MS-DOS is a single user, single tasking, non-graphical command line operating system. Developed by Microsoft as renamed form of 86-DOS for use with IBM’s earliest line of personal home computers. It was the dominant operating system for personal computers throughout the 1980s.
DOS Fun Facts:
- Timothy Paterson, a developer for Seattle Computer Products, wrote the original operating system for the Intel Corporation’s 8086 microprocessor in 1980, initially calling it QDOS – Quick and Dirty Operating System.
- Microsoft originally licensed 86-DOS in December 1980 for a flat fee of $25,000 and then purchased all rights for an additional $50,000. SCP later sued Microsoft, claiming that they had concealed its relationship with IBM in order to purchase the operating system cheaply.
- The source-code for MS-DOS v1.25 – the first version of MS-DOS to be released to general PC manufacturers has just seven source files and consumed about 12kbytes of memory.
- MS-DOS continued to be enhanced until the late 1990s, by which time Windows and other advanced operating systems with graphical user interfaces had taken over.