Does anyone know Dos (Disk operating system)?

Question

Picked up a computer from Salvation Army today (Pentium1) and it has DOS on it, dos 6.2 I believe. Where can I learn about this OS? Was it a good OS in it's day. I know it is old and everything is Windows now, but I was just curious about Bill Gates first opeating system.

Answer 1

Hopefully you're not serious, but ...

http://www.glue.umd.edu/~nsw/ench250/dostutor.htm

Answer 2

Dos 6.2 was not his first OS. It is from about 1994, or 14 years after the first Gates OS. Still, you are right in that the idea is the same.

There are plenty of used books out there, on DOS, look in the same place or ask geek friends.

Here is the problem. DOS 6.2 or any other version of DOS isn't much good without application programs to run on it. It does have Qbasic, which includes Gorilla, a simple game which involves two gorillas throwing bananas at each other's buildings, but today's sophisticated people won't tolerate that. I guess you could get a copy of Qbasic training manual, and learn some simple programming, since it does math calculations.

Maybe you can find a copy of Word Perfect 5.1 which is actually a pretty good word processor, even if won't handle graphics or macros, but you would need a printer, too.

Of course, if you can find a copy of Win 3.11 that will also run fine on that Dos 6.2 machine.

Um, study the HD, with command dir at the dos prompt, there may be programs type .exe, type their name at the Dos prompt It is rare to find a computer with Dos that doesn't still have old apps on it. it's possible, but not common. You might have to be patient to figure out a app with no books, but it can be done; the human brain is the most powerful weapon on the planet.

Also, if you can find a Linux geek, that sort of machine will run one of several minimalist distros of Linux. With no net card, and probably no modem for dial-up, there isn't much you can do with it. Still, those distros often have minesweeper and Bubbles.

Try www.justlinux.com for distro advice, do look first, because this is a common question. A lot should be available via google: something like: pentium linux tiny distro

Answer 3

Disk Operating System: The name of the operating systems on most brands of personal computer contains the acronym DOS. Often when DOS is used without further description, the operating system being referred to is either PC DOS, the operating system used on IBM personal computers, or MS DOS, the variety of DOS that runs on IBM compatible computers.

Answer 4

I think DOS was in windows until XP. You shouldn't have too many problems finding instructions through google. What do you need to know?

Answer 5

A P1 will handle Win95 if it has 16M ram. Then you can get a little use out of it.

Answer 6

heres a link

http://www.computerhope.com/msdos.htm