AIX (1986) 20 Unix

AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive) is a Unix port originally developed by IBM and released in 1986 for the IBM RT 6150, a RISC based desktop workstation. It was later ported to the RS/6000, POWER, and PowerPC platforms as well as IBM System i, System/370 mainframes, and the PS/2 personal computers, and the Apple Network Server.

• AIX PS/2
• 3.x
• 4.1.x
• 4.3.x
• 5.1

CheckIt (1988) 20 Utility DOS

CheckIt, from TouchStone Software Corporation, is a diagnostic tool for generic PC/XT/AT compatible computers. It can perform tests on RAM, hard disks, video cards, floppy disks, motherboard resources, and I/O devices. It has an easy to use menu interface but can also run tests non-interactively. It was followed up by the product WINCheckit.

• 1.x
• 2.1
• 3.0
• LAN 2.x
• Pro 1.x

Instant Artist / Print Artist (1992) 19 Graphics Publishing Novelty DOS

Instant Artist, later renamed to Print Artist, is a greeting card and sign creation program that uses vectorized graphics. It was created by The Pixellite Group, the original authors of The Print Shop, and published in 1992 by Autodesk. It was later sold by Sierra On-line. It features a high quality set of generic reusable clip art. The clip art uses vector based technology that was also used in BannerMania.

• 1.0 (DOS)

Paradox (1985) 19 DOS

Originally released in 1985 by Ansa Software and later sold to Borland, Paradox is a high-speed relational database product that integrates with Borland's "Turbo" products. It was notable for its Query By Example feature, and its Paradox Application Language. It was popular in the late 80s and early 90s, and competed against database product such as dBase, Symantec Q&A, Foxpro, Clipper, Clarion, DataEase, R:Base, and DataFlex.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• Engine 2.0
• 1.0 (Win)
• 4.5

IBM PC Diagnostics (1981) 19 DOS

These are the diagnostic disks (and cassette) provided by IBM with their PC computers. They are used to verify the basic functionality of the hardware. These are only intended for use with genuine IBM computers.

• 1.00
• 1.02
• 1.02 (Cassette)
• Advanced 1.02 (Cassette and Disk)
• 2.x
• AT 1.x
• AT 2.x
• 1.x (Convertible)

PC Tools (1985) 18 Utility DOS

PC Tools, from Central Point Software, is a system and disk utility suite similar to the Norton Utilities. Central Point also produced a similar set of tools for the Apple Macintosh known as MacTools. Central Point Backup, bundled as part of PC-Tools, was also offered as a standalone product.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x
• 6.x
• 7.x
• 8.x
• 1.0 for Windows
• 9.x

SunOS (1985) 16 Unix

SunOS was a UNIX based OS derived from BSD. Initially released in 1982, it was the standard OS on Sun Machines at that time. Platforms supported by this OS were the Motorola 68000, the Sun 386i, and the SPARC. SunOS machines are still actually in use today powering dams and bread factories.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

Borland Turbo Basic (1987) 16 DOS

Turbo BASIC is a version of Basic sold by Borland. It features an IDE similar to later Turbo Pascal/C products. After Borland stopped selling it, it was purchased back by the original author and continued under the name PowerBASIC. Borland also released a set of Turbo Basic Toolboxes

• 1.x

QuarkXPress (1986) 16 Publishing DOS

QuarkXPress was THE standard publishing software during the 1990s. However it failed to update its product line to newer technologies in a timely manager, charged insane amounts for updates or additional features that should have been built in to the software, and became very abusive to their customers. Later versions required a parallel port/ADB copy protection dongle. They lost most of their market share to Adobe InDesign.

• 3.x

QNX (1982) 16 DOS Unix

QNX is a compact Unix-like real-time operating system that was originally designed for the IBM PC and later used in embedded devices. The versions here are for IBM PC compatibles.

• 0.x
• 1.2
• 1989 Demo
• 2.2
• 4.2
• 1.44mb Demo

PKZip (1990) 15 Utility DOS

Pkzip is the most common archiver for MS-DOS based systems. It implements a an open compression method and is much faster than other archivers of its time.

• 1.x
• 2.0x

Wolfenstein 3D (1992) 15 DOS

An early first person shooter developed by ID Software. In this game you play a captured spy that must defeat Nazi soldiers to escape from Castle Wolfenstein.

• All

Tru64 UNIX (1999) 15 Unix

Tru64, formerly Digital UNIX, formerly OSF/1 was DEC's UNIX product for their line of Alpha based systems. After DEC's acquisition by Compaq, it was renamed to Tru64. DEC previously had sold a BSD derivative named Ultrix for Vax and MIPS based systems. Their new UNIX on Alpha was meant to counter AT&T and Sun's SVR4 Unix. Tru64 / DIGITAL UNIX / OSF/1 is somewhat interesting in that it used portions of the Mach microkernel and BSD kernel and userland in a manner not entirely unlike NeXTSTEP or Mac OS X. Like OS X, Tru64 itself is not a microkernel system but uses Mach code in its kernel to implement threading and scheduling and possibly other features.

