‘Prehistoric’ Microsoft operating system on eBay for $7500

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Martin SFP Bryant

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Martin SFP Bryant is the founder of UK startup newsletter PreSeed Now and technology and media consultancy Big Revolution. He was previously (show all) Martin SFP Bryant is the founder of UK startup newsletter PreSeed Now and technology and media consultancy Big Revolution. He was previously Editor-in-Chief at TNW.

A copy of the operating system that came to be known as MS-DOS is currently up for auction on eBay. With a ‘Buy It Now’ price of $7500 though, it’s no spur-of-the-moment purchase.

In case you don’t know the story, back in the early 80s Microsoft bought the rights to an operating system called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products. After renaming it MS-DOS it went on to sell millions of copies worldwide and pave the way for Windows and Microsoft’s place in history.

Not many copies of the original 86-DOS are still around so the copy on eBay is a rare find. Coming on seven 8-inch floppy disks and complete with all the original documentation (ring binders full of the stuff), it’s a reminder how far computing has come. These days you can get a copy of Linux stuck to the front of a magazine, Apple sells OSX in tiny boxes and Windows’ packaging is not much larger.

The most amazing thing? The seller claims the OS still works – if you can find all the necessary ancient hardware.