On Sunday, February 3, 2019, Steve Nickolas <usotsuki@buric.co> wrote:

On Mon, 4 Feb 2019, Dave Horsfall wrote:

On Mon, 4 Feb 2019, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:

Without Unix, Microsoft would not have created Microsoft "Windows".

I'd like to see some evidence for that; without Unix, what would we be running now? I doubt whether it would've been Linux, there being no inspiration for it...

My vague (and rough) recollection is CP/M -> DOS -> Windows.

Even it has roots in Unix.

Only inasmuch as it has directories, users, and permissions (which any semi-decent OS would have anyway)... Admittedly I have never compromised my integrity by using/programming it, so I am willing to be corrected.

And yes, I know about POSIX compatibility, but so is Linux, and it's different enough from Unix to be damned annoying.

-- Dave

Keep in mind that the MS-DOS 2 "handles" API for file access is based *directly* on Xenix, and replaced the MS-DOS 1 "FCB" API borrowed from CP/M.

And also don't forget that Xenix had the largest UNIX installed base measured by the number of machines it was installed on. People talking about BSD and System V in the 80s, but it was Xenix that ruled on micros. So at the time Microsoft offered both UNIX and MS-DOS.

--Andy