What's this about SOS?

As mentioned earlier, the Apple /// uses an operating system
called SOS, or Sophisticated Operating System. It is entirely
ram-based. That means every time you load a program, it loads the
operating system as well. You will find three files on all program
disks: SOS.Kernel; SOS Interp and SOS.Driver. The KERNEL is the
operating system itself. You want to make sure you have the latest
version: 1.3. You can tell what version you have when you boot up.
You will see a message that tells you the version along with the
Apple copyright. You can get an auto-upgrade disk from WAP - ask for
disk #sys-01.

The INTERP file is the language the program uses or it may be the
program itself. Applewriter, Basic, and Pascal are examples of
SOS.Interp files you will find. Finally the DRIVER file (SOS.Driver)
contains the drivers that enable the /// to talk with your printer,
disk drives, modem and hard disk properly. At the minimum you will
need the console driver, called ".Console" and you might find others:
".Printer" to drive your printer; ".RS232" operates the RS232 port or
a serial card for telecommunications; ".Audio" lets your /// beep and
play music to you; ".Grafix" is the graphics driver. There are many
more. You install these using the System Configuration Program on the
System Utilities disk. In most instances, you want to make sure you
have the 1.3 versions of the drivers installed (WAP /// SIG SOS
Drivers PD disk; 3SYS-07)