Happy Birthday DOS, You’re 30!

DOS or Disk Operating System (MS-DOS), as it was called back then celebrates its 30th birthday. The MS in MS-DOS stands for Microsoft. The OS was the backbone of most PCs for the following decade or longer. In schools across India, DOS was one of the first things taught in computer classes. While there was no graphical user interface that we’re so used to on Windows, the operating system had everything from text editors to games and mouse support. For example, titles such as Wolfenstein and Doom on PCs originated on DOS. Ever since Windows 95 or so, DOS has been present as a standalone product only to kickstart downed systems. The last operating system to use DOS-based startup disks was Windows XP. The last commercial product used was DOS 6.22.

Three decades and counting...

Three decades later, DOS is still present on Windows systems, often hidden away. You can use it by type CMD in the Run diag box. There are also DOS emulator and free versions of DOS on the web. If you want to go back in history and try out a few DOS apps and games, do check out DOSBox.