Digital Research Inc, founded in 1976 by Gary and Dorothy Kildall, initially sold CP/M which became the go-to operating system for Intel microprocessors. Despite efforts to adapt to new platforms, MS-DOS gained popularity in the 1980s, especially with the success of the IBM PC. Digital Research pivoted with releases like DOS Plus and DR DOS versions 3.31, 5, and 6, which introduced advanced features like disk compression and multitasking. Novell acquired Digital Research in 1991, and subsequent releases like DR DOS 7 saw improvements in memory management and multitasking. The company then changed hands to Caldera and Lineo, releasing versions aimed at the embedded market. DR DOS 8 was launched in 2004, but faced challenges due to GPL issues involving FreeDOS code. Despite being a superior product, DR DOS ultimately succumbed to the dominance of Microsoft Windows.
https://www.abortretry.fail/p/the-history-of-dr-dos