Editing Dragon 32/64 (section)

=== System software ===

The Dragon comes with a [[Microsoft]] [[BASIC]] interpreter in 16&nbsp;KB of [[Read-only memory|ROM]]. The BASIC appears to be nearly identical to [[Color BASIC|Tandy Color Computer's Extended Basic]] with a few changes necessary to interact with the Dragon system.<ref name="edmondson"/>

In common with home computers of the time, the entire operating software was included on a ROM chip; therefore, the system starts instantly when powered up.

Some software providers also produced [[compiler]]s for BASIC and other languages to produce [[machine code|binary]] (or "machine") code which would run many times faster and make better use of the small system RAM. Towards the end of its life, Dragon Data produced an [[Assembly_language#Assembler|assembler]]/[[disassembler]]/editor suite called ''Dream''.

In addition to the DragonDOS disk operating system, the Dragon 32/64 is capable of running several others, including [[FLEX (operating system)|FLEX]], and even [[OS-9]] which brought [[Unix|UNIX]]-like [[Computer multitasking|multitasking]] to the platform. Memory-expanded and MMU-equipped Dragons are able to run OS-9 Level 2.