MS-DOS
Microsoft Disk Operating System
(pronounced: M-S dahss)
The standard operating system for IBM personal computers and IBM-compatible computers. Introduced in 1981, MS-DOS was originally developed by Microsoft for IBM.
It is the world's most widely used operating system, primarily because there are millions of older computers still out there (and they can't run Windows very well, let alone all the other programs on today's personal computers).
The most severe limitation is its 640K RAM barrier; Windows helped alleviate some of its problems but still "sits on top of DOS" and relies on it for many services. Newer operating systems, such as Windows NT, XP, and OS/2 Warp (and the Macintosh operating system), do not rely on DOS to the same extent or at all, although most can execute DOS-based programs. It is expected that DOS will eventually disappear.
NetLingo Classification: Technical Terms
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