Microsoft believes the children are our future, and to prove it, it’s teamed up with the Computer History Museum  to make source code available for two groundbreaking programs: MS-DOS and Word for Windows.

In a blog post that outlined the deal, Roy Levin, managing director of Microsoft Research, said the company granted the museum permission to make the code public for MS DOS 1.1 and 2.0 and Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a, “… to help future generations of technologists better understand the roots of personal computing.” MS DOS, originally code named “Chess,” took root in 1980 when IBM asked Microsoft to produce an OS to run on its computers.

Word for Windows was released in 1989, and with in four years had captured half of the revenue of the word-processing market, according to Levin.

Source: Endgadget

Read more: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/25/microsoft-wants-to-teach-the-kids-a-thing-or-two-with-ms-dos-and/