Re: The Mac is Dead! Long Live the Wintel PC! [was Re: Apple ahead of schedule]

Mike <no@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <alangbaker-C54931.18550508082006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Alan Baker <alangbaker@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <no-4FDCCA.21365208082006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Mike <no@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <1155086070.611254.286890@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Chris Clement" <chris.clement@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Nope. DOS as an Operating System is long dead. Now it exists only
within Windows, but not as an OS.

Well, it was never an OS, it was a DOS, Yes, there *is* a difference.

So a "Disk Operating System" was never and "Operating System"?

Yes, exactly. A Disk Operating System operates the disks - and that's
all that DOS directly controls.

DOS is command.com and it just happened to include interrupts to access
disks as well as all the other hardware associated with a 1981 computer.

I suspect DOS was called "Disk Operating System" to distinguish it from
other OSs that didn't have any disk storage capabilities. A Microsoft
Marketing Move, no more no less, perhaps inspired by the original name,
QDOS (Quick & Dirty Operating System) although some might think QDOS
more apposite.

If you think that DOS is an Operating System then you don't know very
much about either. DOS + Windows 3.11 + Mouse.sys + Himem.sys (or
QEMM386.sys) + Smartdrv.sys was an Operating System. An ugly kludge
to be sure, but an Operating System none the less.

Windows 3.x and its predecessors are merely applications running on DOS.
DOS was still the OS and everything else were applications.

--

Peter
.

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