This was originally printed in the last issue of Link Magazine, and is reprinted here, with updates, by the author.
New changes were last made June 16th. If you have more information about these computer systems, or have info on other systems not mentioned, please mail loveeg@rocketmail.com.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPERATING SYSTEMS THROUGH TIME by Cameron Kaiser Contrary to popular belief, God did not create the operating system in six days. If He had, it would have been much better than the ones we have now. Nonetheless, we got 'em, so we'd better learn 'em. While some operating systems, like the love-hate Unix, have been around since the early days of digital computing (read 1960's), most have appeared in the late 70's to the present time, varying from powerful multiuser OS's to little OS's that ran on 8 bit computers in under 64K of memory. This is just the briefest portion of operating systems, from then until now. To establish a point of reference, all computers must have an OS. The OS controls input and output; makes reasonable (questionable in some) effort to control peripherals; and in short acts as the interface between you the user, the software, and the hardware. Early on, OSes were individualized. Since computers were a rarity, the question of standardization was ignored, since there were so few computers to be standardized, and consequently the OSes were tied to the capabilities and purposes of each system. Not until the age of microcomputers, somewhere near the late 70's, do we begin to see any coherent pattern in the chaos. This is where our story begins, with: 8-BIT OPERATING SYSTEMS The first primary microcomputers on the block were the Commodore PET, the Tandy, and the Apple II. (There IS in fact an Apple I, but only 200 of them were ever manufactured. One of them hangs in Apple's offices with the label "Our Founder".) Perhaps it would be a good idea to look at how these respective companies fared in the OS world. Tandy is one of the great could-have-beens in the computer world. Their electronics chain, Radio Shack, is known worldwide. Their appliance clones and lines make huge profits. Yet Tandy never managed to crack the microcomputer world to any great degree because their machines were so badly underpowered. Tandy's first foray was the TRS-80 in its various incarnations. The TRS, when first introduced, was a hot seller because of (at that time) its powerful operating system and the increasing number of software applications for it. Where the TRS-80 fell flat was failing to keep state of the art: many new computers introduced enhanced video, or easier to use operating systems; the TRS kept its 80-column b&w (and damn hard to
Correction: The original TRS-80 Model I had a 64x16 screen, though the Model II apparently did have the 80 column one. Thanks to Ricardo Banffy for the correction.
read) screen and its cryptic TRS-DOS, which rapidly gained the moniker Trash-DOS. Tandy's next attempt was the CoCo line, going through the CoCo 1 to the CoCo 3. The CoCo 3 actually was a fairly good computer, with 128K, reasonable graphics and sound, complete downward compatibility with others in its line and fair support with Tandy. However, the CoCo was rapidly eclipsed by its primary competition, the Commodore 64 (which we'll see later) and when Tandy dropped it the CoCo faded away. Tandy now spends its time making underpowered PC clones.
Update: Tandy no longer makes PCs, having now entered a licensing agreement with IBM to sell their Aptiva line. The venerable CoCos are now officially unsupported, as near as I can determine.
Color Computers were powered by the many variants of the famous Motorola 6809 and the 6847 video chip (except the CoCo 3 which used the ACVC(?) and the 68B09E), and ranged in memory sizes up to 128KB. The Dragon series of computers, made by Belgian concern Dragon Data, were at least partially compatible with the CoCos -- BASIC programs could run, but for legal reasons memory mappings were different and so most of the games, which used ML, didn't. Apparently, the CoCos could be networked together. I myself used to assist a teacher who used a CoCo 3 as a fileserver and through cassette interfaces distributed programs to CoCo 2 clients in the classroom -- pretty neat, even in 1988.
Neat Fact: The POKE command on CoCos makes the processor heat up. Didn't Tandy know what a heat sink was?
