Disk Operating System or DOS is an old command line based operating system which is developed by Microsoft. DOS operating system controls the hardware and peripheral devices of the computer and allows the applications and programs to run properly.
DOS vs MS-DOS vs PC-DOS vs DR-DOS vs FreeDOS
As we can see there are a lot of DOS operating systems which may be very confusing for most of us. Actually, all of them provides the very same functionality and compatibility and different for marketing efforts. Let’s compare them according to their similarities and differences.
- DOS is the parent name and operating system for all different DOS operating systems. DOS is jointly developed by IBM and Microsoft.
- PC-DOS is the name of the operating system which is provided with an IBM PC and IBM was rebranding the DOS developed by Microsoft with PC-DOS
- MS-DOS is named after when Microsoft tried to create an OS/2 operating system. Microsoft named its own version of DOS operating systems like MS-DOS
- DR-DOS is a version of DOS where Norton Utilities, Pc Tools, QEMM added.
- FreeDOS is an open source free version of the DOS which is developed actively.
DOS operating system has a long history which starts in August 1981 with the first IBM PC.
- DOS 1.0, released for IBM PC – August 1981
- MS-DOS 1.25, support for IBM noncompatible hardware – May 1982
- MS-DOS 3.2, support for 1.2MB floppy disk – August 1984
- PC-DOS 4.0, support for graphics, DOS shell – July 1988
- MS-DOS 5.0, support for QBasic programming language, online help, task switcher – June 1991
- MS-DOS 7.1, support for FAT32, DMA, USB, August 1996
- MS-DOS 8.0, support forWindows ME and SYS command – June 1998
DOS operating system is mainly developed for Personel Computers or PC’s. The first PC is designed to use Intel 8086 16 bit processor. As DOS is developed for IBM by Microsoft and a very identical operating system named MS-DOS. At the time PC developed different hardware is supported by the DOS operating system like Commodore 64, Atari 800, Apple II etc.
DOS Command Line
DOS is mainly used with the command line. DOS provides a lot of different commands to manage the current operating system and tasks. We can look following commands for more information about the DOS command line operations.
After PC-DOS version 4.0 DOS operating system provides GUI which has very low resolutions but interactive. This GUI generally consists of an application menu and panels which provides data. ed
DOS operating system provides the multitasking features. Multitasking makes the multiple processes can run at the same time. This is a great feature which means while downloading a file or listening music we can play a game.
Multi-User features make the same computer can be used with different user names and sessions. All users data are stored in their private folders and their operating system and desktop related settings are stored too.