14 Sep
2019
14 Sep
'19
12:13 p.m.
I had the pleasure to play on both a DEC Rainbow and an early Sony PC
(both running MS DOS 2.x though the Rainbow also ran CP/M) in the
early 90s. They could have been described as being only relatively
"IBM clones", as their BIOS did not fully reimplement the IBM PC BIOS.
That was the Phoenix BIOS's achievement.
Consequently Microsoft's Xenix would have come in several different
flavours, according to who the OEM was. I don't know how long this
state of affairs went on for; I do know several computer books dating
from the late 80s I looked at in the early 90s regarded this a
standard, though regrettable, problem.
Do we have any Microsoft Xenix guys on this list? Anyone who'd be able
to fill in these gaps in our knowledge? Or does anyone know anyone
formerly of Microsoft or the original Santa Cruz Operation who we
could ask?
Wesley Parish
On 9/14/19, Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
<snip>
Slide 35 -- Not sure that is true. I thought Microsoft's Xenix ships
before Venix. Particularly since you made the comment about System III
The original 8086 Xenix was a pure V7 port, with a few additions Gordon
brought with him from Purdue (i.e. ghg hacks).