Comparison of x86 DOS operating systems

Historical and licensing information

Originally MS-DOS was designed to be an operating system that could run on any computer with a 8086-family microprocessor

Microprocessor

A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...

. It competed with other Operating System

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

s written for such computers, such as CP/M-86

CP/M-86

CP/M-86 was a version of the CP/M operating system that Digital Research made for the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. The commands are those of CP/M-80. Executable files used the relocatable .CMD file format...

and UCSD Pascal

UCSD Pascal

UCSD Pascal was a Pascal programming language system that ran on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1978...

. Each computer would have its own distinct hardware and its own version of MS-DOS. A situation completely similar to the one that existed for CP/M

CP/M

CP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...

, with MS-DOS emulating the same solution as CP/M to adapt for different hardware platforms. So there were many different (OEM)

Original Equipment Manufacturer

An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...

versions of "MS-DOS" for different hardware. But the greater speed attainable by direct control of hardware was of particular importance, especially when running computer games. So very soon an IBM-compatible architecture became the goal, and before long all 8086-family computers closely emulated IBM's hardware, and only a single version of MS-DOS for a fixed hardware platform was all that was needed for the market. This specific version of MS-DOS is the version that is discussed here, as all other versions of MS-DOS died out with their system. One version of such a "generic MS-DOS" (Z-DOS) is mentioned here, but there were dozens more. All these were for personal computers that used a 8086-family microprocessor, but which were not IBM PC compatible

IBM PC compatible

IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...

