Microsoft MS-DOS and Word early-source entry museum

Microsoft today announced a partnership with the Computer History Museum to open early versions of MS-DOS and Word to the public.

The history of MS-DOS dates back to the 1980 project named "Chess". The goal at the outset of the project was to provide IBM with a basic language parser, but was then asked to further develop an operating system. Microsoft has used 1/3 employees (35 people) to eventually make two versions, one for IBM's Pc-dos and the other for MS-dos for other PC manufacturers, with a code size of no more than 300KB. The Windows version of Word was released in 1989 and took less than 4 years to win half of the world's share of word processing revenue.

Compared with the historical relics unearthed in Mawangdui, the 30-year period is not long, but the exponential development of information technology has extended the sense of distance, so now 30 years has been considered to be old. "This Thursday, we dusted the dust off the early Windows version of MS-DOS and Word source," Microsoft said in an official blog. Not long, even with each passing day can not express the speed of technological progress. But the digital cloak can keep the code fresh, no matter what it looks like at any time, and the essence of the glittering programming idea is never erased.

The Computer History Museum has been working on code collection for the early application of extensive software. In addition to Microsoft's MS-DOS and Word, the pavilion also collects more than 8,000 software sources, including Apple II DOS, IBM APL, Apple MacPaint, QuickDraw, Adobe Photoshop, and so on, where you can search for downloads. But if you want to see MS-DOS, you first have to ask yourself whether you have learned or remember assembly language.

Beginning of MS-DOS main program