If you have been a PC user for a while, chances are that you have heard the term “DOS”. Now, the question might bug you, “what is it anyway?” Well, like the famed Windows, DOS is an OS too. And, back in the 80s and 90s, it was incredibly popular. But that doesn’t mean people have completely abandoned its usage, though its number of users has declined over the years. The objective of this article is to help you understand this operating system better and answer most questions you have regarding it.
Overview of Disk Operating System
Disk Operating System or DOS is a type of OS that runs from a disk drive instead of a paper-based medium such as a punch card. To be more specific, the Disk Operating System is an old OS based on command-line that is capable of accessing, controlling, and managing the hard drive and hardware components of a PC.
This makes it completely different from popular modern-day operating systems that utilize GUI rather than a command-line. However, both today’s GUI-based operating systems and the Disk Operating System can perform any task you wish them to perform. This includes establishing an Internet connection, locating an important file, and so on.
How DOS functions
Whenever a PC powers on, it passes through numerous steps known as the boot process. A PC that has Disk Operating System installed on it will go through these six steps:
- The ROM bootstrap loader of your PC reads the MBR or Master Boot Loader and hands over control to it.
- Next, the boot record loads the Disk Operating System into the memory and it becomes the controller of the PC.
- After that, the PC transmits data accumulated on a magnetic disk to its main memory, that is, RAM.
- The PC then hands out numerous APIs for various programs, including character I/O, program loading and termination, and so on.
- The OS supplies file management that is responsible for organizing, reading, and writing storage files. These files get arranged in a hierarchical formation based on directories, subdirectories, and files.
As mentioned above, a Disk Operating System doesn’t have a GUI. Thus, it has a character-based interface that requires users to utilize the command-line for typing in specific commands to perform tasks.
Features
Here are a few features of DOS:
- Disk Operating System is capable of managing a PC’s files, memory, I/O system, and so on.
- It is a 16-bit, single-user OS.
- Unlike modern operating systems, it does not contain a GUI and thus, doesn’t recognize any mouse inputs. This OS has a character-based interface where one needs to type in commands in text form at the command-line prompt to get things done.
- The maximum space you’d get in this OS is 2 GB.
- Disk Operating System is a free-to-use OS.
Pros
Let us now take a look at some of the pros of using it:
- Disk Operating System offers its users direct access to the BIOS as well as its fundamental hardware.
- It is a lightweight OS, and thus, does not possess the overhead of most multitasking operating systems today.
- The OS is a decent option to pick for creating workarounds for the management or administration of a Microsoft system and for combining programs too.
- Its size makes it capable of booting way faster than any Windows version. So, it will run fine in a smaller system.
Cons
Now, let’s look at some of its cons:
- This operating system is single-user only. So it does not support multiple users or multitasking. It can run a single program at a given time.
- It doesn’t have any inbuilt security features like permissions, file ownership, etc.
- In the Disk Operating System, performing a task requires the user to type in a particular command in the command-line interface. For this purpose, one has to memorize a lot of commands to run programs and perform various tasks. For instance, type “format e:” to format the disk in drive e: for using with Disk Operating System.
Disk Operating System at Present
Finally, Microsoft understood that the Disk Operating System cannot go toe-to-toe with Apple’s Unix-based systems because of its shortcomings. Therefore, they ditched this OS and started focusing on Windows. However, it hasn’t entirely vanished. Even today, if you launch the Command Prompt app on a Windows PC, it will display a command-line that has the look similar to the older DOS prompts. This application, however, is not at all the real OS of the past. It is merely a virtual machine environment or emulation.
Just like the terminal on macOS computers, developers have to learn the usage of the command-line tool in Windows to work with files that are difficult to access or accomplish mechanized tasks that are more effortless to program with text-based instructions.
Conclusion
As you can see from our discussion, the Disk Operating System or DOS used to be a big player in the computer world earlier. It is an OS that relies on a disk drive to run instead of a paper-based medium. Unlike today’s popular GUI-based operating systems, it uses a command-line interface. And so, it does not possess the facility of using a mouse. However, just like today’s OSs, the Disk Operating System can perform any task. As it does not recognize any mouse clicks, users have to type in commands in the CLI to perform various tasks.
While it’s lightweight, boots faster, and provides direct access to the BIOS and its underlying hardware, it still lacks multitasking/multi-user facility, built-in security features, etc. Its limitations made Microsoft cast it aside and focus more on Windows that could compete with Apple’s Unix-based systems. Still, the Disk Operating System hasn’t faded away completely. Opening the Command Prompt application on your PC will provide you with an emulation of this old OS and a chance to travel back in time.