of them that sold. Lots of competing basic running computers from the day that were all basically (pun totally intended!) the same. Being the number 1 selling home computer probably was all the tipping needed for it to be the 'home' computer to get the nod.

-Lance

Check out this current topic in the Wanted... section where I posted some links for finding BeOS items.

I also see that some new BeOS items are still available from Purplus, including original BeOS discs and GoBe Productive:
http://www.purplus.net/search/search.php?catalog=purplus&query=beos&x=0&y=0
 
I remember when BeOS became Newdeal (sp?) and they were giving away free CDs to promote the product to schools. It looked pretty good and did what most schools needed. Since it's a GUI I couldn't find any use for it myself but I must admit it looked like a good solution for the average person who would otherwise be using the much more expensive and less finished MS-Windows.

I couldn't help but notice that the article didn't mention QNX which has been going strong since 1982. That's a pretty big omission if you ask me. QNX is not only for embedded solutions, I know of one retail outlet which uses it.
 
You may be confused. ;) Newdeal is/was GEOS, which was not an actual operating system, but rather a graphical shell with included applications that ran over the top of DOS.

I actually have an old PC with a vintage GEOS version installed. Haven't booted it in several years, but it's neat way to live with DOS. Believe it or not, GEOS is actually still marketed and sold as the Breadbox Ensemble. http://www.breadbox.com/

BeOS is something completely different, an entire operating system created by Be, Inc. Originally it was PowerPC-centric and, I believe, came pre-installed on some Apple clone computers in the early '90s. It later, after the Apple clones were put out of business, became more PC-oriented. It was very advanced for it's time, with multi-tasking abilities that were unbelievable - running six movies simultaneously, one on each face of a spinning cube, without a hiccup - for example.

------------------------------------

QNX is another great one. It ran wonderfully as a desktop operating system on my old Pentium III, better than Linux at the time. QNX has been out-of-commission, at least not available as a free download, for a few years. But I think they've recently begun a desktop OS download program again (may require registration).
 
Random note, QNX was the OS that ran on the I-Opener from Netpliance. Think the processors were a Pentium 166 (cyrix usually (cheap) or Intel if you were rare/lucky) and either 32 or 64MB or RAM with a 16MB CF or SD card for the OS (can't remember in my head).

QNX was one of the few to boast having a full GUI and tcp/ip stack (either ethernet or SLIP) OS that would fit on a floppy (1.44MB).
 
You may be confused. ;)
What else is new? :)
Newdeal is/was GEOS, which was not an actual operating system, but rather a graphical shell with included applications that ran over the top of DOS.
You're right, I remember now. I've never tried BeOS so yes, my ignrorance is showing.

Regarding QNX, I remember their famous "1.44 challenge" demo floppy which ran a full GUI and browser on a floppy at a time when Win3.11 took 6 disks and complete install to do the same. The wikipedia article has an interesting statement:
On 12th of September 2007 QNX made a press release announcing the immediate availability of the source code.
 
I have BeOS 4 and BeOS 5. It's my all time favorite OS. Being a huge Mac fan, it's irksome that Gassée was so greedy not to take the $125 million that Apple offered.

BeOS was everything that I admired about the various operating systems all bundled seamlessly into one package.

Stability of DOS, power of Linux & UNIX, and the intuitive GUI of a Mac. Some of the big software companies were really looking at it. Despite Microsoft killing off Be, I do know for a fact that they had interest in producing Microsoft Office for the BeOS should Be actually become a real player in the market.

I also had the pleasure of using alpha builds of Photoshop and Premiere on the BeOS. I wish I still had the software, talk about a conversation piece.

BeOS took an LC 5260 and an IBM Aptiva and turned them into multimedia power houses. At the time I had a PowerMac 8600 with System 7.6 and the BeOS on the LC 5260 made my 8600 (which was theoretically 3x faster) look positively SLOW.

Right now I'm trying to get it installed in a virtual machine on my MacBook Pro. I can't get either my Zeta or BeOS to install on it. :(

Anyway, chalk me up one as another huge BeOS fan.
 
QNX was one of the few to boast having a full GUI and tcp/ip stack (either ethernet or SLIP) OS that would fit on a floppy (1.44MB).

You've heard of MenuetOS, and the fork-off KolibriOS? They're both under current development, include a full operating system and application packages, and they still fit on a single floppy disk. :)

Lots of other small hobbiest operating systems also install and run only from floppy disks.
 
You've heard of MenuetOS, and the fork-off KolibriOS? They're both under current development, include a full operating system and application packages, and they still fit on a single floppy disk. :)

Lots of other small hobbiest operating systems also install and run only from floppy disks.

I've tried some of those "hobbyist" systems and they're interesting, but of course lack application support. Still, there are lots of well functioning ones - past and present. It's actually amazing how many OSs there are. Here is a list of 573 at the Operating System Documentation Project. Also the Catalogue of Operating Systems lists OSs going back to the early 60's. The Wikipedia article is also amazing and has lots of links. There is, of course, a good argument for using a limited selection, but the current monoculture is ridiculous.

I'm off to check out the KolibriOS. Thanks for the suggestion. :)
 
and COBOL is still going strong!

and COBOL is still going strong!

I just came across an article on elReg about the 50th anniversary of COBOL. That really needs to be mentioned too when it comes to an old OS refusing to die. The article mentions that there are still 200billion lines of code running out there and that the codebase keeps growing. It still has well over a million developers.
From the article:
the average American relies on COBOL at least 13 times a day while making phone calls, using credit cards, and commuting to work - among other mundane tasks.
That's amazing for something that basically came in at same time as they started using transistors in computers. I wonder what it takes to run COBOL and if it is even usable outside of the hidden world where it lives.
 
As recently as about 10 years ago when I was in college one of my teachers had a side job maintaining some cobol code for I believe a bank here in town. His programming career had started when cobol was a hot language - funny to think that 20 years from now there will still be guys who make a living maintaining code from the Visual (insert language here) 6.0 days.

As a side note Microsofts .net framework supports a Cobol derivative.

-Lance
 
Wellwritten code does not need to die. Where I work we still use and maintain ADA code, not really the language du jour.
 
I will forever have at least one Windows For Workgroups box in my possession. As much as I've been making videos in Dosbox lately, I still prefer to play games on the original hardware on an old copy of DOS. Why else am I squirrelling away 2 EGA monitors for my Tandy.
 
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