Dongsan Yoon
SUNY Stony Brook
CSE301-History of
Computing
Fall 2006
Microsoft and OS
Introduction
Human
beings have tried to make tools and use them from
old times so that many people live a life of affluence in these days. In the past, there were some important events with
the tools people invented such as an agricultural revolution, the Industrial
Revolution in
Computer consists of two parts that are
hardware and software. Hardware of computers is a complex set of electronic
devices. Software is stored in the store device of the computer and runs the
hardware to use for its own purpose. There are many kinds of software to use
computers for its own purpose. One of the most important of software is
operating system. By techweb.com¡¯s definition,
operating system is ¡°The master control
program that runs the computer. The first program loaded when the computer is
turned on, its main part, the "kernel," resides in memory at all
times. The operating system sets the standards for all application programs
that run in the computer. Applications "talk to" the operating system
for all user interfaces and file management operations. Also called an
"executive" or "supervisor," an operating system performs
the following functions.¡±
Even though it has a number
of useful software in the computer, it turned to useless machine without
operating system. It¡¯s like trying to move a car without starting engine. As
computers had been developed more, the operating systems has changed and new
operating system had been created. In these days, Microsoft¡¯s Windows is the
most common operating system in the world that people use for their computers. I
would like to talk about the changes and the history of Windows and DOS that is
previous operating system of personal computer.
The beginning, MS-DOS
Bill Gates of
MS
of DR
In the early 1980s, IBM
decided to make a new 16-bit computer, IBM-PC, for their first foray into the computer market.
They were looking for appropriate operating system for their new computer. At
first IBM¡¯s tried to contact to Gary Kildall of Digital
Research that is one of big company has CP/M, the most spread operating system.
There are some stories about IBM and Digital Research¡¯s meeting. But in some
way, they failed to sign on the contract. After that IBM met Bill Gates of Microsoft and they decided to work with
him. They did not have enough time to make a new operating system for their new
computer. So Microsoft decided to buy another operating sys
tem and modify it so that it works for
IBM-PC. Microsoft brought 
out MS-DOS which is based on 86-DOS.
86-DOS is a product of Seattle Computer Products. For the period of DOS, three
thousand personal computers have been produced through the world. 80% of them were
installed DOS as basic operating system and sell to customers. Now there is some
interest thing IBM and Microsoft. IBM, which made a computer-hardware and just suggested
to make software for their computer, has had to have a continuous competition with
the other companies that make similar product, PC. But from that time,
Microsoft has cornered the market of operating system and for now it extended
to most of software for personal computer of market such as computer language, application
program.
WINDOWS
DOS released its new version from 1981
to 1995. DOS¡¯s last version was 7.0 in 1995. Releasing
of 7.0 version, DOS was on the decline and Windows95 came
out as a new operating system. Before Windows95, Microsoft already released early
version 1.0 to 3.0. Because Windows 1.0 and 2.0 were not stable, they were not
used that much. From 3.0 version, more people started to
use windows instead of DOS.
Windows is a totally different operating
system than DOS. Windows has many strong features than DOS. First of all,
interface is one of them. While DOS has CLI(Command Line
Interface), Windows has GUI(Graphic User Interface). CLI is a very text type
interface.
Second is a multitasking. DOS also
can run only one application at a time but Windows can run many programs simultaneously. At DOS period, when you print something,
you have to wait until it is finished to do other jobs with computer. Multitasking
effect to efficiency of works and reducing the amount of time for work. There
more features of Windows such as Plug and Play, registry,
ActiveX and USB so on. Windows was a surely big change of operating system.
As many people know, a actual idea of GUI like a Windows was made from Apple Macintosh
computer. But even though somebody makes revolutionary techniques, if he can
not make it spread through the many people or place, I think that it is a just
half success. I think that¡¯s why many people studied Bill Gates in business area.
References
for pics
first - www.zpub.com
second - www.nndb.com
third - www.census.gov
fourth - basic.mindteq.com