BOS - Business Operating Software, portable 1980 OS by CAP Ltd

Software
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An interesting British, cross platform, Multi-user OS written in COBOL. For mainframes PDP-11, VAX, 8080, 6800 and Z80 machines.

According Wikipedia Business Operating System



https://thedarts.eu/comphist/comphist.html
Also in Practical Computing, July 1987 (page 92) next to other multi-user OSes, floppy disks can be used in either machine (but how to put an 8" floppy into a home computer disk drive?)

There are several other operaing systems called BOS (next to BOSS)
BOS (1) 1969 For medium-scale batch processing. Capable of simultaneously executing one batch process and up to two sub processes. Fujitsu FACOM 230 and 235 Fujitsu, Japan -

BOS (2) 1974< Basic OS for Interdata (later Perkin-Elmer) minicomputers. Interdata computers Interdata, USA -

BOS (3) 1970s Batch operating system for Honeywell System 700. Honeywell System 700 Honeywell, USA -

BOS (4) 1970s Operating system for Billings computers. Billings computers USA -

BOS (5) 2000s Bubach Operating System. No-kernel small x86 operating system written in Assembly. - Christoffer Bubach
BOS II 1971 BOS with Multiprocessing of up to 4 jobs. Fujitsu FACOM 230 and 235 Fujitsu, Japan -

BOS/360 1965 Basic Operating System. Early interim version of DOS/360, briefly available at a few Alpha & Beta System/360 sites IBM System/360 IBM, USA

BOS/5 1980s Business Operating Software. Business oriented OS for Z80, PDP-11, 8086, and 68000. Z80, PDP-11, i8086, and 68000 BOS National, USA -

BOS/D 1976 Business Oriented System. Floppy-disk oriented operating system for OKITAC office computers. Oki OKITAC System 9 Oki, Japan

BOS/F 1976 Business Oriented System. Hard-disk oriented operating system for OKITAC office computers. Oki OKITAC System 9 Oki, Japan

BOS/NET 1980s Multitasking, multiprocessing version of BOS/5. - USA -

BOS/VS 1974 BOS with Virtual memory control. Fujitsu FACOM 230 and 235 Fujitsu, Japan

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Amazingly, BOS is still maintained, with updates in the past month!

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Thanks! I wasn’t aware of that.
And it’s still retro, Windows 3.1 and/or WIN95 like GUI. I wonder how many companies buying it.
I haven’t found actual prizes, just the ones from atarimagazines via Wikipedia. BOS/5 was $112 + ~$100 for each package. (Unknown date). So much more than $1000 for all.
The recent OS is Global 3000.
I haven’t found a real website (that one is a darts subpage).
Obviously it’s kerridgecs.com (at least the email)
According Wikipedia CAP was merged in 1988 to Sema Group, and that was defunct in 2001, acquired by Schlumberger.
I found http://global3000.co.uk/ but that only has listed the versions.
Very strange, but it’s obviously a niche product.
Version 13 has not been released
GSMSP13 - Not released to keep people with Triskaidekaphobia happy.
GSM is Global System Manager.

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There are some more infos via archive-org (mainly the global3000 site).
But most of the downloads (mainly service packs) are defunct (last archive from 2014).
After Schlumberger there was also Atos.
An earlier site was TIS Software, where are 3 more companies/sites involved including Oneoffice3000
https://web.archive.org/web/20090511081058/http://www.tissoft.co.uk/
Global claimed having sold more than 25,000 licenses in 20 countries.
I found a pricing list on a 1995 technical bulletin
1 user BOM 500 pounds
up to 4,990 pounds (60-99 screens)
+17.5% service.

And to make sense with different platforms, someone must have software on all of them.
I doubt that there are still companies using vintage mainframes or Z80 based computers.
There are companies offering services for vintage mainframes (mainly converting),
but it’s the same with 8mm film transfers. There is fewer and fewer needs, maybe one generation (inheritance, ebay purchases) or museums.

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I’m surprised BOS is still around in the USA. I haven’t used
BOS National for support in decades. (They didn’t want to
talk to me because I paid no yearly fees.)
I’ve been using BOS since 1986. MBOS V8 now (retaining
the superior V6 menu system).
I run:
Portable Software’s PMS+
BOS Finder
BOS Writer
BOS Speller

It’s a fast bullet-proof multi-user multi-tasking system.
I run a version of BOS that runs under DOS, so that
Windows 98 is the latest op sys I can use. Later ones
have only a simulated DOS environment (not simulated
enuf). While I use an extensive menu based approach,
I still like the old basic BOS interrogative command line.

Does anyone else run BOS?

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