Why is dos still in use today

Hall did an analysis of DOS users two years ago, finding that DOS was being called upon almost entirely to run three things: legacy bus software, classic DOS games, and embedded systems. Today that core audience is larger than most people would imagine.

There are a number of companies that continue to develop custom systems that run on DOS, because it lets them run close to the hardware. Of all its potential drawbacks, there is one major hole in FreeDOS today—its networking and Internet support.

Individual applications can call on one of the open or free libraries available with FreeDOS to create a network connection, but each application has to configure its own communication. These have long since lost support, so developing to take advantage of them is problematic. There are plenty of reasons why doing Internet applications on DOS is hard—and in many ways, the reasons are antithetical to what makes DOS attractive to its core audiences. Don't expect Chrome for DOS.

Auer said ultimately the applications of FreeDOS aren't what will keep devs interested. Instead, it's the same thing driving interest today that drove many contributors to computing in the first place—the tinkering aspect.

You can learn to know a lot about it, and you can do a lot with it yourself, but you would not use it for your daily commute. Of course, DOS also still is important for those who worked with it because it lets them keep their old custom-made software. Sure, some ARM board might run the milling machine in your wood workshop as well, but the DOS software you wrote for it probably still works, and using a FreeDOS PC to run that makes it more pleasant than having to stress about new Windows compatibility of your old tools or new hardware compatibility.

You must login or create an account to comment. Linux has taken over a good portion of the embedded market where DOS used to play. But there will also be a place for DOS in the heart of the tinkerer. You can learn to know a lot about it, and you can do a lot with it yourself, but you would not use it for your daily commute. Photo credit: Javier Cantero via Wikimedia. DOS fan, George R. Related articles: Ransomware Dos and Don'ts. Browse All Privacy and Security Articles Browse All Linux Articles Browse All Buying Guides.

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