The Apple II series, until officially discontinued, was one of the bigger success stories in the 8-bit market. Used all over in American school systems, and frequent in American households, the Apple II, going from the plain-vanilla version to the popular Apple IIe/c, was a staple in its class. The Apple has several OS's: Integer BASIC, which was a throwback to the old 48K Apple II; DOS 3.3, which was the most common of the DOSes used on the Apple; and the sophisticated but irksome ProDOS, which was Apple's last shot. Apple had the strength of a huge number of users and its massive software library, which encompassed cheesy games to powerful applications like AppleWorks, but the weaknesses of poor graphics, dumb peripherals (meaning they did not manage themselves, but had to depend on the host computer, a very poor arrangement), no sound above beeps at various frequencies, and above all a nasty price
A raft of add-on boards (like the Mockingboard for sound) could correct these deficiencies, but there wasn't much software for them.
tag. Apple made an attempt at recapturing the market with the beautiful but impractical Apple IIgs, which had some takers in the school systems, but with the advent of the Macintosh Apple phased out the II line. An Apple III was also manufactured, but it was not compatible with its more successful progenitors and was a miserable failure. The Apple II series also inspired a number of clones: the Franklin Ace and the Laser 128 series, which incorporated a number of useful gadgets, like mice, numeric keypads, etc. that Apple normally bled people for. After these became increasingly popular, Apple eventually sued them but it was not a big deal since Laser went to making PC clones and Franklin to its line of pocket dictionaries and encyclopedias.
Clarification: You can read ProDOS volumes on a Mac, so this is at least one use for ProDOS. Apple still has FTP support for some 8-bits (mostly the IIgs) at their FTP repository.
Several alternative operating systems exist, besides Quark Catalyst and GEOS. I have now been made aware of GNO/ME, which does best on the IIgs, and apparently an OS9 post exists, but I cannot confirm this.
Apple did not lose any sleep over the graphics or sound capabilities of the 8-bits. But, as was mentioned, third-party manufacturers made a bevy of them. Most of today's development continues for the IIgs, which has a considerably more multimedia-friendly architecture (up to 4096 colours, which compared favourably with the popular Amigas of that time). The IIgs doesn't belong in this listing really because it's actually a 16 bit system based around the 65C816 (the big brother to the MOS 6500 series of processors that power the 8-bit Apple IIs, the Commodore 8-bit series and the Atari 8-bit series), but it has a built-in Apple II compatibility mode which the corresponding computers (Atari ST and Amiga) do not. Interestingly, the Commodore 64 can now be powered by the 65C816 with an add-on cartridge.
Applesoft BASIC was widely regarded as one of the saner implementations of BASIC (but not Integer BASIC, which was irksome). In fact, it was copied practically identically in the Coleco ADAM.
Update: Steve Jobs is back. After having started the company in his garage with Steve Wozniak (the 'Woz' on early IIgs models is his zany signature), Jobs was forced out by then-executive John Sculley over a power struggle in 1985, right as the Macintosh was trying to crack the market. Apple then fell on hard times as their market share dwindled.
Jobs had not been idle, as he introduced his Unix workstation, the NeXT, in the interim. NeXT machines run a unique Unix like operating system which has made them popular in universities (and popular with 3-D games giant id Software, which used them to develop Wolfenstein 3D and Doom). Apple bought NeXT as an attempt to shore up their operating system development, bringing Jobs back into the corporate board. When then-CEO Gil Amelio was forced out in 1997, Jobs became acting CEO.
Apple has since survived the Mac world's disapproval over a (so far :-) benign influx of capital and development promises from Microsoft, as well as the constant predictions of the company's immiment demise. Their recent releases, the G3 series of computers, are aiming for high end markets, which is probably wise granted that the largest complaint about Apple systems is their price, and reportedly they have exceeded their expected demand by almost 50% since their introduction. As this article goes to press, Apple is now posting a quarterly profit for the first time in years.
Jobs has reportedly denied that he is bucking for the CEO job permanently. Well, if I may be permitted the observation, he was born for that job.
Neat Fact: The operating system for the Apple III was called SOS. Given the computer's miserable failure in the market, it looks like the name was appropriate.
Neat Fact: A hardware add-on for the Commodore 64 called the Spartan Mimic could make the 64 into a fully functional Apple II. As the two systems are largely dissimilar -- even down to the CPU level, as 64s are powered by a 6502 variant called the 6510, while Apple IIs use the various classic 6502 varieties (the NMOS 6502 and the 65C02) -- the box, which occupied all the ports on the 64, was essentially an Apple II in a case without keyboard or monitor, and cost as much as you would expect (i.e., a lot). The idea was neat, but the cost was horrific. Moreover, 64 peripherals, since they are "smart" devices (see below), needed modification to work with it, making the total system cost even pricier. Consequently, the device fared badly, and is virtually forgotten. If anyone has one of these boxes, please let me know.
