Microsoft is increasingly moving towards open source software, but with important limitations. A decade ago, the company released the source code for the MS-DOS 1.25 and MS-DOS 2.0 operating systems, which we can say are the origin of Windows. Now, the company has surprised by releasing the source code of MS-DOS 4.0 under an MIT open license.
MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) were the first distributions of Bill Gates’ operating system. It quickly became dominant in personal computers between the late 80s and early 90s. It was very important in terms of personal computing, facilitating adoption in homes and offices.
Windows really is a graphical interface for MS-DOS. So much so that the Windows 2000 operating system still used DOS to start.
MS-DOS 4.0 source code
This operating system probably doesn’t sound familiar to you, but at the time it was a great revolution. At the time, MS-DOS 4.0 introduced many improvements that we take for granted today. The most notable implementations include improved memory management and advanced disk utilities.
But, without a doubt, one of the most notable improvements was the implementation of true multitasking. Unfortunately, due to IBM, this feature was eventually removed from future versions of MS-DOS. In those days only IBM systems could run this operating system, so the company ruled. They did not see the usefulness of this function, which is vital today in any computer, so Microsoft later had to remove it.
Now, Microsoft has wanted upload to your repository from GitHub the source code for MS-DOS 4.0. Within this repository we can also find, since 2014, the source code of MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0.
Which allows this action so that anyone can explore them and better understand how they worked. Furthermore, they are a very important part of the history of computing.
Anyone who accesses the repository can download it and do practically whatever they like with it. This is possible because it is under the MIT license, like the other two source codes published a decade ago.
The reason why the MS-DOS 4.0 source code is released, according to Microsoft on its corporate blog, is very interesting. We have a young researcher named Connor ‘Starfrost’ Hyde to thank. Connor contacts Ray Ozzie, who was CTO of Microsoft years ago.
It seems that Ray found unreleased MS-DOS 4.0 beta binaries in his software collection and reported it to Connor. The young researcher contacted the Microsoft Open Source Programs Office (OSPO) to consult them about the possibility of releasing the source code of MS-DOS 4.0.
Thanks to both of them, the source code of this operating system, different additional beta binaries, disk images and even high-resolution PDF files of documentation have been published. Additionally, Microsoft highlights that they will continue to search for files and add items if anything else is discovered.
Now, anyone can access to study the code and documentation available in the repository. Additionally, the code may be used for personal or educational purposes, not for profit. Say that the repository is archived, not allowing changes.