Name	Creator	Current code owner/maintainer	License	First public release date
PC DOS 1.0	IBM IBM International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...	No longer supported	Proprietary	12 August 1981
PC DOS 1.1	IBM	No longer supported	Proprietary	May 1982
PC DOS 2.0	IBM	No longer supported	Proprietary	March 1983
PC DOS 3.0	IBM	No longer supported	Proprietary	August 1984
IBM DOS 4.0 (called PC DOS 4.0)	IBM	No longer supported	Proprietary	1988
IBM DOS 5.0 (called PC DOS 5.0)	IBM	No longer supported	Proprietary	1991
PC DOS 6.1, 6.3	IBM	No longer supported	Proprietary	1993
PC DOS 7 (revision 0)	IBM	No longer supported	Proprietary	1995
PC DOS 2000 (PC DOS 7 revision 1)	IBM	No longer supported	Proprietary	1998
PC DOS 7.10	IBM	IBM	Proprietary	2003
MS-DOS MS-DOS MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating... 1.0	Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...	No longer supported	Proprietary Proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...	1982
Z-DOS Z-DOS Z-DOS was a version of Microsofts generic MS-DOS specifically written to run on the hardware of the Zenith Z-100 personal computer.The Z-100 used a 8086-family microprocessor, but otherwise had a completely different internal architecture than the IBM PC.At the time Microsofts MS-DOS wasn't... 1.25	OEM Zenith Zenith Data Systems Zenith Data Systems was a division of Zenith founded in 1979 after Zenith acquired Heathkit, which had, in 1977, entered the personal computer market. Headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Zenith sold personal computers under both the Heath/Zenith and Zenith Data Systems names...	No longer supported	Proprietary Proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...	May 1982
MS-DOS 2.0 (first version with name of "MS-DOS")	Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...	No longer supported	Proprietary	March 1983
MS-DOS 3.0	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1984
MS-DOS 3.2	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1986
DOS 3.27 (similar to PC DOS 3.20 with minor improvements)	OEM Olivetti Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.- Founding :The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti...	No longer supported	Proprietary	22 December 1986
MS-DOS 3.3	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1987
MS-DOS 4.0	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1988
MS-DOS 5.0	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1991
MS-DOS 6.0	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1994
MS-DOS 6.20	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1993
MS-DOS 6.21	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1994
MS-DOS 6.22	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1994
MS-DOS 7.0 (Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... 95A)	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1995
MS-DOS 7.10 (Windows 95B/OSR2, 95C/OSR2.5, 98, and 98SE)	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	1996
MS-DOS 8.0 (Windows Me)	Microsoft	No longer supported	Proprietary	2000
DOS Plus 1.2 & 1.2a	Digital Research Digital Research Digital Research, Inc. was the company created by Dr. Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related products. It was the first large software company in the microcomputer world...	No longer supported	Proprietary	1985
DOS Plus 2.1	Digital Research]]	No longer supported	Proprietary	1986
DR DOS 3.31-3.35	Digital Research	No longer supported	Proprietary	1988
DR DOS 3.40-3.41	Digital Research	No longer supported	Proprietary	1989
DR DOS 5.0	Digital Research	No longer supported	Proprietary	1990
DR DOS 6.0	Digital Research	No longer supported	Proprietary	1991
Novell DOS 7	Novell Novell Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...	No longer supported	Proprietary	1993
Caldera OpenDOS 7.01	Caldera Caldera (company) Caldera was a US-based software company founded in 1994 to develop Linux- and DOS-based operating system products.- Caldera :Caldera, Inc... , Inc. / Caldera UK, Ltd.	Not officially supported; A derivative of this is maintained by Udo Kuhnt as Enhanced DR-DOS	Free for non-commercial use	1997
Caldera DR-OpenDOS 7.02	Caldera, Inc. / Caldera UK, Ltd.	No longer supported	Free for non-commercial use	1997
Caldera DR-DOS 7.02	Caldera, Inc. / Caldera UK, Ltd.	No longer supported	Proprietary	1998
Caldera DR-DOS 7.03	Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. / Caldera UK, Ltd. / Lineo Lineo Lineo was a thin client and embedded systems company spun out of Caldera Thin Clients, on 20 July 1999.Caldera Thin Clients, Inc., had been created as a subsidiary of Caldera, Inc., on 2 September 1998... , Inc.	DRDOS, Inc.	Proprietary	1999 (pre-released in 1998)
DR-DOS 8.0	DeviceLogics	No longer supported	Proprietary	2004
DR-DOS 8.1	DRDOS, Inc.	No longer supported	Proprietary	2005
FreeDOS FreeDOS FreeDOS is an operating system for IBM PC compatible computers. FreeDOS is made up of many different, separate programs that act as "packages" to the overall FreeDOS Project... 1.0	Jim Hall Jim Hall (programmer) Jim Hall is a computer programmer and advocate of free software, best known for his work on FreeDOS. Hall began writing the free replacement for the MS-DOS operating system in 1994 when he was still a physics student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls...	The FreeDOS Project	GPL	2006
PTS-DOS PTS-DOS PTS-DOS is a disk operating system, a DOS clone, developed in Russia by PhysTechSoft.- History and versions :PhysTechSoft was formed in 1991 in Moscow, Russia by graduates and members of MIPT, informally known as PhysTech. At the end of 1993, PhysTechSoft released the first commercially available... 32	PhysTechSoft	PhysTechSoft	Proprietary	1991
PTS-DOS 2000	PhysTechSoft	PhysTechSoft	Proprietary	?
PTS-DOS 2000 PRO	PhysTechSoft	PhysTechSoft	Proprietary	?
ROM-DOS	Datalight Datalight Datalight is a privately held software company specializing in data management for embedded devices, particularly mobile phones. The company was founded in 1983 by Roy Sherrill, and is headquartered in Bothell, Washington.-Overview and history:...	Datalight	Proprietary	1989

