10 Operating Systems We'll Never Forget

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
From our front-page news:
"Those were the good ole days". How many times have you heard that? Personally, I've caught myself saying that many times in the past, but it's a feeling we can all relate to. We all have fond memories of the past, and technology tends to be part of that. If you've been using computers for more than a few years, you probably have your own fair share of memories that bring a smile to your face. But how about an entire OS'?

Computerworld is taking a brief look at ten operating systems that we've left behind, but refuse to forget about. These are classics... no Windows XP or Mac OS 9 here. Ever hear of CP/M-86? I didn't, but I don't feel too bad since it pre-dates DOS, and was designed to run on 8080, 8088 and 8086 PCs. How about AmigaOS? Mac 7.0? GEOS 2.0? NexTStep (pictured below)?

Personally, my fond memory of an OS is with MS-DOS 5.0, which ran on my speedy 286 (frequency escapes me) and monochrome monitor (let's hear it for black and barf!). My first major computer mistake was made on the same PC, when I went to format a floppy disk and accidentally formatted the hard disk. I tend to not pay attention to most things now, and back then, things were no different. If "Are you sure you want to format non-removable disk" didn't clue me in, I'm not sure what else could've! Oh well, lesson learned.

Do you have fond memories of OS' that have passed? Post about them in the related thread!

nextstep_033109.jpg

And the operating system, called NeXTStep, was frankly exciting. Its graphical interface was built around Display PostScript, so it was sharp and scalable. Underneath, it was built on a solid structure of Unix, including a Mach kernel and BSD code. And for the developers, it had an object-oriented application layer and tool kit. This made it much easier to code for than other platforms.


Source: Computerworld
 

Greg King

I just kinda show up...
Staff member
DOS baby! I too learned a lot about computers on an IBM 286. My dad taught BASIC at the high school that he also taught math at. Good times banging around on that old machine.

I miss King's Quest and Quest for Glory. COME BACK ROBERTA WILLIAMS!
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Sadly, I never was one for the King's Quest series. It could have been due to the fact that we simply didn't own it, so I really didn't know what I was missing. Aside from Snake and a few other random games on the C64, the first PC game I ever got addicted to (which was bundled on the 286) was a Tetris clone called Blockout. Actually, I think it was the first game my mom got addicted to on the PC also. We used to try to beat each other's scores, haha. Good times.

BASIC is one thing I never really got into for some reason. The most advanced coding I ever did back then was with simple DOS Batch. I used to write "cleanup" and optimization utilities for fun. They were simply scripts, really, but it was definitely still fun.
 

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
I still have my Commodore64 around here somewhere......now where did I put them, yes.... I collected them from yard sales.
Back in the time I wrote my own programs in BASIC.
But the OS?.... I dont rememeber what OS it used ( 1986 )
 
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