MS-DOS (MICRO-SOFT DISK OPERATING SYSTEM)

First Operating System worked with 1st IBM PCS .Old and releatively unstructured Operating System.No formal concept of Kernal. MS-DOS was first introduced by Microsoft in August 1981 and was last updated in 1994 when MS-DOS 6.22 was released. It work in real mode and it is a single user Operating syatem. It is a text mode (non-GUI) type user interface through command line interpreter(CLI).. Microsoft initially kept the IBM deal a secret from Seattle Computer Products. And in what was to become another extremely fortuitous move, Bill Gates, the not uncontroversial co-founder of Microsoft, persuaded IBM to let his company retain marketing rights for the operating system separately from the IBM PC project. Microsoft renamed it PC-DOS (the IBM version) and MS-DOS (the Microsoft version). The two versions were initially nearly identical, but they eventually diverged. MS-DOS soared in popularity with the surge in the PC market. Revenue from its sales fueled Microsoft's phenomenal growth, and MS-DOS was the key to company's rapid emergence as the dominant firm in the software industry. This product continued to be the largest single contributor to Microsoft's income well after it had become more famous for Windows. Subsequent versions of MS-DOS featured improved performance and additional functions, not a few of which were copied from other operating systems. For example, version 1.25, released in 1982, added support for double-sided disks, thereby eliminating the need to manually turn the disks over to access the reverse side.

Version 2.0, released the next year, added support for directories, for IBM's then huge 10MB hard disk drive (HDD) and for 360KB, 5.25inch floppy disks. This was followed by version 2.11 later in the same year, which added support for foreign and extended characters. Version 3.0, launched in 1984, added support for 1.2MB floppy disks and 32MB HDDs. This was soon followed by version 3.1, which added support for networks. Additions and improvements in subsequent versions included support for multiple HDD partitions, for disk compression and for larger partitions as well as an improved disk-checking utility, enhanced memory management, a disk defragmenter and an improved text editor. The final major version was 7.0, which was released in 1995 as part of Microsoft Windows 95. It featured close integration with that operating system, including support for long filenames and the removal of numerous utilities, some of which were on the Windows 95 CDROM. It was revised in 1997 with version 7.1, which added support for the FAT32 filesystem on HDDs. Although many of the features were copied from UNIX, MS-DOS was never able to come anywhere close to UNIX in terms of performance or features. For example, MS-DOS never became a serious multi-user or multitasking operating system (both of which were core features of UNIX right from the start) in spite of attempts to retrofit these capabilities. Multitasking is the ability for a computer to run two or more programs simultaneously.

DOS Commands MS-DOS has a relatively small number of commands, and an even smaller number of commonly used ones. Moreover, these commands are generally inflexible because, in contrast to Linux and other Unix-like

operating systems, they are designed to accommodate few options or arguments (i.e., values that can be passed to the commands). Some of the most common commands are as follows (corresponding commands on Unix-like operating systems are shown in parenthesis): CD - changes the current directory (cd) COPY - copies a file (cp) DEL - deletes a file (rm) DIR - lists directory contents (ls) EDIT - starts an editor to create or edit plain text files (vi, vim, ed, joe) FORMAT - formats a disk to accept DOS files (mformat) HELP - displays information about a command (man, info) MKDIR - creates a new directory (mkdir) RD - removes a directory (rmdir) REN - renames a file (mv) TYPE - displays contents of a file on the screen (more, cat)

Comparison between MS-DOS and Linux MS-DOS and Linux have much in common, primarily because MS-DOS copied many ideas from UNIX. However, there are some very fundamental differences, including: (1) Linux is a full-fledged multiuser, multitasking operating system, whereas MS-DOS is a single-user, single-tasking operating system. (2) MS-DOS does not have built-in security concepts such as fileownership and permissions, which are fundamental to Linux.

(3) Linux has an inverted tree-like filesystem in which all directories and files branch from a single directory, i.e., the root directory, and its subdirectories. MS-DOS can have multiple, independent root directories, such as A:, C:, D:, etc. (4) Linux uses forward slashes "/" to separate directories, whereas MSDOS uses backslashes "\" for the same purpose. (5) Linux filenames can contain up to 255 characters. MS-DOS filenames are limited to an eight characters plus a three-character extension and have restrictions on allowable characters. Also, filenames are case-sensitive in Linux, whereas they are not in MS-DOS. (6) Linux has a vastly richer command set than does MS-DOS, with a much greater number of commands and individual commands having greater power, flexibility and ease of use. Commands are case-sensitive in Linux, but they are not in MS-DOS. (7) Although Linux and MS-DOS both have pipes and input/output redirection, the MS-DOS pipes use a completely different -- and inferior -- implementation. (8) MS-DOS is not sufficiently flexible and efficient to serve as a base for a high quality, general-purpose GUI (and thus it had to be abandoned by Microsoft). In sharp contrast, Linux is an excellent base for a GUI (and it is used as a base for the X Window System, which is extremely configurable and whose already excellent performance continues to improve).

Structure of Ms-Dos
The ms-dos operates as a 4 layer structure divided into two fuctional modules.

1) TOP LAYER COMMAND PROCESSOR:-

The top layer of ms-dos interactas with the user and processes the command given by the user and therefore the top layer is referred as the command processor. It is capable of executing the commands either by one of the following three

a) COMMAND LINE INTERPRETER(CLI)

The ms-dos has its own command line interpreter built in through the file command .com. when the OS starts this command .com is automatically executed in the background.

b) MS-DOS UTILITIES
DOS provide certain utilities through the respective .com files which can be directly executed from the command prompt.

C) USER APPLICATION WITH .EXE OR .COM FILE

This extension can directly be executed from the command line prompt and the execution takes place with Ms-dos for .exe application .

2)BIOS MODULE
The BIOS is compiled into assembly language code that stores all the program needed to actually control the system hardware .it is made into pure machine code and burn into ROM chip. This is then fited into new the system mother board it forms the lowest layer of ms-dos which actually communicates with the system hardware components.