Isn't Unix for mainframes and DOS the precursor of Windows OS family?

Question

Okay,my computer teacher is saying that the answer to her question:"Which operating system runs on an other kind of hardware?" is DOS.
Assuming that we're using the Windows OS family today(...sorry to the fanboy) ,wouldn't the answer Unix be more plausible?
Thanks for making it clear for me.

Answer 1

The question is not really clear. If by other kind of hardware she means a mainframe then yes I would say that UNIX is more likely than dos which is of course the precurser to windows and is generally a PC based OS.

Today Mainframes run linux/unix, datacentre version windows server 2003, OS/360, univac etc

However dos = disk operating system of which there are many different types apple dos, ms dos etc so by definition all of these OS's are dos (including windows, linux, unix, OS X)

Answer 2

The question isn't really clear - DOS stands for Disk Operating System, which is a generic term. There's PC-DOS, MS-DOS, Amiga DOS and plenty of others. Also, 'another kind of hardware' is vague as well. At this point, Windows will run on plenty of hardware platforms, from servers to iMacs. So will various forms of Linux, BSD and Unix. All are used in portable devices and embedded chips as well as traditional hardware. For example, my HD-DVD player is actually a Linux machine, as is my Tivo. Other DVRs use different operating systems. You can install Linux on devices like PSPs and PS3s. Most modern operating systems are very flexible.

It sounds like your teacher needs to rephrase the question for it to make more sense.

Answer 3

I would say that DOS is the wrong answer. As far as I can remember, DOS and Windows run on the same hardware.

Unix can run on hardware that Windows cant. Most particularly on Sparc systems.

I would have guessed that the answer he most likely would have wanted would be MAC.