"This is extraordinary news for all nerds, computer scientists and the Open Source community: the source code of the MULTICS operating system (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service), the father of UNIX and all modern OSes, has finally been opened [get it here]. Multics was an extremely influential early time-sharing operating system started in 1964 and introduced a large number of new concepts, including dynamic linking and a hierarchical file system. It was extremely powerful, and UNIX can in fact be considered to be a 'simplified' successor to MULTICS (the name 'Unix' is itself a hack on 'Multics'). The last running Multics installation was shut down on October 31, 2000."
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2007-02-22
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic for humorous effect, or if you actually believe that...
Member since:2005-12-18
He's serious!
Come on!!! it's no secret that Microsoft goes a long way (or so they say) to make sure that legacy applications run on Windows... I'd day MS programmers have to support APIs going back to MS-DOS 3.0... and we all know how good Microsoft Software is in general... so no wonder things fail anyway.
Member since:2005-07-07
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic for humorous effect, or if you actually believe that...
Believe what? It's all true. Almost the entire DOS operating system is still in Vista. Look for yourself. You can still run "edit" and execute 16-bit executables. As far as compatiblity goes it's a nightmare for Vista. Financial software, antivirus programs, pre-2003 Office, various games, etc that have been designed for XP no longer work on Vista.
Edited 2007-11-13 22:53
Member since:
2005-07-07
I'm sure Microsoft wont release the Windows 3.11 source code because there's still bits of it in Vista. ;-)
Forget that. There is still a crapload of DOS in Vista. Microsoft's operating systems just collect more cruft as they release newer versions. All because they are bent on supporting legacy software which, oddly enough, doesn't work very well most of the time.