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From: dmurdoch@watstat.uwaterloo.ca (Duncan Murdoch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: How is DOS selling?
Message-ID: <1990May26.123444.26434@maytag.waterloo.edu>
Date: 26 May 90 12:34:44 GMT
Sender: daemon@maytag.waterloo.edu (Admin)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 21


I just picked up a new book edited by Ray Duncan ("Extending DOS").  As part
of its self-justification, it gives some stats on the sales rates of various
PC operating systems in 1989, that I found quite interesting:

 DOS		11 million		61   %
 Mac System 6	1.2 million		 6.6 % 
 UNIX		440,000			 2.4 %
 OS/2		125,000			 0.7 %

 Total		18 million	       100   %

(It doesn't explain the missing 30%, or define exactly what a "PC" is.)  

It also says the installed base of DOS systems is over 45 million.

By the way, the rest of the book looks interesting too:  it talks about EMS,
XMS, protected mode DOS extenders, Windows, DESQview, and "VCPI and DPMI" 
from a programming point of view, with apparently lots of technical detail.

Duncan Murdoch