Timeline of X86 DOS Operating Systems

Timeline Of X86 DOS Operating Systems

This article presents a timeline of events in the history of x86 DOS operating systems from 1973 to 2012.

DOS releases have been in the forms of:

  • OEM adaption kits—all Microsoft releases prior to version 3.2 were OAKs only
  • Shrink-wrapped packages for smaller OEMs (system builders)—beginning with MS-DOS 3.2 in January 1986, Microsoft offered these in addition to OAKs
  • End-user retail—all versions of IBM PC DOS (and other OEM-adapted versions) were sold to end users. DR DOS began selling to end users with version 5.0 in July 1990, followed by MS-DOS 5.0 in June 1991
  • Free download, beginning with FreeDOS in 1998
Color key
Microsoft/MS-DOS/86-DOS IBM PC DOS/IBM DOS Digital Research/DR-DOS
Compaq MS-DOS FreeDOS and GNU/DOS Other

Read more about Timeline Of X86 DOS Operating Systems:  1973–1979: Hardware Foundations and CP/M, 1980–1995: Important Events in DOS History, 1995–2000: Windows 9x Era, 2001–2012: Post-Millennium, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words dos, operating and/or systems:

    “Madame Soubrine asked me to tell everybody it was nothing, absolutely nothing. Just a little blaze in a pile of rubbish.”
    —John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    “I love meetings with suits. I live for meetings with suits. I love them because I know they had a really boring week and I walk in there with my orange velvet leggings and drop popcorn in my cleavage and then fish it out and eat it. I like that. I know I’m entertaining them and I know that they know. Obviously, the best meetings are with suits that are intelligent, because then things are operating on a whole other level.”
    —Madonna [Madonna Louise Ciccione] (b. 1959)

    “What is most original in a man’s nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn’t have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.”
    —Leonard Cohen (b. 1934)