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On August 1st, 1983, Apple released ProDOS 8, a disk operating system specifically developed for the Apple II computer series. The release marked a significant milestone for the company, as ProDOS 8 quickly became the most popular operating system for the Apple II series of computers.
ProDOS, which stood for Professional Disk Operating System, was the last official operating system that could be used by all 8-bit Apple II series computers. It was distributed until May 6th, 1993, and was a significant improvement over its predecessor, Apple DOS.
Apple DOS, which was simply known as DOS, had begun to show its age by the early 1980s. It only had built-in support for 5.25″ floppy disks and required patches to use peripheral devices such as hard disk drives and non-Disk II floppy disk drives, including 3.5″ floppy drives.
ProDOS 8 addressed these shortcomings by introducing a standard method of accessing ROM-based drivers on expansion cards for disk devices. It also expanded the maximum volume size from about 400 kilobytes to 32 megabytes and added support for hierarchical subdirectories, a vital feature for organizing a hard disk’s storage space. Additionally, ProDOS 8 supported RAM disks on machines with 128KB or more of memory.
Today, Apple ProDOS 8 is 39 years old and remains a significant piece of Apple’s history. Its release marked a turning point for the company, as it paved the way for the development of more advanced and powerful operating systems for the Apple II series of computers.
Apple ProDOS 8 Details
| Released | August 1, 1983 |
| Discontinued | May 6, 1993 |
| System Requirements | Apple II computer |
| Distribution | Floppy disk |
ProDOS Versions
| ProDOS Version | Release Date |
| ProDOS 1.0 | August 1, 1983 |
| ProDOS 1.0 | September 1, 1983 |
| ProDOS 1.0 | October 1, 1983 |
| ProDOS 1.0 | November 1, 1983 |
| ProDOS 1.0.1 | January 1, 1984 |
| ProDOS 1.0.2 | February 15, 1984 |
| ProDOS 1.1 | August 17, 1984 |
| ProDOS 1.1.1 | September 18, 1984 |
| ProDOS 8 1.2 | September 6, 1986 |
| ProDOS 8 1.3 | December 2, 1986 |
| ProDOS 8 1.4 | April 17, 1987 |
| ProDOS 8 1.5 | April 2, 1988 |
| ProDOS 8 1.6 | June 14, 1988 |
| ProDOS 8 1.7 | August 8, 1988 |
| ProDOS 8 1.8 | May 23, 1989 |
| ProDOS 8 1.9 | July 16, 1990 |
| ProDOS 8 2.0 | January 22, 1992 |
| ProDOS 8 2.0.1 | March 4, 1992 |
| ProDOS 8 2.0.2 | November 2, 1992 |
| ProDOS 8 2.0.3 | May 6, 1993 |
ProDOS BASIC Versions
| BASIC System versions | Release Date |
| ProDOS BASIC 1.0 | September 1, 1983 |
| ProDOS BASIC 1.0 | November 15, 1983 |
| ProDOS BASIC 1.1 | June 18, 1984 |
| ProDOS BASIC 1.2 | December 14, 1987 |
| ProDOS BASIC 1.3 | June 17, 1989 |
| ProDOS BASIC 1.4 | August 1, 1989 |
| ProDOS BASIC 1.4.1 | July 17, 1990 |
| ProDOS BASIC 1.5 | May 6, 1993 |
Further Reading and References
- Home – ProDOS 8
- ProDOS 8 Technical Reference Manual – EASy68K
- ProDOS 8 Technical Note #15 – 1000BiT
- ProDOS-8 Website – GitHub
- 15-DOS 3.3, ProDOS & Beyond – Apple II History
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Disclaimer: The data presented in this article is under continuous development and has been manually collected from a variety of sources based on their availability. The author of this article may revise this dataset as additional research is conducted and reviewed. Please note that the information is provided “as is” and “as available” without any express or implied warranties. The author cannot be held responsible for any omissions, inaccuracies, or errors in the published information. Any warranties relating to this information are hereby disclaimed.
Last updated: March 7, 2023
