DOS / Disk Operating System for Not Yet Techies

DOS stands for Disk Operating System and, though it now seems like a dinosaur, was the foundation for Microsoft's success. In the early years, when IBM first created their model of the personal computer, they considered that hardware as the most important thing. After all, the hardware of the computer itself did all the real work, right? However, even terrific IBM needs special software to run the computer, called an operating system. That's where DOS will come in.

IBM first went to Microsoft and talked to Bill Gates in Seattle. At the time, they were a fledging company laughed at by everybody else in the industry who even knew they existed, because they concentrated on software at a time when everybody except Bill knew that hardware was the most important thing. Although DOS had been created by a company across the street from Microsoft, Bill referred IBM's representatives to a guy in California who owned another operating system which was big at the time.

This part of the story is unclear. The IBM representatives went down to California to see this other guy, but somehow got the impression he was too busy to talk to them. So they returned to Seattle and Bill. Gates walked across the street to the company that owned DOS and licensed the rights to it for $75,000.

He then agreed to make it compatible with the IBM PC so it would run on all PCs IBM built and sold. Then he asked IBM for the right to also put DOS on all similar PCs. IBM's response has often been called the stupidest business decision of the twentieth century, but maybe it kept them from suffering Apple's fate.

What did they care? -- the important thing was the hardware they planned to sell. Software and operating systems weren't important - everybody knew that.

So after introducing the IBM PC with DOS, other equipment manufacturers immediately wanted to copy IBM's success. If they tried to sell copycat Apple computers, Apple told them they didn't have permission to use Apple's operating system. They'd have to develop their own and that was expensive and not worth the trouble or money.

If they tried to sell copycat IBM computers, Microsoft told them sure, they could put DOS on them. For a royalty fee of course, but that's reasonable and far less trouble and expense than developing a brand new operating system.

So Apple computers lost market share to the IBM PC. Although copycat manufacturers sold a lot of PCs, IBM sold a lot more because it was the standard. Since DOS was the standard operating system on all IBM PCs, it became the standard operating system and Microsoft grew into a major company.

The important thing about DOS that will shock newer computer users is that it has NO graphics. You use a command line interface to give the computer commands.

When DOS starts up, all you see is:

C:\

In white, against an otherwise solid black background.

That's it. If you want DOS to copy a file, you have to give it the COPY command and tell it what file to copy and where to put the copy. Special commands could launch programs.

When I bought my first computer, Windows 3.1 was becoming the standard but DOS was still the standard. I started with version 5.0, which did try to make the program kinder and gentler by providing a file tree display when it first started out.

I stared at this DOS tree for three full days wondering what to do next. Finally I learned how to get to the command prompt, type in the command WIN, hit enter and launch Windows 3.1 -- where things were much easier.

Now the DOS prompt is but a minor part of the Windows operating system. Most of us don't miss it.

The program made a fortune for somebody else -- whoever started the Dummies books. DOS FOR DUMMIES by Dan Gookin was, I believe, the very first in the series. Although I was insulted by the "for dummies" in the title, I finally broke down and bought it and it became my DOS Bible.

DOS FOR DUMMIES also serves as the template for all the following dummies books, the offhand humor, the give a techie Cheetos advice, the Rich Tennant cartoons, the Lists of 10 etc. Unfortunately, you can see where many subsequent books follow the letter of the first book without possessing the spirit, and the humor and advice fall flat.

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