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MS-DOS 1981-2002 RIP

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the then-it's-the-undead-phase dept.

Biedermann writes "This is not exactly hot news, just a quick reminder to count the last days: A table in this article tells us that MS-DOS (as well as Windows 3.x, Windows 95 and NT 3.5x) reach their "End of Life" (as defined by Microsoft) on December 31, 2002. Come on, even if you loathed them, they were good for jokes at least."

7 of 543 comments (clear)

  1. DOS still lives on by selectspec · · Score: 5, Funny

    DOS is still in Netware. Perhaps we should add Netware to the list too...

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  2. Uh oh... by cornjchob · · Score: 5, Funny

    MS-DOS is dead? What will MR-DOS do without her?

    RIP TSR's...WOLF3D will miss you :'(

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    We now have confirmed reports from an informed Orange County minister that Ethel is still an active communist.
  3. MS-DOS wasn't all that bad by Lemmeoutada+Collecti · · Score: 5, Funny

    For all the M$ bashing we (and that includes me) do, MS-DOS at least had a few honours in it's favour...

    1) It was secure. Since you could never get it to network to anything, it could not be hacked from the Internet
    2) It ran. With a 15 second reboot even on my old machine, a freeze was no more than a minor annoyance
    3) (This is a serious one) For all the hassle of having to configure this and IRQ that, anyone using MS-DOS had to have at least a working knowledge of computers.
    4) Reinstall took less than 10 minutes. Just keep a boot disk handy and copy the whole DOS directory from your .ZIP file and *bam* done.
    5) No SPAM!!!!!

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  4. Again? by NFW · · Score: 5, Funny
    They've been saying this for years. Even gave me a t-shirt emblazoned with "DOS Is Dead" in about 1995 or 1996. This was around the time of DOS-based Win95 (DOS Ain't Dead, just hiding), which was followed by DOS-based Win98 (DOS Ain't Dead, just sleeping), which was followed by DOS-based Win ME (DOS Ain't Dead, just comatose).

    I guess with the home version of XP they really do mean it this time?

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  5. MS-DOS is DYING by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 5, Funny
    It's official. Microsoft now confirms. MS-DOS is dead.

    Popularized in the 80's beyond academic circles due to the exploding popularity of the IBM PC's and the ability to make cheap, compatible hardware, MS-DOS has lost marketshare steadily throughout the decade of the 90's.

    Since the release of Windows '95, more and more powerful computers have been required to run the "latest and greatest software," and as a result, older computers often get tucked away in the attic with old Apple IIe machines.

    Those that are still in use are generally used by part-time hackers and developers, who use modern UNIX-variants, such as *BSD (also dying) and GNU/Linux (commonly referred to as Linux), which have had support for 386-based machines for over a decate.

    It's time we accepted this simple fact: MS-DOS is DYING.

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  6. MS-DOS Celebrates! by imag0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    MS:DOS:
    Celebrating 21 years without a remote root exploit!
    Take that OpenBSD! =)

  7. User Friendly..bah by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unix is user friendly, it's just more picky who it's friends are.

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