• 5.0
• 5.1B

LapLink (1987) 14 Communications DOS

LapLink, from Traveling Software Inc., enables users to easily and quickly move files between two DOS computers using only a serial null-modem cable or a special parallel port connector. No other hardware is needed. Laplink was extremely popular.during the late 80s and early 90s. It was infinitely easier to set up any two arbitrary PCs (often portables or laptops) with LapLink than other methods, such as DOS based networking. MS-DOS 6 bundled a similar set of file transfer tools called INTERLNK and INTERSVR.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x

DOS USB Support (2001) 14 DOS

Yes, there are USB drivers for DOS... Miracle-driver from Panasonic Japan does the unthinkable Before you start scratching your head, let me repeat that this is not related to your favorite linux distro's or Windows XP/W2K/98/ME's USB support, this has to do with people like me, booting some flavor of DOS to copy files around or using DOS-based partition back-up software.

• 1.x

Multiplan (1983) 14 Spreadsheet DOS OS2

Microsoft Multiplan was an early 8-bit spreadsheet application for CP/M and MS-DOS with ports to numerous other platforms in the early 80s. Initially it competed against VisiCalc and later Lotus 1-2-3. A companion product, Microsoft Chart, provided graphing support. Multiplan was never ported to Windows, where it was replaced with Microsoft Excel. Excel also replaced Multiplan on the Macintosh platform.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

DELL Unix (1992) 14 Unix

Dell Unix, first introduced in 1989, was an adaptation of AT&T Unix intended for Dell hardware. Although Dell Unix received much praise, Dell found they could not reasonably support it on non-Dell hardware, as many customers wanted, and in 1993 discontinued it.

• 4.0

GW-BASIC (1987) 13 DOS

GW-BASIC is a version of BASIC that was supplied with MS-DOS and as a replacement for IBM ROM basic. GW-BASIC replaced the earlier BASIC-86 supplied with some non-IBM OEM MS-DOS 1.x and 2.x. MS-DOS 5.0 and later replaced GW-BASIC with QBasic , a stripped down version of QuickBasic.

• 3.x

IRIX (1998) 13 Unix

IRIX was a operating system created by SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc) that was based off of System V Unix. In addition, this OS had additional BSD elements. It's initial release was in 1988 and was designed to on MIPS processors. IRIX machines were typically used for visual effects in the entertainment industry and in the scientific community for several years after the fall of Amiga in the early 90s.

• 3.x
• 4.x
• 6.5
• 6.5.9
• Patches
• 6.5.21
• 6.5.22

Microsoft Project (1984) 13 Planning DOS

Microsoft Project is a project management chart and gantt chart generator. It is a Microsoft Office family member, and built on the Office code, although it has never shipped with any Office suite.

• 1.0 for DOS
• 2.0 for DOS
• 3.0 for DOS
• 4.0 for DOS

Microsoft FORTRAN (1977) 13 DOS

This is Microsoft's implementation of the FORTRAN scientific-oriented high level programming language. It was one of their early core languages developed for the 8-bit computers and later brought to the 8086 and IBM PC. For the IBM OEM version, see the IBM Fortran Compiler. In 1993 Microsoft rebranded the product as Microsoft Fortran Powerstation. (Note: -80 refers to the 8080/Z80 platform, not the language specification version)

• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x

Ventura Publisher (1986) 13 Publishing DOS

Ventura Publisher, originally from Xerox, is a professional desktop publishing program for the GEM graphical environment and later Windows. It has the distinction of being the first popular publishing program for the IBM PC platform. It competed with Aldus PageMaker, which initially was more popular on the Mac platform. There are also versions for Mac and OS/2.

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 2.0
• 3.0 for DOS-GEM

Ontrack Disk Manager (1987) 13 DOS

Ontrack Disk Manager is a BIOS overlay and partitioning tool that helps you overcome various BIOS hard drive size limits. It was commonly bundled with hard drives.

• 3.x
• 4.x
• 5.x
• 6.x
• 7.x
• 9.x

Microsoft BASIC (1981) 13 DOS CPM Unix OS2

Although Microsoft did not invent BASIC, their founding product was a BASIC interpreter for the Altair computer. The descendants below includes Microsoft's BASIC-80 (MBASIC), BASIC-86 (pre-GWBasic), BASIC for Mac, BASIC Compiler 86/88, Basic Compiler for Mac, and Professional Development System 7.x. IBM Personal Computer Basic Compiler, GW-BASIC, QuickBasic, and Visual Basic are listed separately.

• -86 5.x
• -86 Compiler 5.x
• 5.x for Xenix
• Compiler 6.0
• PDS 7.0
• PDS 7.1

3D Studio (1992) 12 Graphics DOS

3D Studio, not to be confused with the later "3d Studio Max" product, is a DOS-based tool from Autodesk for creating 3d models and animations.

• 2.0
• 3.0
• 4.x