Neat Fact: Apple Computer began life with a very, very big trademark dispute with, of all people, the Beatles. Beatles records are distributed by music conglomerate EMI (on their Parlophone line), but the Beatles mark is actually called Apple Records. Apparently, Apple Records was guaranteed by Apple Computer that they would never go into the music business, so Apple Records dropped their trademark infringement suit. But when Apple Computer brought its CD-ROM drives out for the Macintosh, Apple Records brought back the lawsuit (perceiving the CD-ROMs as evidence of existence in the music market, supposedly). Presumably it has been settled.
Apple has some more history links on their very own Apple History page. In fact, they linked this one. :-)
However, these two behemoths pale in comparison to what for a time was the big boy on the block: Commodore Business Machines. When Commodore first introduced the PET, it was fairly popular, but not as much as when it went into its color 8-bit line, with the VIC-20, the 64 (which even as late as 1991 was still selling at the rate of 6-7 million units worldwide), and the 64's bigger brother, the 128. The contemporary Commodore OS (read: 64) was based around its version of BASIC. All commands to peripherals, which were "smart" (having their own memory, processor and handlers), were done through BASIC; the computer started up in BASIC; and BASIC was built into ROM. The Commodore 64 wowed the world as a wonderbox when it first arrived in 1982, with the then extraordinary 16-color graphics, 3-voice sound, and bankable memory based around the efficient MOS 6500 series (specifically, the 6510). (Believe it or not, a 16-bit variant of the 6510, the 65816, powers the Super Nintendo.) Since the BASIC did not have the custom commands to manipulate many of the advanced features the 64 had, a number of add-ons appeared: fastloaders to improve (sometimes to massive ratios) the speed of the miserable 1541 disk drives; BASIC extensions of all sorts, from the pitiful Simon's Basic to bigger development systems like Epyx Programmer's Toolkit; and hardware enhancements, such as RAM expansions, high-speed RS232 boxes and interfaces to non-Commodore printers. Another key was the GEOS operating system, made by Berkeley Softworks (now GeoWorks). Although it was slow, clunky, crash-prone and belligerent, it has developed a loyal following because it presents a powerful 80-column Mac-like GUI on the 64. Huge amounts of software exist for it, from games to powerful business programs. The 64 can even behave like a PC or Unix box: programs like CS-DOS and the powerful A64/OS and LUnix operating systems convert the 64 into smaller versions of their bigger competitors. The 64, while officially put to rest somewhere back in the early 1990's, finally and abruptly got the boot when CBM declared bankruptcy last year, but millions are still in use.
"Last year" is 1994, although it may have actually been a bit earlier.
The Commodore 128, its bigger and better cousin, did everything the 64 did, including CP/M (discussed later), 80 column video, its own
The 128 probably sold as well as it did because it was 64 compatible.
version of GEOS, and had all the BASIC commands necessary to take advantage of its capabilities. While not as big a seller as the 64, it has developed a big following in its own right. Commodore's other 8-bits, including the Plus/4 and the 16, were disasters because they were not compatible with the 64, and thus never hit the market with any great interest. Commodore also developed the Amiga series.
Update: After Commodore's demise, the company (mostly the Amiga) was bought by Escom GmBH. Escom itself folded, and amidst an abortive attempt to buy the Amiga trademark by American company VisCorp, the Amiga line was bought by Gateway 2000. They are apparently planning to license an x86-type architecture (why, those rotten little ...) based around the Amiga technology. More information that has become available to me indicates that Gateway will be licensing the Amiga technology to various European manufacturers. A new AmigaOS, reportedly version 4.0, is also apparently in the works too, and Amiga is seeking developers for a "new open standard". According to Amiga Incorporated's official FAQ, the new Amiga will support 68000 applications through software emulation (probably something like UAE) and a hardware card which will allow PPC chips as acceleration add-ons.
The Commodore 64, on the other hand, was bought along with the Commodore name by Tulip Computers BV (there's a web site). Commodore Computers BV, the resurrected company, sells PC clones, but Tulip has expressed interest in reviving the classic 64. A wise move, as the next generation of Commodore peripherals is appearing, including an expansion card that upgrades the 64 and the 128 each to 20 MHz and up to 16 MB addressable. Hard drives up to several GB in size have been available for some time as well, so maybe the time is ripe for the comeback of a new, tougher 64. Creative Micro Designs, the company responsible for much of these add-ons, has become a big name in the remaining Commodore scene for their continued hardware support.
