Before OS/2, Microsoft had Xenix.
It was the last good OS they ever shipped.
It was the last good OS they ever shipped.
But Xenix does not run DOS or Windows programs like OS/2 does. Microsoft needed the backwards compatibility to be able to sell the next DOS. When Microsoft split from IBM for OS/2 Microsoft's OS/2 NT 3.0 became Microsoft Windows NT 3.1
I wonder if XEDOS ever existed as actual code, as opposed to simply an item in a roadmap.
As the IBM PC became Microsoft's passport to success, they ditched the Unixness of Xenix and embraced the CP/M-ness of PC-DOS. That's why people do dir in Windows instead of ls.