Xenix marks a before and after for the corporate life of Microsoft. Before developing its own operating system, the company based its developments on other technologies, until in 1979 (official launch in 1980) they collaborated with AT&T to run the first proprietary platform that came to your PCs.
That is why, being the first operating system of Microsoftwe dedicate a few lines to tell you what this development was like, which preceded the best-known MS-DOS and Windows.
According to what you review Computer Today, Xenix was a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system that could run on a variety of hardware, including the IBM PC. It was designed to be an affordable commercial operating system that could compete with other Unix operating systems of the time, such as BSD and SunOS.
It included a number of standard Unix features, such as a real-time kernel, a hierarchical file system, and a shell. It also included a number of Microsoft’s own features, such as a graphical file manager and an integrated programming environment.
It was a moderate commercial success. It was sold to more than 10,000 companies and organizations worldwide. However, it never managed to reach the popularity of other Unix operating systems, such as BSD and SunOS.
In 1987, Microsoft abandoned development of Xenix. However, the Xenix source code remained available for use and was reused in other operating systems, such as SCO Unix and OpenServer.
Then came MS-DOS, the standard operating system for the IBM PC that helped Microsoft become one of the most important software companies in the world.