{"slug": "ms-dos", "name": "MS-DOS", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 17, "warners": 3, "score": 3.432, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2025-11-19", "latest": "2026-09-26", "why": "I really enjoyed playing with the toolchain they included with the MS-DOS 4 source code release", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 11, "compare": 0, "warn": 3}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I really enjoyed playing with the toolchain they included with the MS-DOS 4 source code release", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["MS-DOS"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 788758529, "item_id": 49297408, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49297408", "by": "1313ed01", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really enjoyed playing with the toolchain they included with the MS-DOS 4 source code release", "excerpt": "There is this fork that is easy to build: https://codeberg.org/tkchia/GW-BASIC There are some binary releases there from 2022, but I did not try those. The binary I built from source has worked very well. Never tried to build the DOS source, but I really enjoyed playing with the toolchain they included with the MS-DOS 4 source code release. It's pretty much a complete, MIT-licensed (but binary only) Microsoft toolcha", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Donkey.bas is 45 Years Old \u2013 131 line of Glory"}, {"id": 753584816, "item_id": 47099051, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47099051", "by": "fuzzfactor", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I like the MS-DOS from Win98SE", "excerpt": "I've got an adapter that only goes up to 40GB because it's 20 yrs old. ATA (aka IDE or EIDE) was all they had before SATA so these adapters were all over the place. WTF is a Pi for? There's small little chips that do exactly this interface, still probably plenty available surplus for cheap since ATA is not popular any more. Any ATA HDD that works on a mainstream USB adapter will handle CHS for DOS usage just fine, or", "context": "", "use_case": "Retro OS for old hardware", "switched_from": "", "story": "ATAboy is a USB adapter for legacy CHS only style IDE (PATA) drives"}, {"id": 752303185, "item_id": 47018949, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018949", "by": "markus_zhang", "date": "2026-02-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think Windows and DOS do have good documents", "excerpt": "I think Windows and DOS do have good documents. I actually think they had way better ones than Linux at the time. But I could be wrong. For reference: https://jacobfilipp.com/msj-index/ And also MSDN.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows NT/OS2 Design Workbook"}, {"id": 744277585, "item_id": 46517349, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46517349", "by": "ferguess_k", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It should go straight into MS-DOS after booting -- from an emulator of course.", "excerpt": "I'm going to do the same thing when my son is older. 6-yr old is a bit stretch as he is easily addicted to TV so I think computer is definitely another level up. Maybe 7-yr old is better. But I need to do it before his friends introduce pads and phones to him so definitely before 8. I'm thinking about getting a Rpi box slapped with an old monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. It should go straight into MS-DOS after bootin", "context": "parent", "use_case": "kid's retro computer", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What kind of setup do you run for your children?"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 786492704, "item_id": 49155794, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155794", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Because MS carefully built them. This was proved in court.", "excerpt": "> Much as I loved DR-DOS, it did have occasional compatibility hiccups. Because MS carefully built them. This was proved in court. The developers who built the incompatibilities signed their work with their initials: AARD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code How it was found: https://www.geoffchappell.com/notes/windows/archive/aard/index.htm", "context": "", "use_case": "Operating system", "switched_from": "", "story": "CP/M-386 \u2013 CP/M for 386 protected mode, derived from CP/M\u201168K"}, {"id": 773724208, "item_id": 48357763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48357763", "by": "em-bee", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "dos was the reason i switched to linux", "excerpt": "dos was the reason i switched to linux. (sorry, i could not resist, i am old ;-)", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Sysadmining Like It's 2009"}, {"id": 766458576, "item_id": 47903661, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903661", "by": "rasz", "date": "2026-04-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DOS was build one small hack at a time.", "excerpt": "Id go other way too. Disk Operating System might seem simple or even downright pleasant. Easy to understand and well compartmentalized DOS/BIOS Interrupt API, small functions doing small things. Then you read some \"under the hood\" book or source code and start stumbling upon decade of hacks upon hacks to keep this cart rolling while computer revolution was happening in the background. One example: IBM in its infinite", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Only One Side Will Be the True Successor to MS-DOS \u2013 Windows 2.x"}]}], "who": [{"by": "stevetron", "context": "keeps old lab computers for client work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49858994", "date": "2026-09-26"}, {"by": "pjmlp", "context": "used it in high school computer lab", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49060645", "date": "2026-07-26"}, {"by": "GMoromisato", "context": "worked on DOS/Windows software in the 90s", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47840099", "date": "2026-04-20"}, {"by": "ferguess_k", "context": "parent", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46517349", "date": "2026-01-06"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["eprom programmer and data capture", "operating system", "school lab operating system", "word processing, spreadsheets, databases", "retro os for old hardware", "kid's retro computer"], "compared": [{"slug": "linux", "name": "Linux", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "microsoft-windows", "name": "Microsoft Windows", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848955", "title": "Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47831437", "title": "OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49289465", "title": "Donkey.bas is 45 Years Old \u2013 131 line of Glory", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49149898", "title": "CP/M-386 \u2013 CP/M for 386 protected mode, derived from CP/M\u201168K", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49056424", "title": "No Stack Overflow, No Autocomplete: What Coding Felt Like in the 80s", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48356847", "title": "Sysadmining Like It's 2009", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 3}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 3, "warn": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 797743904, "item_id": 49858994, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49858994", "by": "stevetron", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The software for that requires MS-DOS.", "excerpt": "I wouldn't call them business-critical computers, but I do have about 3-4 computers under one of my workbenches dedicated to certain work I did for a client. One of them has an EPROM programmer set-up, which includes a custom ISA-card, and a ribbon cable to an external box with a ZIF-socket. The software for that requires MS-DOS. To network that box, which is a 486SX, I run WFWG 3.11. Since these never go on the ente", "context": "keeps old lab computers for client work", "use_case": "EPROM programmer and data capture", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?"