12 Facts About DOS

1.

DOS is a platform-independent acronym for "disk operating system" that later became a common shorthand for disk-based operating systems on IBM PC compatibles.

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2.

MS-DOS dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995.

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3.

Gordon Letwin wrote in 1995 that "DOS was, when we first wrote it, a one-time throw-away product intended to keep IBM happy so that they'd buy our languages".

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4.

FreeDOS project began on 26 June 1994, when Microsoft announced it would no longer sell or support MS-DOS.

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5.

ROM-DOS is used as operating system for the Canon PowerShot Pro 70.

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6.

Machine-dependent versions of MS-DOS were produced for many non-IBM-compatible x86-based machines, with variations from relabelling of the Microsoft distribution under the manufacturer's name, to versions specifically designed to work with non-IBM-PC-compatible hardware.

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7.

DOS is a single-user, single-tasking operating system with basic kernel functions that are non-reentrant: only one program at a time can use them, and DOS itself has no functionality to allow more than one program to execute at a time.

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8.

Lastly, DOS allocates letters for optical disc drives, RAM disks, and other hardware.

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9.

DOS 5+ allowed the use of available upper memory blocks via the DOS=UMB statement in CONFIG.

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10.

The DOS booted this way has full access to the system, but provides its own drivers for hardware.

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11.

DOS systems include utility programs and provide internal commands that don't correspond to programs.

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12.

DOS did however provide a Terminate and Stay Resident function which allowed programs to remain resident in memory.

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