Take a fast-paced journey from IBM PC DOS to MS DOS, from UNIX to Linux — and explore how pulling operating systems apart from hardware transformed everything: servers, networks, and today’s cloud-scale AI data centers.
In this episode, Martin Hayes walks us through a fascinating technical story of how we moved from closed, vertically integrated systems into the open, disaggregated world we live in now.
You’ll hear about:
➡️ How we evolved from desktop operating systems to server OS and finally to Network Operating Systems.
➡️ Why the rise of IBM “compatibles” and openly published hardware designs became an early form of disaggregation.
➡️ The influence of CP/M, QDOS and 86-DOS, PC-DOS, Novell NetWare/IPX, BSD, and Linux on shaping the modern NOS landscape.
➡️ How Microsoft shifted from proprietary architectures toward open source, helping spark a new era in NOS development.
➡️ And of course — what SONiC, Software for Open Networking in the Cloud, really is and why it’s become so critical for multi-vendor fabrics.
We’ll look inside SONiC’s containerized architecture: SAI, platform drivers, Redis, and its microservices.
We’ll also dive into the real-world differences between Community and Enterprise SONiC — forks, missing upstream contributions, and support challenges.
Plus, a discussion on Ethernet versus InfiniBand for AI workloads: why Ethernet is catching up, and where it still hasn’t “won.”
And if you want to get hands-on, we’ll share how you can start experimenting with SONiC in your own lab using GNS3, Containerlab, and QEMU/KVM.
Here’s the key quote from today’s episode:
“The main driver for a network operating system like SONiC was scale. Cloud scale meant many switches, many vendors – and one unified OS.”
– Network Architect & SONiC Advocate
Whether you’re diving into open networking, evaluating SONiC, or simply enjoy following the evolution of operating systems, this conversation connects the dots from early microcomputers to today’s massive cloud data centers.
⏱️ Timestamps
0:13 Introduction – Disaggregating OS from Hardware (IBM PC-DOS to Linux)0:32 From Closed Systems to Desktop, Server & Network Operating Systems1:19 Why OS History Is “Brave” + Standing on the Shoulders of Giants2:16 Unix vs Microsoft Ecosystems – Open vs Closed Source3:39 From CP/M & Shared Source to BSD, GNU & Modern Open Source5:33 CP/M, DR-DOS, QDOS/86-DOS, PC-DOS & Early NOS (Novell IPX)6:07 Windows Desktop Dominance & the Shift to Mobile/Android7:11 NetBSD & Microsoft – The Flourishing of Network Operating Systems7:42 Hardware Disaggregation: IBM Compatibles, QDOS & Early Unix Systems9:39 What Is SONiC? Open Networking in the Cloud10:30 Getting Started with SONiC – Images, Hardware & Lab Simulations11:09 Why Microsoft Created & Open Sourced SONiC (Azure & Linux Foundation)11:50 SONiC for Large-Scale, Multi-Vendor Data Centers (Vendors & Platforms)12:26 Inside SONiC: Microservices, SAI, Platform Drivers & Redis13:06 Scale as the Main Driver – Cloud-Scale Networks & SONiC Architecture14:23 Community vs Enterprise SONiC – Forks, Upstreaming & Support Challenges16:35 InfiniBand vs Ethernet for AI & Low-Latency Workloads17:11 Next-Gen 1.6T / 800G Programmable Switches17:28 Simulation Options (GNS3, Containerlab, QEMU) & Closing Remarks
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