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This article details various versions of DOS-compatible operating systems.
Contents |
Key Points of DOS history
| 1973 | Gary Kildall writes a simple operating system for Intel 8080-based computers which he calls CP/M | |
| 1980 | April | Tim Paterson begins writing an operating system for use with Seattle Computer Products' 8086-based computer, due to delays by Digital Research in releasing their CP/M-86 operating system. |
| August | QDOS 0.10 (Quick and Dirty Operating System) is shipped by Seattle Computer Products. | |
| October | Microsoft pays less than US$100,000 for the right to sell SCP's DOS to an unnamed client (IBM). | |
| December | Microsoft buys non-exclusive rights to market QDOS, which has been renamed to 86-DOS. | |
| Digital Research releases CP/M-86 | ||
| 1981 | July | Logical Systems announces the release of LDOS (Logical Disk Operating System), ported from Radio Shack's TRS-80. |
| Microsoft buys all rights to 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, and the name MS-DOS is adopted. | ||
| August | IBM announces the IBM 5150 PC Personal Computer, featuring a 4.77-MHz Intel 8088 CPU, 64 KB (64 KiB) RAM, 40 KB ROM, one 5.25-inch floppy drive, and PC-DOS 1.0 | |
| 1982 | May | Microsoft releases MS-DOS 1.1 |
| 1983 | March | MS-DOS 2.0 for PCs is announced. |
| PC-DOS 2.0 is released. | ||
| October | PC-DOS 2.1 is released | |
| 1984 | March | Microsoft releases MS-DOS 2.1 |
| August | Microsoft releases MS-DOS 3.0. It adds support for 1.2 MB floppy disks and hard disks larger than 10MB. | |
| PC-DOS 3.0 is released. | ||
| November | Microsoft releases MS-DOS 3.1 | |
| 1985 | March | PC-DOS 3.1 is released. |
| December | PC-DOS 3.2 is released. | |
| 1986 | Digital Research transforms CP/M into DOS Plus. | |
| January | Microsoft releases MS-DOS 3.2. It adds support for 3.5-inch 720 KB floppy disk drives. | |
| 1987 | April | PC-DOS 3.3 is released. |
| August | Microsoft ships MS-DOS 3.3. | |
| November | Compaq ships Compaq MS-DOS 3.31 with support for hard disk partitions over 32 MB. | |
| 1988 | January | Digital Research rewrites DOS Plus as DR-DOS. |
| May | Digital Research releases DR-DOS 3.31, supporting hard disk partitions up to 512 MB. | |
| June | Microsoft releases MS-DOS 4.0, including a graphical/mouse interface. | |
| July | IBM ships PC-DOS 4.0. It adds a shell menu interface and support for hard disk partitions over 32 MB. | |
| 1989 | ROM-DOS introduced by Datalight. | |
| 1990 | May | Digital Research releases DR-DOS 5.0. |
| 1991 | May | PC-DOS 5 is released. It featured the moving of command.com into HMA. |
| June | Microsoft releases MS-DOS 5.0. The full-screen MS-DOS Editor is added to succeed Edlin. It adds undelete and unformat utilities, and task swapping. GW-BASIC is replaced with QBasic. | |
| September | Digital Research releases DR-DOS 6.0 with Super-Stor disk compression. | |
| 1993 | March | Microsoft introduces MS-DOS 6.0, including DoubleSpace disk compression. |
| April | Novell acquires Digital Research and renames DR-DOS to Novell DOS | |
| June | IBM releases PC-DOS 6.1. It is separate from MS-DOS 6.1, and IBM and Microsoft begin developing separately.[1] | |
| December | Novell releases Novell DOS 7.0. | |
| PTS-DOS is introduced as PTS-DOS 6.4 | ||
| 1994 | February | Microsoft releases MS-DOS 6.21, removing DoubleSpace disk compression. |
| April | IBM releases PC-DOS 6.3. | |
| June | Microsoft releases MS-DOS 6.22, bringing back disk compression under the name DriveSpace. | |
| PD-DOS, the open-source project later known as FreeDOS, is announced. | ||
| 1995 | April | IBM releases PC-DOS 7, with integrated data compression from Stac Electronics (Stacker). |
| July | PTS-DOS 7.0 is released. | |
| August | Windows 95 is released. It comes with an MS-DOS like bootloader reporting DOS version 7.0. | |
| 1996 | August | Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.0 (OSR2.0) is released. It comes with MS-DOS 7.1, which adds support for the FAT32 file system. |
| 1997 | January | Novell sells Novell DOS to Caldera Systems, who release it as open-source OpenDOS 7.01 |
| December | Caldera releases DR-OpenDOS 7.02. | |
| 1998 | March | Caldera re-releases DR-OpenDOS 7.02 as the closed source DR DOS 7.02. |
| April | IBM releases PC-DOS 7.01 (aka PC-DOS 2000), which is Y2K compliant. | |
