Talk:68K/OS
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QL Affairs column in Your Spectrum (7)
[edit]While Mr Heller wrote in his column, "Sinclair Research commissioned it in February 1983 to produce a new operating system for an OEM version of the QL", taking the rest of the piece into account, I think this is an inaccurate statement. Other sources describe GST's OS as being intended as the native OS for all QLs (and was the OS running on the prototypes at the official launch) until the decision to drop it in favour of Qdos. It seem more likely that GST later tried to recover some of their investment by retargetting 68K/OS at OEM QL variants, although I haven't seen anything to suggest their negotiations with SRL were successful, or that OEM systems based on the QL and running 68K/OS were ever produced. Also, I'm unclear on whether the name "68K/OS" was used before GST decided to market it independently of SRL. Letdorf (talk) 14:20, 26 March 2009 (UTC).
I (Tim Ward) can answer some of those, at least to the best of my recollection which may of course be flawed.
We originally believed that we had been commissioned to produce THE operating system for the QL, and that the "macro system" that Tony Tebby was producing (later called Qdos) was just intended as a temporary measure until our OS was ready.
My recollection is that both were demonstrated at the launch. 68K/OS certainly was, as it was me sitting on the stage pressing the buttons ... and missing one cue from Clive due to being most of the way through my third G&T the night before before spotting the notice on the table that "we only sell doubles in this bar" (and then having the Bucks Fizz for breakfast).
An OEM system based on the QL running 68K/OS was produced, for AAP (Australian Associated Press) for use as a financial information terminal. We made and sold them (IIRC) a few hundred boards based on the QL chip set running 68K/OS. I got three trips to Australia out of that contract, and a new kitchen out of the overtime (now showing its age). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.6.114.167 (talk) 20:39, 5 September 2019 (UTC)