86-DOS
So a while back I came across a few pages related to 86-DOS, which is technically PC-DOS/MS-DOS before Microsoft purchased the rights to DOS in 1981.
The files for this can be found at http://86dos.org/ if you want to grab a disk image. On the page (if people don't read the description on the page itself), it is suggested you use the SIMH/AltairZ80 Simulator. Having a go with it myself a while back, don't expect too much out of terms of useability, its basically nearly like MS-DOS 1.0 with the exception of branding and whatnot.
This was something I've debated packaging up and throwing on the download mirrors here for the sake of software preservation, but that will probably take a while so go ahead and have a look at it now.
The creator of QDOS/86-DOS has some information on the origins of DOS from his point of view on his website, if you're interested in it from a historical perspective.
The files for this can be found at http://86dos.org/ if you want to grab a disk image. On the page (if people don't read the description on the page itself), it is suggested you use the SIMH/AltairZ80 Simulator. Having a go with it myself a while back, don't expect too much out of terms of useability, its basically nearly like MS-DOS 1.0 with the exception of branding and whatnot.
This was something I've debated packaging up and throwing on the download mirrors here for the sake of software preservation, but that will probably take a while so go ahead and have a look at it now.
The creator of QDOS/86-DOS has some information on the origins of DOS from his point of view on his website, if you're interested in it from a historical perspective.
Comments
what's not mentioned (and shouldn't) is Gary Kildall's unending screams of "I wuz robbed".
Jumping ship from TRS80/CoCo to the IBM platform around 1982-83, I remember well the vitriole and legal wrangling.
Eh, it takes a lot of dinosaurs to make a mammal.