what was the original IBM PC operating system?

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Answer by JackG
Submitted on 11/14/2003
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There were really two. Built into the original IBM PC ROM (Read Only Memory) was its POST (Power On Self Test), BIOS (Basic Input Output System) and the BASIC program language. This was a complete built in operating system that allowed you to write, save, load, print and run BASIC programs. It supported loading and saving programs from both diskette and cassette tape, keyboard input, video display, printing,and ASYNC communications. The POST and BIOS code was written by IBM and the BASIC interpreter was provided by Microsoft. The second operating system was provided by Microsoft and of course was DOS (Disk Operating System). While there was a DOS version 1.0 supplied by Microsoft, it was so full of bugs that customers did not see it. The first real release was DOS version 1.1 that provided the basic A:\ prompt still used today. There were other OS's available soon after the IBM PC came out, like Digital Research's DR DOS, but these were not used by many customers.

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Question by marlone
Submitted on 10/4/2003
Related FAQ: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.* Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Part 1/5
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what was the original IBM PC operating system?

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