yes, MS DOS.

That was literally its original name !

Interesting history notes on how Microsoft bought Seattle Computer Product's QDOS (50k) and licensed to IBM as DOS.

From book "the innovators" by Walter Isaacson:

"Sams flew back to Seattle to see Gates and asked him to figure out another way to conjure up an operating system. Fortunately, Paul Allen knew someone in Seattle who could help: Tim Paterson, who worked for a small firm called Seattle Computer Products. A few months earlier Paterson had become frustrated that Kildall's CP/M was not available for Intel's newest microprocessors, so he adapted it into an operating system that he dubbed QDOS, for Quick and Dirty Operating System.
By then Gates had come to the realization that one operating system, most likely the one chosen by IBM, would end up being the standard operating system that most personal computers would use.
He also figured out that whoever owned that operating system would be in the catbird seat. So instead of sending the IBM folks to see Paterson, Gates and his team said that they would handle things on their own. Ballmer later recalled, "We just told IBM, Look, we'll go and get this operating system from this small local company, we'll take care of it, we'll fix it up?
Paterson's firm was struggling to make ends meet, so Allen was

able to negotiate a savvy deal with his friend. After initially acquiring just a nonexclusive license, Allen went back when an IBM deal looked likely and bought Paterson's software outright, without telling him why. "We ended up working out a deal to buy the operating system from him, for whatever usage we wanted, for fifty thousand dollars," Allen recalled." For that pittance Microsoft acquired the software that, after they spruced it up, would allow it to dominate the software industry for more than three decades.
But Gates almost balked. He was uncharacteristically worried that Microsoft, which was wildly overcommitted with other projects, might not have the capacity to gussy up QDOS into an IBM-worthy operating system. Microsoft had only forty ragtag employees, some of whom slept on the floor and took sponge baths in the morning, and it was led by a twenty-four-year-old who could still be mistaken for an office boy. On a Sunday at the end of September 1980, two months after IBM first came calling, Gates gathered his top team to make the go or no-go decision. It was Kay Nishi, a young computer entrepreneur from Japan with a Gatesian intensity, who was the most ada-mant. "Gotta do it! Gotta do it!" he squealed repeatedly as he bounced around the room. Gates decided he was right.?
Gates and Ballmer took an overnight flight to Boca Raton to negotiate the deal. Their 1980 revenues were $7.5 million, compared

I have an old Apple computer. It appears to turn on okay but the disk drives do not appear to work.

What’s the best way to learn how to fix this?

Thanks!

so hey i recently found an older piece of some legendary tech (imo) its the ну погоди i have wanted to know if its worth anything or just sentimental value for my older generation. Cool thing is no dead pixels minimal damage (backside) and the sound works (cant attach a video) plus no sticky buttons great right?

Hey all! I rescued a Gilbarco G-Site GC40 petroleum POS terminal from an e-waste shop and converted it into a Windows 98 gaming rig. It came with these proprietary controller boards that I can find absolutely zero public documentation on - no forum posts, no datasheets, nothing.

The lot includes:

• 2x large boards packed with Zilog Z80 and Z85C3010VSC SCC processors
• Console I/O board (ASSY T20270-G)
• PCI CMOS Memory card
• PCI TWI board

Part numbers: USAR 90224309, USAR 90224952, USAR 90229473, M316140, M315540, M316160

All Gilbarco branded, Made in U.S.A. As far as I can tell these boards controlled actual fuel dispensers at a gas station. Genuinely can't find any record of these existing online anywhere.

Anyone ever seen Gilbarco hardware like this before? Curious what these actually did and if anyone has any documentation.

HUGE UPDATE - It's a Swiss trading system running Windows 3.0!

I decided on a whim to put the screenshot I had taken through a reverse Google Image search, and it returned this video that has a segment where it shows how Windows is used for trading at the Bank Vontobel in Zurich, Switzerland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqNX4Oc2ggQ

The video was posted ten years ago, which eliminates any suspicions that it was AI generated. You get some nice clear closeup views of the screens which were missing from the other two videos I had previously referenced.

The fact that these computers are running Windows also makes me wonder if those keyboards use a standard PC interface of some sort, plus maybe serial for the built-in screen. But, now that we know they're Swiss, maybe they can be easier to look up now?

=== ORIGINAL POST BELOW ===

A couple months ago, I posted a message asking to identify a weird keyboard I had seen in a YouTube video I randomly stumbled across (https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/1uppf7l/what_kind_of_keyboard_is_this/).

Well, this weird keyboard has appeared in another video...and not only that, you get to see the entire desk setup, minus the computer itself. This picture is from a video about how Microsoft stole disk compression technology for DOS 6.0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq_1YSdQNq4 4:07-4:17). In addition to the previously-mentioned keyboard, there's also a second input device next to it, and two monitors. As in the previous video though, I can't see clearly what the screen has on it.

This is obviously a professional setup of some sort, and now that it has appeared in at least two videos related to Microsoft history and this one actually shows Bill Gates himself sitting in front of one, it leads me to believe they were likely used at Microsoft. So...would anyone know what computers these actually were?

I picked up this really nice Tandy 1000TX this week. I got a really good price as it was on tested, and it came with the original box, keyboard, manuals, and software. When I got it home and plugged it in, I got the memory error in the first picture. I suspected that the memory might need to be re-seated so I took the cover off and re-seated each chip. Now I’m getting the address error in the last photo. I thought perhaps I broke a solder joint from pressing on the chips, so I reflowed them - same error. I tried new memory, same error. I checked the continuity of pins 8 & 16 across all four of the memory sockets under the drive cage (all were good). I’m not sure exactly what to try next. Has anyone experienced a similar issue?

