Author Archives: Michal Necasek

Microsoft’s 1987 OS/2 Videos

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Michal Necasek

The site has been finally expanded to include videos of presentations given at Microsoft OS/2 developer conferences held in 1987, a quarter of a century ago. These videos are of historical interest as they show Microsoft’s product plans as they … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft, OS/2 | Leave a comment

OS/2 1.0 Availability Announced 25 Years Ago

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Michal Necasek

On November 3, 1987 IBM announced a few new products and provided more information on several previously announced packages. One of those was OS/2 1.0 Standard Edition. First announced on April 2, 1987, OS/2 1.0 SE ($325) had been completed … Continue reading →

Posted in IBM, Microsoft, OS/2 | Leave a comment

IBM PC XENIX

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Michal Necasek

In 1984, IBM briefly flirted with XENIX, Microsoft’s variant of UNIX licensed from AT&T.  Around 1983-1984, Microsoft and Intel worked on porting XENIX to the 286 processor; Intel shipped XENIX with a number of its development systems in the mid-1980s. … Continue reading →

Posted in IBM, Microsoft, Xenix | 28 Comments

No comments in source code? Really?

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Michal Necasek

A few weeks ago I came across an interview with an academic software researcher, now working for Microsoft. (Unfortunately the interview was in a non-English print publication, so I can’t link to it.) The interview was quite interesting, far better … Continue reading →

Posted in Development | 14 Comments

Why Windows NT from October 1992 refuses to install on modern CPUs

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Michal Necasek

Attempting to install the October 1992 pre-release on any CPU less than about 20 years old is likely to result in the following error message: This is similar to the behavior of the official Windows NT 3.1 and 3.5 releases, … Continue reading →

Posted in Intel, NT | 15 Comments

Windows Update Fail

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Michal Necasek

The other day I needed to update a server blade with Windows Server 2008 R2 installed on it. The system hadn’t been running for a while and now had about 100 updates available. I wasn’t looking forward to this as … Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft, Windows | 7 Comments

OS/2 Library Expansion

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Michal Necasek

Thanks to a very generous donor, the OS/2 section of the library at the OS/2 Museum has been recently expanded by 25 new arrivals (although a few of them are duplicates of books already in possession of the OS/2 Museum). … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, OS/2 | 7 Comments

Book Review: DOS Internals

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Michal Necasek

A Few Decades Late Book Reviews DOS Internals, by Geoff Chappell Addison-Wesley, March 1994; 768 pages, ISBN 0-201-60835-9; $39.95 DOS Internals is a very unusual book. Written by an academic whose field isn’t computer science, it is a in-depth and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Development, DOS, Microsoft | 15 Comments

IBM PS/2 Model 50 Keyboard Controller

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Michal Necasek

Thanks to John Elliott, a ROM dump of the PS/2 Model 50 keyboard controller (an 8742 chip) is now available. The IBM PC/AT keyboard controller (KBC) ROM has been analyzed earlier. So what exactly changed between the PC/AT and the … Continue reading →

Posted in IBM, PC architecture | 1 Comment

Book Review: Developing Applications Using DOS

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Michal Necasek

A Few Decades Late Book Reviews Developing Applications Using DOS, by Ken W. Christopher, Jr., Barry A. Feigenbaum, and Shon O. Saliga John Wiley & Sons, February 1990; 573 pages, ISBN 0-471-52231-7; $24.95 Developing Applications Using DOS is a surprisingly obscure … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, DOS, IBM | 2 Comments