| December | DR-DOS is transferred to Caldera Thin Clients. | |
| 1999 | June | Caldera Thin Clients becomes Lineo, who releases DR-DOS as Caldera DR-DOS 7.03. |
| September | PTS-DOS 2000 is released. | |
| December | Lineo releases an OEM-only version of DR-DOS branded 7.04/7.05. | |
| 2000 | September | Microsoft Windows Me is released, identifying itself as DOS 8. It was the last MS-DOS, as future versions of Windows were based on the NT kernel. |
| 2002 | July | Udo Kuhnt starts the DR-DOS/OpenDOS Enhancement Project, based on source of OpenDOS 7.01. |
| October | Lineo sells DR-DOS to DeviceLogics. | |
| 2004 | March | DeviceLogics releases DR-DOS 8.0 |
| November | FreeDOS beta 0.9 is released. | |
| DR DOS Inc. splits from DeviceLogics. | ||
| 2005 | March | Udo Kuhnt releases Enhanced DR-DOS 7.01.07 with FAT32 and LBA support. |
| June | GNU/DOS is released | |
| October | DR DOS Inc. releases DR-DOS 8.1, and removes it few days later because of alleged GPL violations | |
| 2006 | September | FreeDOS 1.0 is released |
| Microsoft/MS-DOS/86-DOS | IBM/PC-DOS | Digital Research/DR-DOS |
| FreeDOS | PTS-DOS | Other |
Historical and licensing information
| Name | Creator | Current code owner/maintainer | License | First public release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS-DOS 1.1 | Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1982 |
| MS-DOS 2.0 | Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1983 |
| MS-DOS 3.0 | Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1984 |
| MS-DOS 3.2 | Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1986 |
| MS-DOS 3.3 | Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1987 |
| MS-DOS 4.0 | Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1988 |
| MS-DOS 5.0 | Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1991 |
| MS-DOS 6.0 | Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1994 |
| MS-DOS 6.22 | Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1994 |
| MS-DOS 7.0 (Windows 95A) | Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1995 |
| MS-DOS 7.1x (Windows 95B/OSR2, 95C/OSR2.5, 98, and 98SE) |
Microsoft | No longer supported | Proprietary[2] | 1996 |
| MS-DOS 8.0 (Windows Me)[3] | Microsoft | No longer supported [4] | Proprietary[2] | 2000 |
| DOS Plus 1.2 | Digital Research | No longer supported | Proprietary | 1986 |
| DR-DOS 6.0 | Digital Research | No longer supported | Proprietary | 1991 |
| DR-DOS 7.03 | Lineo | DR DOS Inc. | Proprietary | 1999 |
| DR-DOS 8.0 | DeviceLogics | No longer supported[5] | Proprietary | 2004 |
| DR-DOS 8.1 | DR DOS Inc. | No longer supported[5] | Proprietary | 2005 |
| FreeDOS 1.0 | Jim Hall | The FreeDOS Project | GPL | 2006 |
| Novell DOS 7.0 | Novell | No longer supported | Proprietary | 1993 |
| OpenDOS 7.01 | Caldera Systems | Udo Kuhnt? | Proprietary | 1997 |
| PC-DOS 1.0 | IBM | No longer supported | Proprietary | 1981 |
| PC-DOS 7.x / 2000 | IBM | IBM | Proprietary | 1995 |
| PC-DOS 6.x | IBM | IBM | Proprietary | 1993 |
| PTS-DOS 32 | PhysTechSoft | PhysTechSoft | Proprietary | ? |
| PTS-DOS 2000 | PhysTechSoft | PhysTechSoft | Proprietary | ? |
| PTS-DOS 2000 PRO | PhysTechSoft | PhysTechSoft | Proprietary | ? |
| ROM-DOS | Datalight | Datalight | Proprietary | 1989 |
Technical specifications
| Name | Max Hard Drive partition size | File systems supported natively | 3.5" Floppy capacities supported natively | 5.25" Floppy capacities supported natively | Integrated disk compression utility? | Long File Names supported natively? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS-DOS 1.1 | n/a | FAT12 | n/a | 320kB (double-sided) | No | No |
| MS-DOS 2.0 | 10MB | FAT12 | n/a | 360kB | No | No |
| MS-DOS 3.0 | 32MB | FAT12 | n/a | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | No |
| MS-DOS 3.2 | 32MB | FAT12 | 720kB | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | No |
| MS-DOS 3.3 | 32MB | FAT12 | 720kB, 1.44MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | No |
| MS-DOS 4.0 | 2GB | FAT12, FAT16 | 720kB, 1.44MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | No |
| MS-DOS 5.0 | 2GB | FAT12, FAT16 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | No |
| MS-DOS 6.0 | 2GB | FAT12, FAT16 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | Doublespace | No |
