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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."

8 of 543 comments (clear)

  1. Hey, don't knock DOS... by Lordfly · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...I grew up on that thing :) Ever since my uncle plopped me down in front of his 386SX to play Doom shareware (I know, I'm a youngin), I've been a computer geek ever since.

    Even after going from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95, I still found it better to do 80% of my stuff from the command line. Windows 98 SE finally kicked me off of that habit :/

    Sigh, command lines... so fun, so minimalist. I don't like my start menu :\

    Lordfly

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  2. Good riddance. by sfraggle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Good riddance I say. MS-DOS was intended only to be a stopgap until Xenix was completed but unfortunately that never happened. Its a shame that a version of the braindead DOS command line lives on in modern versions of Windows and hasnt been replaced with something closer to what Unix has.

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    were you expecting to see a sig here? perhaps you'd rather see the inside of an ambulance!
  3. DOS RIP really December 31, 2005 by angryargus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You guys deally have to wait for Windows ME to die before you can proclaim DOS dead.

    The one date companies are concerned about is the non-supported date for NT4, which is this coming June 2003.

  4. DOS is still important in embedded apps by rseuhs · · Score: 4, Interesting
    DOS is still used in many embedded applications. Even though very few new DOS-based embedded apps are currently developed, there are lots of previously developed apps currently in production.

    If Microsoft really wants to deny new DOS-licenses, this could be a real problem for a couple of companies.

  5. QEMM!!! by Restil · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I fondly recall the days of spending an hour tweaking the computer to get that extra 2k of ram available for programs. Hey, because when programs had to fit in conventional ram, and we're talking the 640k that should be enough for anyone, it was a challenge getting the programs you wanted, plus the 15 or so TSR's all to fit in ram. Don't forget about himem. You can stash stuff up there, make more room. And if you really got desparate, video memory was available too. :)

    -Restil

    --
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  6. Re:Say what you want.... by fungus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Basically, an operating system is the software responsible for managing memory, cpu, storage, devices and input/output. It is the software that lets you run other software on a computer.

    You are lost if you think DOS was not an operating system.

    http://howstuffworks.lycoszone.com/operating-sys te m.htm

  7. Re:Ahh the memories... by nlinecomputers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is all biased opinion but it's MY biased opinion:

    /dev/fda or /dev/hda tells me exactly what it is and where it is. a: or c: or q: doesn't tell me shit other then that is what was setup. Only by knowing the established naming convention do I "know" that a: is a floppy. And D:? is it my CD-ROM or my second hard drive or my second partition on my first hard drive. In this *NIX is logical and superior.

    C:/> or $ Sorry DOS wins here. the C: prompt tells me my location. The $ don't. In both cases, of course, you can modify the prompt to be more informative. But the "default" setting dos wins - though not by much.

    dir or ls. No winner here both are not obvious what they do if you are newbie.

    format C: or mke2fs /dev/hda I'd say neither got it quite right. "Format" is sure easier to grasp as a newbie but we still got that "what kind of drive is C:?" problem. While the other command defines the file system and the exact type of device being delt with. I'd have to say *NIX is better.
    And you didn't mention \ vr / I've seen plenty of people get confused over the \ that is used in dos based directories and the / used all over the net. DOS did it wrong.

    Go ahead. Mod me down. I'm not just a Troll. I am OGRE and you better call me "Sir" when you say that.

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  8. Re:MS-DOS wasn't all that bad by MyHair · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You can use the Windows 2000 CD to boot into the "recovery console" which is a CLI on top of the Win2k kernel. You have to log in as administrator, but then you can start various services, access the drives and use doslike commands and have some extra tools like fixmbr and fixboot. It takes forever to boot it up, though, because it loads all the drivers it thinks anyone might need, like all scsi drivers and such.

    It doesn't compare well to Linux or DOS boot disks, but the capability is there. I don't think NT has this, but I bet XP does.