All Tulip's attempts may be in vain, however -- the company has recently announced financial insolvency. The curse of the Commodore 8-bit properties remains intact, having destroyed all the companies that inherited them.
More Information: Jack Tramiel, the original founder of Commodore Business Machines (back when they made typewriters and calculators), defected to Atari shortly after Commodore entered its 'salad days' period. Commodore started taking its nosedive soon after the 128 peaked. Atari, however, did not benefit from Tramiel's success at Commodore, and it too could not fight the onslaught of IBM and Microsoft. Tramiel's name was never associated with a business success story again.
When comparing absolute brand names (not OSes, like Wintel), the Commodore 64 is still the best selling single platform in the world. No other single computer model comes close.
Neat Fact: It is widely believed to be a myth that the 64 was responsible for the rise of America Online. Surprise: it's the truth. The original online service AOL came from was a 64-exclusive networked BBS system called QuantumLink, which was a merger of Steve Case's QuantumLink (ring any bells? Steve Case? Mmmm, Steve Case?) and a early online gaming service called PlayNet. QuantumLink did in fact continue until the early days of America Online, but was abruptly cancelled to the frank irritation of the 64 users on it (consequently, Steve Case is regarded as somewhat less than cow dung in most hardcore 64 groups). Proof? Most of the old PlayNet architecture was never modified. Ever wonder why you are restricted to a 10 character name? That was a PlayNet decision so that they could fit four names to a Commodore 64 40-column line. It has never been changed since.
Neat Fact: The most well-known brother to the Commodore 64 is the Commodore 128, a minor hit in its own right (I have a 128DCR, one of the models with an integrated disk drive). There is, in fact, a Commodore 65, a mythical model developed in Commodore's RandD labs with Amiga-quality graphics, a C64 compatibility mode, and a built-in 3.5" disk drive. When Commodore was liquidated in '94, some of these prototypes escaped and were sold off to warehouses (several hundred or so, from complete systems to motherboards).
Neat Fact: Most movies show the very unrealistic scenario of some computer program that can cause actual physical hardware damage to chip components. (Forcing HD crashes isn't that hard. ;-) This is just about impossible to do in real life -- except in later model Commodore PETs, where a single POKE (memory store) to a video chip location can fry the entire video subsystem. Older PETs allowed you to run the system at a higher refresh rate and get a free speed boost. When Commodore fixed this anomaly, the POKE would still run the higher refresh rate which the video controller could no longer cope with. Hence, warped screens, and after a couple of minutes, no screen at all -- even if you turned it off and back on, the damage is permanent. Yikes!
Other 8-bit systems of note: Texas Instruments' TI/99 series were another of the big should-have-been-but-wasn'ts. Burdened by total incompatibility with anything else, suffering terrible graphics and sound, and a non-standard BASIC, the TI/99's developed a small following that
Correction: Actually, the TI 99/4's had more than adequate graphics output. However, the 4 series was designed by TI's Consumer Products division, and therefore crippled down for the home market. None of its special features were accessible to the casual programmer. Extended BASIC addressed some of these shortcomings, and even supported sprites, but TI's lack of good support and the Commodore 64 were the knockout punch. Thanks to Tom Wills' TI mailing list for this information.
Update: There is a more advanced variant of the TI 99 series called the Geneve, manufactured by Myarc. The Geneve is largely, but not wholly, compatible with its progenitor. (Full name, the Myarc 9640.)
More Information: One of the most disappointing things about the TI is that its CPU, the TMS-9900, is in fact a 16 bit processor. However, the bus cripples it down to 8 data bits, a waste of bus and processor time.
The Tomy Tutor is in fact a TI "clone" -- it too is based on the 9900 (actually a faster variant, the 9995), but Tomy was smart enough not to cripple the 16 full data bits and used this as their marketing ploy in the increasingly then-glutted 8-bit market. In fact, the TI chip set powered several computers -- 9918 variants apparently powered the Tutor and the ADAM, as well as an obscure system called the Sord.
