MS-DOS

MS-DOS is a discontinued 16-bit computer operating system by Microsoft Corporation. It stands for "Microsoft Disk Operating System".  The operating system implements a command-line interface for the user to input commands (which ran from disk).  It was popularly used in PCs before GUI operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, came out, and still is used in some places today.

MS-DOS is a text-based operating system, meaning that a user works with a keyboard to input data and receives output in plain text.  Later, MS-DOS programs were often made to allow control by using a mouse and graphics (even without additionally running Microsoft Windows) especially for video games or to make work more simple and quick (some people still believe that working without graphics is really more efficient).

MS-DOS is called a disk operating system because it was mainly made to interact with the disk (to implement a file system for users and programs); it was loaded into a computer's memory with a floppy disk each time the computer is started (booted) up.

MS-DOS was released as proprietary software, but decades later after most users had gone to other systems, it was released as free software.

 History and details 
MS-DOS stands for "Microsoft Disk Operating System", and came from an operating system Microsoft bought called 86-DOS, originally called QDOS, or "Quick and Dirty Operating System."

OS/2 was made to replace MS-DOS, but that replacement did not succeed.  MS-DOS was used to run the Windows operating systems until an operating system known as Windows XP.

 How-To Books 

Many books were written on how to use MS-DOS.  A popular introductory book was MS-DOS for Dummies, by Dan Gookin, the book in the For Dummies series of easy to follow instruction books.

References

Category:Microsoft operating systems