Operation Systems - Research Paper Example

Basically, it functions like most OS’s—it processes, stores, and transfers data. Probably the reason why UNIX is no longer so popular these days is that it was developed a long time ago: 1969, years before the development of the Internet, the network system which made computers a virtual companion to daily life. It was developed that year when a group of Bell Labs programmers decided that they needed an OS that is fast, easy-to-use, and versatile (Wagner 8). UNIX is significant in the history of information technology because developers of the Internet used it in making their communications system (Williams and Sawyer 150).

Williams and Sawyer note that several programs were developed from UNIX. Among them are Solaris (from Sun Microsystem) and BSD (developed by students from University of California, Berkeley) (150). DOS is often fondly called “the old-timer” (Williams and Sawyer 147). DOS, which stands for disk operating system, was initially developed by Microsoft in 1982. Although it is difficult to use, it became a popular operating system because of the popularity of Microsoft computers (Williams and Sawyer 147).

DOS was the main operating system for Microsoft before Windows (“What is DOS?”). Its quick decline in popularity after the introduction of Windows can be attributed to its simplicity and incapability for multitasks. It is still, however, present in the current Windows operating systems and can be used to control both software and hardware. Before it became irrelevant to desktop computing, MS-DOS was a successful OS (though some argue that it is, technically, not an OS). It had 17 versions in all, the last released in 1997 as MS-DOS 7.

1 (“MS-DOS History”). Users can perform a number of computer tasks by entering commands on the MS-DOS command prompt available in the Windows OS. Among these commands are comp, for comparing files; deltree