Wednesday, April 1, 2015

MS-DOS Mobile - Finally

Wayyyyyyy back in the early 1980's when the PC first came out I cut my teeth on a new operating system - MS-DOS. Sure there was something called CPM that ran on the PC earlier but (at least to me) it lacked in comfort, entertainment value and something else I could never really put my finger on. I do recall that when it came down to serious fun - CPM was a real downer.

Now MS-DOS on the other hand was an entertainment jackpot. So much fun right from the start. I recall so many late nights in the salad years of my mid-twenties writing code, smiling and laughing so hard I would often end up crying. The smell of the floppy disks (I'm not sure what the heck Microsoft put in them), the whirl of the drives.... it was all so very good.

Well. over the years things soured with Microsoft. Windows 3.1, 3.11 were really cool. Windows 95 - come on now that was just the best. XP was pretty good too. But then something happened. Maybe it was my age creeping up. It started for me with Vista - the laughing had stopped and it became just frustration and crying for me. Not good.

I longed for those salad days and found solace with Apple. The Mac OS's were so simple and comfortable and I found myself smiling and laughing again - sometimes so hard I would end up... yes... crying. It felt so good to be back. That Apple experience extended to other devices - phones, tablets, and in a few weeks there will be a watch.

Well - I never thought I would ever consider going back to Microsoft. That may have changed today though with the announcement of MS-DOS Mobile.


This has the potential to take me back to those salad days.... even better. Imagine MS-DOS always with me in my pocket, next to me in the car, on my nightstand. Comforting, entertaining. It sounds so nice. I'm thinking maybe I'll give it..... one more try :)


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