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A comment on Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the ... by fsckboy on Saturday September 26, 2026 @12:43PM (#49858232)
>MAXC (maximum access computer), which was a complete emulation of the Tenex machines.

Compuserve also had a software dependency on the PDP-10 and Decsystem 20, and when those machines were no longer available they bought a company making clones so they could continue to manufacture them for themselves. The company they bought, Microsolutions, was Mark Cuban's first startup.

making clones of mainframes (IBM's) had been a big area of intellectual property litigation, but also facing monopolization investigations, IBM had to allow them. They were referred to as "plug compatibles".

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Re:Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the ... by FrankWilhoit on Monday September 28, 2026 @09:20AM (#49877509)
The clone hardware manufacturer was Systems Concepts. Microsolutions was a software play -- I think they had something to do with trying to port 1022/1032.
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