MS-DOS
Microsoft operating system / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
MS-DOS is a discontinued 16-bit computer operating system by Microsoft Corporation. It stands for "Microsoft Disk Operating System". The operating system implements a command-line interface for the user to input commands (which ran from disk). It was popularly used in PCs before GUI operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, came out, and still is used in some places today.
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![]() An example of the MS-DOS command-line interface, showing that the current directory is the root of drive C | |
Developer | Microsoft |
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Written in | x86 assembly,[1] later versions also used C |
OS family | DOS |
Working state | Preserved pieces exist in 32-bit Windows |
Source model | Closed source; open source for select versions since 2018[2] |
Initial release | August 12, 1981; 42 years ago (1981-08-12)[3] |
Final release | 8.0 / September 16, 2000; 23 years ago (2000-09-16) |
Repository | |
Update method | Re-installation |
Package manager | None |
Platforms | x86 |
Kernel type | Monolithic |
Default user interface | Command-line, text |
License | Proprietary MIT License (v1.25 & v2.0)[2] |
Succeeded by | Windows NT (as of Windows XP) |
Official website | MS-DOS overview |
Support status | |
MS-DOS 6.0 unsupported as of December 31, 2001[4] |
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/StartingMsdos.png)
MS-DOS is a text-based operating system, meaning that a user works with a keyboard to input data and receives output in plain text. Later, MS-DOS programs were often made to allow control by using a mouse and graphics (even without additionally running Microsoft Windows) especially for video games or to make work more simple and quick (some people still believe that working without graphics is really more efficient).
MS-DOS is called a disk operating system because it was mainly made to interact with the disk (to implement a file system for users and programs); it was loaded into a computer's memory with a floppy disk each time the computer is started (booted) up.
MS-DOS was released as proprietary software, but decades later after most users had gone to other systems, it was released as free software.[2]