Here's the only comprehensive Cameron Kaiser site (if I may say so myself, since I wrote it).
was quickly alienated when TI hastily cut their losses and dropped the line. TI now makes calculators, which it used to do and should have stuck with, and also a very good line of laptops, leaving a discouraged following behind.
Neat Fact: TI BASIC is double-interpreted. Not only is your program interpreted by the TI BASIC interpreter, but the interpreter is itself interpreted, written in a special language called GPL (Graphics Programming Language)! Thus, TI BASIC is dog slow compared with other classic micros. The Tomy, on the other hand, has an interpreter fully written in 9995 machine language, so it blows away its progenitor. I suspect that the Tomy graphics language GBASIC is really GPL in disguise, however, so GPL lives!
Another computer that might have hit it big was the Sinclair, a fairly well endowed system that would have hit it big in Europe were it not for the spectre of the Commodore 64, which in fact doomed many potential competitors in Europe during the early 1980's. The Sinclair's reasonable graphics capabilities and friendlier style of usage were eventually eclipsed by CBM UK, along with the BBC's Acorn, which should never have got out the door.
Clarification: The Sinclair was sold in the States by Timex, but Timex didn't want to challenge the 64 on its home turf. Thus, the Sinclair is really only well-known in the UK.
More Information: Well-endowed is as well-endowed does; I oversimplified grossly. There is a massive line of Spectrums, from the ZX-80 to the QL and the top-of-the-line Spectrums. At the low end are the ZX-80 and ZX-81, with no graphics capabilities of any sort, fully B/W, and a whopping 1KB (!) of memory. The ZX-80 is very rare, but the ZX-81 was a smash hit in Britain, and was released in the States as the Timex Sinclair 1000. You could not type BASIC keywords in by hand, as it appears -- the keywords were on its horrid membrane keyboard, and you had to type them in with key combinations instead.
Neat Fact: The ZX-80 series were so slow that there were two methods of program execution: screen updating on, or off. Yet the Z-80A CPU ran at 3.25MHz! Whoever designed the ZX-80 series bus had to have been smoking bowls. The BASIC interpreter was a marvel of programming in that it worked with programs crammed into the 1KB of RAM so well -- there was even a MicroChess implementation (as was there for the old MOS KIM-1). Nevertheless, the 16KB RAM expansion was the most popular peripheral.
The colour Spectrums started at 16KB of RAM and maintained the maddening BASIC keyword combination quirk of the ZX-80s. Spectrums had reasonable resolution but a bizarre colour clash quirk that became the classic hallmark of Spectrum games. In spite of its horrid I/O, the BASIC quirks, the nutty graphics and the non-existent sound, the Spectrum enjoyed popularity in the UK almost on par with the Commodore 64, much to Jack Tramiel's chagrin and Clive Sinclair's glee. In the US, Timex tried to get that same popularity by releasing the Spectrums as the Timex Sinclair 2068. Unfortunately, the rest of the planet was unmoved. The Commodore 64 never even blinked, and the Spectrum has continued support only in the UK. Later Spectrum models introduced enhanced sound, but the graphics became a byword in the Sinclair community.
Neat Fact: The Spectrum+3 was noteworthy for finally allowing the user to type BASIC keywords out in full, but this was because the keywords were now no longer printed on the keyboard. A compatibility option offered users the ability to continue using key combinations for BASIC keywords, but since the keywords weren't printed anymore, users had to do them from memory!
Neat Fact: The Spectrum+ has a detachable keyboard. Literally. If you turn a unit upside down, all the keys will fall out.
The Sinclair QL doesn't really belong here, as it wasn't a Spectrum or ZX system, but it is worth mentioning for its unique microcassette drives (with a pathetic 100K, mediocre in 1984 and terrible later) which though small were quite fast, and the QLAN networking system. QL was supposed to stand for 'Quantum Leap' but Sinclair's manufacturing tardiness branded it the 'Quite Late'. Its software was written by Psion. Apparently, its BASIC was quite good as well (presumably the key combinations were no longer needed).
Acorn is a company in its own right. Today they make the Archimedes, a wonderful computer that survives in the British education system.
