Classic Operating Systems

It takes a true geek to successfully engage in a deep conversation about technological advances that were released 5 years before his birth. More specifically it was a discussion of old CP/M Operating Systems between myself and a colleague that prompted the recognition of this.

The trip down memory lane got me thinking that perhaps it would be nice to remind ourselves of the path we have walked to have become unfortunate enough to end up with Windows as the most popular choice of Operating System.

CP/M - Created back in 1976, this command line based Operating System was developed to provide 8-bit computer users with an easier way of managing the most basic of computer functions, as well as installing and programming applications. It would be fair to say that the younger MS-DOS was very closely based on CP/M and indeed many of the Operating System structures and commands were retained.

DOS - Of course, there were in fact several different flavours of DOS available from various vendors but MS-DOS was the one that was used by most. Released in 1981, Microsoft continued to develop this Operating System right up until the release of Windows 95, at which point it was phased out. DOS was a command based Operating System without any form of graphical interface which remained popular even after the introduction of Windows due to the fact that not only was it faster and less hardware intensive but also that it was actually required as a base for Windows to run on top of. Up until Windows 95, your computer would load itself in to DOS by default and those that wanted to use Windows would actually have to load it on top of MS-DOS as a secondary Operating System.

GEOS ' This Graphical Operating System required a tiny amount of system requirements originally designed for the Commodore 64; with its 64k of RAM and a 1 MHz processor. Created by Berkeley Softworks released in 1986, at one point it was the third fastest selling Operating System in the world. Even with the microscopic amount of system resources required GEOS was a speedy Operating System that looked similar to MacOS which ran on a machine costing ten times the price.

OS/2 - Originally a joint venture between IBM and Microsoft in 1987, at one point Microsoft publically insisted that OS/2 was the future and technically speaking, it was superior. Microsoft however managed to bundle Windows 3.0 with many new PC's (a tactic they have been able to continue up through the years) and as such OS/2 become considered an expensive alternative. Unsurprisingly, the marriage between the two companies hit the rocks and despite IBM soldering on until 2001, OS/2 never managed to enjoy the success that Windows had.

AmigaOS ' To me the Amiga OS was one of the most revolutionary Operating Systems ever and I remember it fondly for the extraordinary advances Windows would not manage to emulate until many years later. The speedy, reliable and fully featured AmigaOS was introduced back in 1985 for the Commodore Amiga line of machines, it also included support for multitasking; which is fairly standard to us nowadays but was the pinnacle of computing back then. Commadores financial issues led to bankruptcy resulting in the Amiga platform being abandoned unfortunately.

Chris Holgate writes a weekly article of all things tech related. He is a director and copyrighter of the online computer consumables business Refresh Cartridges who sell cheap ink cartridges ,toner cartridges, computer hardware and other computer consumables online. An archive of his work can be found at www.computerarticles.co.uk.