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Article note: The whole "IBM wanted CP/M, Gary Kildall didn't feel like dealing with them, so Microsoft bought a clone (_probably_ from-the-docs not from-the-code) from SCP and sold that instead" history is always interesting. I didn't know there was that much earlier commercial history; it's an excellent preservation project.
A number of years ago, an 8″ disk containing Seattle Computer Products (SCP) 86-DOS 1.0 was successfully imaged. The newest files on the disk are dated April 30, 1981, making the disk the oldest complete release of what was soon to be known as PC DOS and MS-DOS, about a month older than a pre-release of PC DOS from early June 1981.
While it is possible to run the 8″ disk image with 86-DOS version 1.00 under an emulator, it of course doesn’t run on a PC or any PC emulator/virtualizer. That’s a shame because most of the utilities included with SCP’s 86-DOS run under DOS just fine. In theory, it should be possible to provide a PC compatible “BIOS” component (IBMBIO.COM or IO.SYS equivalent) and run the rest of the system more or less unmodified on a PC.
In case you don’t know or remember, Seattle Computer Products was the company Microsoft bought the rights to DOS from, making SCP’s versions of DOS some of the oldest in existence. Getting these old versions archived and running on modern emulators is critically important for the field of computer archeology.
Article note: Ugh.
NSA has been pulling the "Surely only we, the good guys (tm) can use this backdoor we've intentionally introduced into cryptosystems we've successfully pressured the adoption of" shit since the 60s (see HY-63, https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-scandalous-history-of-the-last-rotor-cipher-machine ), despite it blowing up regularly.
And, even more than "think of the children," it's always a lie. There are no attacks that "only you" can use, even if you can rationalize yourself as 'the good guys.'
No, not the 1980s TV show where Lionel Blair attempted to mime data abstraction to Una Stubbs
Retro fans, rejoice! A bit of digital archaeology has turned up a working early version of the CLU programming language and the files needed to create it uploaded to GitHub.…
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
— Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear from Frank Herbert’s Dune