Not to be outdone, Atari was probably the first computer in your home, although you might not have recognized it as such. When Nolan Bushnell released his wildly popular Pong, this primitive dedicated system wormed its way into the hearts and habits of happy Americans. The 2600, 5200 and 7800 video game series made addicts out of many a kid (including me). And, for a time, Atari did at least as well as its competitors with its hundred line: the 400, 600, 800 and 1200 series computers. Carrying fair graphics, good sound, a reasonably efficient DOS and a good number of applications, the Ataris did well until their faults started bubbling to the surface. By not adhering to the Microsoft BASIC standard (e.g. Commodore 64, Apple II), Atari seriously shot themselves in the foot, and its graphics and sound capabilities were overshadowed by the 64's. In addition, Atari just could not crack the home market (Commodore's zone), nor the school market (Apple's department). Its XL line (600XL, etc.) was also problematic in that it was almost, but not quite, compatible with its older brothers, requiring a Translator disk that did not quite fix the problem for some programs. Atari released a XE line, which was just a repackage of the 1200's, and its ST line, a 16 bit system.
Correction: The difference between the XL series and the straight hundred-series is the presence of built-in Atari BASIC. The XE series required the translator disk. Thanks to Ken Bond for the correction.
More Information: There are at least several alternative operating systems for the Atari that I have recently become aware of. A port(?) of Atari ST TOS (Tramiel Operating System, how egotistical ;-) existed (TOS was based on Digital Research's GEM, but I don't think the 8-bit version was), and there was also SpartaDOS, a UNIX like system that allowed external storage up to 10MB.
Factory standard Atari DOS was called, with all the creativity Atari marketing could muster, "Atari DOS" and had a simple keyboard driven menu. DOS 3.0 was considered a lemon because it didn't read 2.0 disks, so Atari, which was apparently under Tramiel control at the time, released Atari DOS 2.5 with the XE line (and this seems to explain the need for the translator disk). Some neat toys that Atari never released can be seen at www.atari.nu. Thanks to "SulfurFury" for this additional information.
When Atari was sold to Warner Communications, it eventually faded away. However, its video game division, Atari Games, is still out there sucking up your quarters.
Update: Atari Games, including the Tengen consumer division, has been bought by Williams Corporation as part of their video games enterprise, which includes what used to be Bally Midway.
According to the American government Securities and Exchange Commission, however, JTS Technologies, which owned the remainder of Atari after it folded, has now sold their remaining interest to Hasbro, the American toy manufacturer, for $5 million on 23 February 1998. The new subsidiary will be called HIACXI Corp. and consists of the 2600 through 7800 consoles, the Lynx Jaguar, the Atari 800, the ST (and TOS), the 8-bit operating systems (thus Atari DOS) and the Portfolio palmtop. More significantly, most of the classic Atari games, including Centipede, Asteroids, Battlezone, Missile Command, Tempest and the venerable Pong, are now service marks of Hasbro (apparently these were not sold to Williams with the rest of the video games division). It is likely that Hasbro will use these service marks to reissue or create new versions of these retro games. The SEC still has yet to make comments on this, but I'll note them here when they do. There seems to be some issues on JTS's absorption of Atari's debt (apparently JTS took more than $50 million in debt absorbed from Atari) -- shareholders are questioning the low sale price to Hasbro as evidence of skulduggery or a straight-out fire sale.
I'm very sheepish to say I left a computer completely out of this list. The ADAM computer was the followup to Coleco's fairly successful ColecoVision machine -- in the true sense of the word, too, as apparently it came as both an upgrade to the ColecoVision and as a standalone machine, powered by a Z80A system that was CP/M-like (fairly probable given the processor), and a CP/M for it is known to exist -- there is even a WordStar version hacked for the 32-characters per row display! It used the infamous TMS9918A video chip, variants of which powered the Sord (!), the TI series, and apparently the elusive Tomy Tutor, and had 64K of RAM. ADAM was noteworthy for having a large amount of ROM, mostly for its built-in word processor (but you had to read in BASIC from disk or tape -- puzzle), the power supply built into the printer (in fact, ADAM didn't work without it, so it came with one :-), and two built-in digital cassette drives. These drives were also a source of some frustration as they could use regular audio cassettes, but you needed to get them formatted by Coleco first. However, they could hold a whopping 256KB on each cassette, and if you connected up floppies at 320KB a pop, you would have a then unheard of (in 1983) 832KB of mass storage. Not bad! More intriguing was that the ADAM's cassettes had probably the world's only random access tape system -- it had a directory placed strategically on the cassette in such a way that the drives could spin through to it and locate things at almost disk-drive speed, a novelty then and pretty neat now. ADAM's BASIC was based on (of all things) Applesoft BASIC, so if you typed 10 HOME on an ADAM, it would do what you expect when you RUN it.