| MS-DOS 6.22 | 2GB | FAT12, FAT16 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | DriveSpace | No |
| MS-DOS 7.0 (Windows 95A) | 2GB | FAT12, FAT16 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | DriveSpace | No (DOSLFN) |
| MS-DOS 7.1x (Windows 95B/OSR2, 95C/OSR2.5, 98, and 98SE) | 124.55GB (with FAT32) | FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | DriveSpace for versions of Windows 95, None for Windows 98 | No (DOSLFN) |
| MS-DOS 8.0 (Windows Me)2 | 124.55GB (with FAT32)[6] | FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | No (DOSLFN) |
| DOS Plus 1.2 | 32MB | FAT12, FAT16, CP/M-86 | n/a | 360kB, 1.2MB, CP/M 320kB | No | No |
| DR-DOS 6.0 | 2GB | FAT12, FAT16 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | Super-stor | No |
| DR-DOS 7.03 | 2GB | FAT12, FAT16 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | Stacker | No |
| DR-DOS 8.0 and 8.1 | ? | FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 (buggy ?) | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | ? | No |
| FreeDOS 1.0 | 2TB | FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | ? | No (DOSLFN) |
| Novell DOS 7.0 | 2GB | FAT12, FAT16 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | No |
| OpenDOS 7.01 | 2GB | FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | ? | No |
| PC-DOS 1.0 | n/a | FAT12 | n/a | 160kB | No | No |
| IBM DOS 6.0 PC-DOS 6.1 - 6.3 |
2GB | FAT12, FAT16 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB |
360kB, 1.2MB, |
SuperStor Not included with IBM DOS 6.0 |
No |
| PC-DOS 7.x / 2000 | 2GB | FAT12, FAT16 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 1.86MB (XDF), 2.88MB |
360kB, 1.2MB, 1.54MB (XDF) |
Stacker | No |
| PTS-DOS 32 | ? | FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | No (DOSLFN) |
| PTS-DOS 2000 | ? | FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | No |
| PTS-DOS 2000 PRO | ? | FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | No |
| ROM-DOS | ? | FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 | 720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB | 360kB, 1.2MB | No | Yes |
References
- ^ I.B.M. Executive Describes Price Pressure by Microsoft
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Current understanding has it that if one has a license to run a Windows version, one can also legally install any MS-DOS version up to the level of that Windows' version.
- ^ MS-DOS 8.0 has most of the functionality of previous versions, but there are significant losses of usability, like: the loss of FORMAT /S command, that can be substituted by formatting HDD/FDD and then copying IO.SYS from CD-boot A: image, as first ever file onto drive; loss of SYS A: (or SYS B:) command for floppies, that can be substituted too in the same way as FORMAT /S; inability to boot to a command prompt without substitution/modification of IO.SYS (other than CD-boot version) and COMMAND.COM. For purpose of booting from C: drive, an unmodified IO.SYS from simulated A: boot diskette image, that is placed on Windows Me OEM CD, from which that CD boots, can be used, and English COMMAND.COM can be modified by replacing in this file at hex offset 00006510 byte 75 by byte EB, or substituted by (now freeware) 4DOS (from which NDOS is derived) http://www.jpsoft.com/download.htm
- ^ While Windows Me may be unsupported and end-of-life, a version of its underlying DOS is included with Windows XP. When one formats a floppy in Windows XP and selects "Create an MS-DOS startup disk", the floppy is formatted with a DOS version that identifies itself as "Windows Millennium [Version 4.90.3000]".
- ^ a b The entire DR DOS 8 series was pulled from the market after it was discovered that 8.1 code had been lifted from FreeDOS in violation of the GPL license.
- ^ a b As mentioned at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q184006& Microsoft's KB article 184006 , the limit of 124.55GB for FAT32 partition size is a primarily a limitation of Windows 95/98's 16-bit SCANDISK utility. Other DOS versions supporting FAT32 may allow a larger partition size closer to the theoretical ~8TB maximum suggested by FAT32's specifications (maximum of 268,435,445 clusters times 32 Kb cluster size). Windows 2000 and XP can mount and use a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB, but they cannot natively create one, which according to Microsoft is by design.
