MS-DOS: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:10, 24 November 2011

MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) is an operating system for x86 based personal computers. It was based on QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), also known as 86-DOS, which was made by Tim Paterson and purchased by Microsoft. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for personal computers during the 1980s and 1990s. It was preceded by M-DOS (also called MIDAS), designed and copyrighted by Microsoft in 1979. MS-DOS was written for the Intel 8086. family of microprocessors, particularly the IBM PC and PC compatible and compatibles. It was gradually replaced on consumer desktop computers by operating systems offering a graphical user interface (GUI), in particular by various generations of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Microsoft and IBM both had their own versions of MS-DOS. There are not many differences between the two versions before the split up, when IBM started developing PC-DOS independently of Microsoft. IBM distributed their version of MS-DOS first as IBM DOS (prior to version 5.0), and later on as IBM PC-DOS.

Known versions

MS-DOS 1.x

MS-DOS:1.12G - Compaq OEM
MS-DOS:1.19 - Zenith OEM
MS-DOS:1.20 - Zenith OEM
MS-DOS:1.25 - Corona, Zenith and Sanyo OEM

MS-DOS 2.x

MS-DOS:2.00 - Olivetti OEM
MS-DOS:2.11 - AT&T, BULL, TeleVideo, Olivetti, Toshiba, Apricot, NEC and Tandy OEM
MS-DOS:2.11D - Ericsson OEM
MS-DOS:2.12B - Compaq OEM
MS-DOS:2.13 - Zenith OEM
MS-DOS:2.21 - Zenith OEM

MS-DOS 3.x

MS-DOS:3.00 - Apricot OEM
MS-DOS:3.06 - Apricot OEM
MS-DOS:3.10 - Seiko Epson, Phoenix, Tandon, Apricot, Sperry, Fujitsu and Olivetti OEM
MS-DOS:3.10C - RM Nimbus and Ericsson OEM
MS-DOS:3.20 - HP, Amstrad, Apricot, AT&T, Tandy and Seiko Epson OEM
MS-DOS:3.20E - BULL OEM
MS-DOS:3.21 - Hyosung, KayPro, Zenith, Goupil, and Compaq OEM
MS-DOS:3.30 - Amstrad, HP, Dell, NEC, Tulip, AT&T, Tandy, Olivetti, Tandon, Seiko Epson and Toshiba OEM
MS-DOS:3.30+ - Zenith OEM
MS-DOS:3.30A - Retail
MS-DOS:3.30B - NEC OEM
MS-DOS:3.30C - NEC OEM
MS-DOS:3.30D - NEC OEM
MS-DOS:3.31 - Compaq and Olivetti OEM
MS-DOS:3.31D - Compaq OEM

MS-DOS 4.x

MS-DOS:4.00 - Existance unconfirmed
MS-DOS:4.01 - Olivetti, Amstrad, Nokia, Tulip, HP, Toshiba, Zenith and VEGAS OEM
MS-DOS:4.01A - Nokia OEM

MS-DOS 5.x

MS-DOS:5.00.409c - Beta
MS-DOS:5.00.432 - Beta
MS-DOS:5.00 RC3A - Release Candidate 3A
MS-DOS:5.00 RC10 - Release Candidate 10
MS-DOS:5.00 - HP, Dell, Compaq, Tandy and PC Kenitec OEM
MS-DOS:5.00a - Toshiba OEM
MS-DOS:5.00A - NEC OEM
MS-DOS:5.00A-H - NEC OEM

MS-DOS 6.x

MS-DOS:6.00.0204 - Beta
MS-DOS:6.00 RC1 - Release Candidate 1
MS-DOS:6.00 RC4 - Release Candidate 4
MS-DOS:6.00 - HP, Packard Bell, Fujitsu and NEC OEM
MS-DOS:6.20 - Retail
MS-DOS:6.20-V - Japanese MS-DOS 6.20
MS-DOS:6.21 - Retail
MS-DOS:6.22 - Retail

MS-DOS 7.x

MS-DOS:7.00 B1 - Beta 1
MS-DOS:7.10 - Retail

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 family of microprocessors, particularly the IBM PC and PC compatible and compatibles. It was gradually replaced on consumer desktop computers by operating systems offering a graphical user interface (GUI), in particular by various generations of the [[Microsoft Windows]] operating system.
-Microsoft and IBM both had their own versions of MS-DOS. There are not many differences between the two versions before the split up, when IBM started developing PC-DOS independently of Microsoft. IBM distributed their version of MS-DOS first as IBM DOS (prior to version 5.0), and later on IBM PC-DOS.
+Microsoft and IBM both had their own versions of MS-DOS. There are not many differences between the two versions before the split up, when IBM started developing PC-DOS independently of Microsoft. IBM distributed their version of MS-DOS first as IBM DOS (prior to version 5.0), and later on as IBM PC-DOS.
 ==Known versions==