Neat Fact: ADAM apparently generated a massive electromagnetic surge on start up. You won't go into warp yourself, but any data on the tapes inside your tape drives might.
ADAM was terribly unsuccessful, since it lost big to the rampaging 64. However, it enjoys a terrific amount of support, and people have supposedly created IDE hard drives, 2MB RAM disks, 80-column cards, and additional printers for it. Sorry, I don't have any working links, and this mythical ADAM emulator is nowhere to be found. Thanks to Gavin Gregor Young for telling me about my gaffe in forgetting the ADAM. :-)
8-BIT MULTI-PLATFORM OPERATING SYSTEMS All the previous systems were localized to one computer, and often hardcoded into memory. Here are those operating systems that managed to make the jump from single-system to multi-system. GEOS, which was previously mentioned in reference to the Commodore 64, also had an incarnation for the Apple II, which was done in by Quark Catalyst. Catalyst was sponsored by Apple itself, which was probably the reason for Apple GEOS's demise, even though Catalyst was even clunkier than GEOS was. GEOS was also released for the MS-DOS line, since it would run on older systems scorned by Windows, but PC-GEOS, as phenomenally powerful as it is, was eventually run down into a footnote in the PC GUI wars. The MSX standard was another multisystem standard that was supposed to be the Japanese invasion during the mid 80's. Computers like the Tomy Tutor (the what? well, I have one of them ;-), the Yamaha XS, and a number of other systems adhering to this standard were doomed by none other than the 64, which in a fit of marketing expertise or dumb luck was selling at its peak when the MSX line was introduced.
More Information: The MSX was a chipset standard, not a true OS software system. The CPU was a Z80, like CP/M, and all inherited similar music and graphics capabilities. I am trying to find out if they were cross-compatible. One thing is for certain: the 64 killed them.
Correction: The Tomy Tutor is not an MSX box. It is a TI-like architecture.
OS9 was an operating system that was one of the few, if not the only, multitasking, multithreading, and, if you're lucky, multi-user operating systems extant for an 8-bit system. Running in
Correction: It is singlethreading only, although later versions might have fixed this (?). Someome with more info, please mail me.
some versions for 6809 based systems, like CoCos, where it has attracted a fierce fan club, for 68000 systems like Atari STs, and even for the Apple II, OS9's fault was being branded a CoCo system only (which it was primarily) and attracting a bad rep. In addition, applications were not cross compatible. OS9 nowadays runs on almost all of the TRS-80 line that is still in use, and on the occasional ST (mostly in Europe). The big mama of the multi-platform 8-bit OSes was CP/M, however, which nearly replaced MS-DOS as the default OS for the PC were it not for an upstart software company from Redmond, Washington that did a better PR job (guess who?). Developed by Gary Kildall's Digital Research in the mid 1970's, CP/M was the first standardized OS ever created for microcomputers. CP/M had a standard set of commands, (eventually) a standardized DOS, and even standardized system utilities from one implementation to another. In its heyday, CP/M was supported by companies as diverse as Kaypro, Cromemco and even Apples and Commodores, which could emulate it with an add-on in the 64 and Apple II and could be a full-on CP/M box on the 128. Disks between these systems (with the exception of the 64 and Apple II) were even cross-platform readable, and because CP/M ran on the 8088 and Z-80 processor series, the software would run exactly the same on all of the systems. CP/M even had versions for other processors, including CP/M-86, and other computers, such as the Apple II. With all this going for it, CP/M ought to have succeeded, but was beaten to the punch when it annoyed IBM, who was looking for someone to create the operating system for its new XT series, and gave the contract to Microsoft instead. The rest is history. Digital Research made an abortive attempt to return to the market with its GEM graphical system (which DID make a big hit on the ST, however), and now markets DR-DOS, a pleasant alternative to MS-DOS, albeit uncommon.
Update: CP/M is now owned by Caldera. Supposedly, it is now in the public domain, or at least freely distributable. My most current information indicates that Digital Research as it was no longer exists.
Gary Kildall passed away, apparently in 1994. We'll miss him.