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Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”
171–180 of 218 posts
Re: Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need a better system. We tried communism and that was shit, so this is the least bad system we have.
The Russian empire tried communism. It was better than what they had before or since. The Chinese tried communism. It worked far better for them than what they had before.
> The Russian empire tried communism. It was better than what they had before or since.
No, it was not better. Quite objectively.
Re: Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need a better system. We tried communism and that was shit, so this is the least bad system we have.
The Russian empire tried communism. It was better than what they had before or since. The Chinese tried communism. It worked far better for them than what they had before.
In the opinion of the champaign socialists in the West. In the opinion of people who lived under that regime... Not so much.
Re: Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”
#174It is rare that I say this but, thanks MS! Arguably just as, if not more, important is the BASIC that they wrote. That was what they actually wanted to do. DOS just got them the contract with IBM. For decades MS was really a developer tools company with a side biz of writing operating systems and other misc software. They also open sourced that BASIC code too [1]. [1] https://opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09/03/…
I dont think I've ever seen a commit that says "49 years ago". Damn.
Even the README here is (erroneously?) timestamped as 1978 https://github.com/microsoft/BASIC-M6502
Which is unlikely since it seems to be written by AI
Re: Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”
#175Time to find vulnerabilities! I remember in the naughts, coming across a dos machine that was quite out of time… even for the university basement it was living in next to a pile of lead brick. Its only job was to run an instrument via an home-built ISA card and write data out to 5.25” floppies. What uses would this code have in 2026?
It's a single user OS that runs everything in ring zero by design. I'm not sure, definitionally, that it can have security vulnerabilities. I... guess maybe code execution on exposure to an untrusted floppy disk filesystem?
Even then, what would that accomplish in most systems? That same disk would most likely be the only permanent storage available to the system when it's inserted. Maybe if you've got two drives and have two floppies inserted at the same time?
Re: Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”
#176[flagged]
Re: Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need a better system. We tried communism and that was shit, so this is the least bad system we have.
The Russian empire tried communism. It was better than what they had before or since. The Chinese tried communism. It worked far better for them than what they had before.
The Iron Curtain was a real thing, as was the Berlin Wall. Successful social and economic systems do not need to execute their own citizens for attempting to escape.
Re: Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the case of Microsoft, I'm not seeing it. Being born into a 1% household and understanding the asymmetric upside that having the money and the time to speculate is far more significant than the civil and criminal legal violations on the way. The most common way to go from one-percenter rich to .001% rich is to already have enough wealthy people generating capital in your personal network that you can raise capital…
I think you overstate the power of money. Of course it helps. But it’s far from everything. Just look at the number of rich kid fuckups or CEOs with poor backgrounds. It’s just one component that smooths risk and occasionally provides a starter network, but it’s not everything.
> Just look at the number of rich kid fuckups or
I mean, rich kid fuckup still end up pretty good, unless they are full on addicts who committed robbery. And even then they get much better and qualified defense layer - ending with much lower punishment. But normally, they get a pretty good job through parents network and somehow muddle through.
> CEOs with poor backgrounds.
Statistically, upward mobility is low these days, people stay where they are born. So, I think that statistically there are not that many of those.
Re: Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you overstate the power of money. Of course it helps. But it’s far from everything. Just look at the number of rich kid fuckups or CEOs with poor backgrounds. It’s just one component that smooths risk and occasionally provides a starter network, but it’s not everything.
Well of course. To be a CEO from a poor background, you need to work your ass off making wealthy friends early. That's why going to an elite school is such a lifeline for people from bottom quartile backgrounds. Getting the opportunity socialize with people born at the top and be treated as a peer in an institutional environment is invaluable. That alone is worth the price of admission. It doesn't have to be your par…
> One can't even blame the VCs. If you're investing in things that are often partially fraudulent by design...
I mean, we can blame them from systematically investing in things fraudulent by design.
Re: Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a single user OS that runs everything in ring zero by design. I'm not sure, definitionally, that it can have security vulnerabilities. I... guess maybe code execution on exposure to an untrusted floppy disk filesystem?
Even then, what would that accomplish in most systems? That same disk would most likely be the only permanent storage available to the system when it's inserted. Maybe if you've got two drives and have two floppies inserted at the same time?
DOS systems often had hard drives. Also, floppy virus propagation is possible (aka: Sneakernet.)
It was a different era entirely; Writing a TSR was a right of passage. Sometimes just getting something to work without having any other motive was enough to do it.
A clever and small TSR might keep a copy of itself in memory and not require two floppies in the case of no hard drive. In comparison to today’s standards, it’s amazing what we did with 640k (or less!) of ram.