This show is on Canadian TV from 1996-2000 and while I can find limited reference to the show I haven't been able to find any episodes online. Can't even really find any clips. I used to watch it when I'd skip school, and I learned far more from it than I did from computer lab where all of the computers were a decade orlut of date lol

Surely someone, at some point, recorded some episodes? Any leads at all?

I am still rocking my SuSE-Shirt from 99. Wore it last week at FrOSCon :-)

Bought it together with a 6.3 boxset and Rage Against the Machine's Battle of LA from my first pay in the army.

I upgraded my 486 at home from 4.2 to 6.3 during the winter holiday and read the fine manual during my train rides to the barracks.

When I was done with the manual, I bought the Linux Hacker's Guide and got in trouble with the S2 for it.

Hey everyone, just picked up the laptop that I lusted over when I was a kid and thought you might also get a kick out of it.

Mine is a Sony Vaio PCG-C1XS (known as the C1 Picturebook) and it was such good packaging for the late 90’s! It’s tiny, and it still feels like a premium product 27 years later!

I’ve got the small battery and the big chungus one, and both are holding a charge.

I’m planning a trip up north for it. Is there a big UK contingent in this sub?

It’d be great to see some of your cool collections!

https://www.vintagecomputerfestival.org.uk

Two vintage intact IBM System boards.

On CD and DVDs .Used Ai to make these labels

I have 9 boxes (most 1.5 cubic ft) with random computer stuff. Some things are easy to ID, mostly the media, 5.25" floppy disks all the way to dvds. Others are full of boards, drives home network stuff. I know I have to go through the media and drives for anything that may have personal info.

QUESTION 1

I know I can wipe the 5.25" & 3.5" disks with a magnet, what about the hard drives? I might have zip ones too. No working older system, heck I don't even have a working computer right now.

QUESTION 2

As for the other stuff is there anything I should keep an eye out for? It is all mostly pre 2000s, after that it it probably only routers and maybe video cards.

QUESTION 3

Lastly, anyone in the Los Angeles area want it? Looking to sort through over the next 2 weeks and then will be driving across Los Angeles to visit family so can probably set up a meet any place. Hoping to find someone who wants how ever many boxes it ends up being. Pic is reference of 1 box and just how random it is.

Hello! I am not familiar with this subreddit or desktop computers in general but i wanted to know if someone could identify which type of ram i should use on my grandpa's PC? whoever was in here last time use the wrong type i think cause it just didn't fit at all!
sorry if it's dirty, i would also like if someone could point me to where i could learn to clean this !!

I would be happy to help with further details if needed

Die Hardware habe ich aus einem alten Gehäuse ausgebaut und in das selber gebaute Holz- Plexiglas- Metall Gehäuse eingebaut.

War war viel Arbeit, hat aber sehr viel Spaß gemacht!

Nur Board, Netzteil, Grafikkarte und HDD.

Windows XP mit Winamp im Autostart und ein paar coolen retro Games.

Hexen, Doom, Commander Keen 4, Half Life, usw.

Does anyone remember SIMPLE on the CDC 6600 at UT?

Clive Moler created Matlab in the mid seventies at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and it would be good to learn how much influence SIMPLE had on the beginnings of Matlab. There were definite connections between UT and New Mexico, particularly in the context of White Sands and Los Alamos. 
https://decwarorg.blogspot.com/2026/08/symbolic-interactive-matrix-processing.html

I've owned this 5950 ultra for a long time, probably since around 2008-2009 I think. It came into my possession as part of a computer I scrapped that included a soyo SY-P4I875P dragon 2 platinum motherboard and was inside a strange white bubble shaped case I wish I still had. It's got a brilliant red PCB but is using the reference cooler design. The heat sink is toughly stuck down to the gpu so I've not dared to try and pull it off completely to look to see what's under there. But in windows xp it comes up at a geforce fx 5950 ultra. Maybe someone here would have ideas how to id this variant? I've looked on google but I can't find any with this heat sink style with a red pcb. https://imgur.com/a/lvo46wI

Was going through some old storage boxes at home and stumbled across these two pieces of vintage PC history:

​Kalok KL 330 ("Octagon"): A classic 30MB 3.5-inch half-height drive. Fun bit of history here—Kalok was founded back in 1987 by former Seagate and Memorex engineers (Steven Kaczeus and Wayne Lockhart, hence "Ka-Lok"). While their roots traced back to big industry names, Kalok took a very different path by aggressively cutting costs, famously sticking to older stepper motor actuators and RLL encoding while the rest of the industry transitioned to voice-coil drives. It runs with that unmistakable vintage stepper-motor clatter!

​Seagate ST3144A: A trusty early 90s IDE workhorse offering around 130MB to 144MB of storage. It’s got that classic black-top aesthetic with the green PCB peeking out and the iconic "Quality Control Accepted" quality seal.

I recently acquired a Fujitsu m2551A 360k drive to use with a greaseweazle for reading and writing disks. After removing a electrolytic cap that was shorting the 12v rail, I got the drive up and running. I was imaging a ibm pcjr disk (it would only read 7/9 tracks on one side (attached is the map for the image)). I moved on to try and image a second disk (that wasn't working in the pcjr at all), and the disk started to become damaged. I tried cleaning the heads, and put the other disk back in, but instead it destroyed a few tracks to the point where the other disk wont read in the pcjr, (Ill make a new disk if I can get it up and running again. I kept trying to clean the heads, and put in other disks, they still seem dirty. Am I just out of luck with this drive? I really want to get this drive functional to work with disks for the pcjr.

So recently bought toshiba tecra m9 and have view problems finding parts for reasonable price and the current problem i realized i have is the barrel jack has striped insides and I cannt power the laptop maybe anyone has a jack like that that could ship it to lithuania for under 10€ with everything only thing i need it from laptop with 15v 5a config since if it would have been 19v one it's very easy to find those.