Technical specifications

Name	Max Hard Drive partition size	File system File system A file system is a means to organize data expected to be retained after a program terminates by providing procedures to store, retrieve and update data, as well as manage the available space on the device which contain it. A file system organizes data in an efficient manner and is tuned to the... s 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 MS-DOS MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating... 1.0	n/a	FAT12	n/a	160kB
MS-DOS 1.1	n/a	FAT12	n/a	320kB (double-sided)
MS-DOS 2.0	10MB	FAT12	n/a	360kB
MS-DOS 3.0	32MB	FAT12, FAT16	n/a	360kB, 1.2MB
MS-DOS 3.2	32MB	FAT12, FAT16	720kB	360kB, 1.2MB
MS-DOS 3.3	32MB	FAT12, FAT16	720kB, 1.44MB	360kB, 1.2MB
MS-DOS 4.0	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB	360kB, 1.2MB
MS-DOS 5.0	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB
MS-DOS 6.0	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	DoubleSpace DoubleSpace DriveSpace is a disk compression utility supplied with MS-DOS starting from version 6.0. The purpose of DriveSpace is to increase the amount of data the user could store on disks, by transparently compressing and decompressing data on-the-fly. It is primarily intended for use with hard drives, but...
MS-DOS 6.20	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	DoubleSpace
MS-DOS 6.21	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB
MS-DOS 6.22	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	DriveSpace
MS-DOS 7.0 (Windows 95 Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products... A)	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	DriveSpace
MS-DOS 7.1 (Windows 95B/OSR2, 95C/OSR2.5, 98 Windows 98 Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid... , and 98SE)	124.55GB (with FAT32)	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	DriveSpace for versions of Windows 95, None for Windows 98
MS-DOS 8.0 (Windows Me Windows Me Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006.... )	124.55GB (with FAT32)	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB
DOS Plus DOS Plus DOS Plus is an operating system written by Digital Research, first released in 1985. It can be seen as an intermediate step between CP/M-86 and DR-DOS.... 1.2-2.1	32MB	FAT12, FAT16, CP/M-86 CP/M-86 CP/M-86 was a version of the CP/M operating system that Digital Research made for the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. The commands are those of CP/M-80. Executable files used the relocatable .CMD file format...	n/a	360kB, 1.2MB, CP/M CP/M CP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc... 320kB
DR-DOS DR-DOS DR-DOS is an MS-DOS-compatible operating system for IBM PC-compatible personal computers, originally developed by Gary Kildall's Digital Research and derived from Concurrent PC DOS 6.0, which was an advanced successor of CP/M-86... 3.31-3.35	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB	360kB, 1.2MB
DR DOS 3.40-3.41	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB	360kB, 1.2MB
DR DOS 5.0	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB	360kB, 1.2MB
DR DOS 6.0	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	SuperStor
PalmDOS 1	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	SuperStor
Novell DOS 7	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	Stacker Stacker A stacker is a large machine used in bulk material handling. Its function is to pile bulk material such as limestone, ores and cereals on to a stockpile. A reclaimer can be used to recover the material....
OpenDOS 7.01	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	Stacker
DR-OpenDOS 7.02	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	Stacker
DR-DOS 7.02	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, (FAT32 in FDISK only)	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	Stacker	Partially (COMMAND.COM and LONGNAME only)
DR-DOS 7.03	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, (FAT32 in FDISK only)	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	Stacker	Partially (COMMAND.COM and LONGNAME only)
DR-DOS 7.04-7.05	?	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32 (non-bootable)	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	Stacker (not on FAT32)	Partially (COMMAND.COM and LONGNAME only)
DR-DOS 7.06-7.07	?	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32 (bootable)	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	Stacker (not on FAT32)	Partially (COMMAND.COM and LONGNAME only)
DR-DOS 8.0	?	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	Supported (not on FAT32)	Partially (COMMAND.COM only)
DR-DOS 8.1	?	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB
FreeDOS FreeDOS FreeDOS is an operating system for IBM PC compatible computers. FreeDOS is made up of many different, separate programs that act as "packages" to the overall FreeDOS Project... 1.0	2TB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB	?
PC DOS PC-DOS IBM PC DOS is a DOS system for the IBM Personal Computer and compatibles, manufactured and sold by IBM from the 1980s to the 2000s.... 1.0	n/a	FAT12	n/a	160kB
PC DOS PC-DOS IBM PC DOS is a DOS system for the IBM Personal Computer and compatibles, manufactured and sold by IBM from the 1980s to the 2000s.... 1.10	n/a	FAT12	n/a	320kB (double-sided)
PC DOS 6.1 (early version)	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB,
PC DOS 6.1 with Compression / 6.3	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB,	SuperStor
PC DOS 7 / 2000	2GB	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B	720kB, 1.44MB, 1.86MB (XDF IBM Extended Density Format The IBM eXtended Density Format is a way of formatting standard high-density 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disks to larger-than-standard capacities... ), 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB, 1.54MB (XDF)	Stacker
PC DOS 7.10	?	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32	720kB, 1.44MB, 1.86MB (XDF IBM Extended Density Format The IBM eXtended Density Format is a way of formatting standard high-density 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disks to larger-than-standard capacities... ), 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB, 1.54MB (XDF)	Stacker (not on FAT32)
PTS-DOS PTS-DOS PTS-DOS is a disk operating system, a DOS clone, developed in Russia by PhysTechSoft.- History and versions :PhysTechSoft was formed in 1991 in Moscow, Russia by graduates and members of MIPT, informally known as PhysTech. At the end of 1993, PhysTechSoft released the first commercially available... 32	?	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB
PTS-DOS 2000	?	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB
PTS-DOS 2000 PRO	?	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB
ROM-DOS	?	FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32	720kB, 1.44MB, 2.88MB	360kB, 1.2MB

External links

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Historical and licensing information

Technical specifications

See also

External links