}, {"id": 797685264, "item_id": 49855329, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49855329", "by": "Aldipower", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "still runs DOS and Window 3.11", "excerpt": "The Detusche Bahn still runs DOS and Window 3.11 in their ICE I trains! They searched for admins 2 years ago. https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/ms-dos-and-windows-311-still-run-train-dashboards-at-german-railway-company-listed-admin-job-for-30-year-old-operating-system", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?"}, {"id": 788758529, "item_id": 49297408, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49297408", "by": "1313ed01", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really enjoyed playing with the toolchain they included with the MS-DOS 4 source code release", "excerpt": "There is this fork that is easy to build: https://codeberg.org/tkchia/GW-BASIC There are some binary releases there from 2022, but I did not try those. The binary I built from source has worked very well. Never tried to build the DOS source, but I really enjoyed playing with the toolchain they included with the MS-DOS 4 source code release. It's pretty much a complete, MIT-licensed (but binary only) Microsoft toolcha", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Donkey.bas is 45 Years Old \u2013 131 line of Glory"}, {"id": 786492704, "item_id": 49155794, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155794", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Because MS carefully built them. This was proved in court.", "excerpt": "> Much as I loved DR-DOS, it did have occasional compatibility hiccups. Because MS carefully built them. This was proved in court. The developers who built the incompatibilities signed their work with their initials: AARD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code How it was found: https://www.geoffchappell.com/notes/windows/archive/aard/index.htm", "context": "", "use_case": "Operating system", "switched_from": "", "story": "CP/M-386 \u2013 CP/M for 386 protected mode, derived from CP/M\u201168K"}, {"id": 784970321, "item_id": 49060645, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49060645", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-07-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "A customised mix of Turbo Pascal and MS-DOS 3.3 could fit in a 3.5 inch high density floppy", "excerpt": "A customised mix of Turbo Pascal and MS-DOS 3.3 could fit in a 3.5 inch high density floppy, meaning 1.44 MB for the young folks. I know that because I used to carry one for use on high school computer lab. Then a couple others for programs.", "context": "used it in high school computer lab", "use_case": "school lab operating system", "switched_from": "", "story": "No Stack Overflow, No Autocomplete: What Coding Felt Like in the 80s"}, {"id": 773724208, "item_id": 48357763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48357763", "by": "em-bee", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "dos was the reason i switched to linux", "excerpt": "dos was the reason i switched to linux. (sorry, i could not resist, i am old ;-)", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Sysadmining Like It's 2009"}, {"id": 772428400, "item_id": 48276775, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48276775", "by": "areweai", "date": "2026-05-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "https://www.filfre.net/2012/05/the-ibm-pc-part-3/ None actually, because I didn't recall the original amount correctly and I failed to correct for inflation, and Microsoft was already doing pretty well at that point. That was inaccurate to say. It does make you think, though. If you too are able to work hard and build an operating system or save up six figures corrected for inflation, that still doesn't get you anyth", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft open-sources \"the earliest DOS source code discovered to date\""}, {"id": 769955969, "item_id": 48122248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48122248", "by": "tylerdane", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the modern PC still uses DOS and WordStar lol", "excerpt": "But the modern PC still uses DOS and WordStar lol. \"Well, he doesn\u2019t actually write on an old DOS computer. He did write on an old DOS computer, and then it died. Actually, I built him the computer he writes on now, which is a state-of-the-art machine running DOS and WordStar 4.0.\" - GRRM's employee https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/interview-james-s-corey/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "George R. R. Martin Still Uses a DOS Word Processor [video]"}, {"id": 767226768, "item_id": 47951673, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47951673", "by": "ndiddy", "date": "2026-04-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "People have looked at DOS for years and never found any stolen CP/M code.", "excerpt": "This has never been a serious question. People have looked at DOS for years and never found any stolen CP/M code. Tim Paterson has written about how DOS was designed here: https://dosmandrivel.blogspot.com/2007/09/design-of-dos.html https://dosmandrivel.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-dos-rip-off-of-cpm.html. His employer was selling an 8086 computer but had no operating system for it, so he proposed making QDOS, a placehold", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GitHub \u2013 DOS 1.0: Transcription of Tim Paterson's DOS Printouts"}, {"id": 766458576, "item_id": 47903661, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903661", "by": "rasz", "date": "2026-04-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DOS was build one small hack at a time.", "excerpt": "Id go other way too. Disk Operating System might seem simple or even downright pleasant. Easy to understand and well compartmentalized DOS/BIOS Interrupt API, small functions doing small things. Then you read some \"under the hood\" book or source code and start stumbling upon decade of hacks upon hacks to keep this cart rolling while computer revolution was happening in the background. One example: IBM in its infinite", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Only One Side Will Be the True Successor to MS-DOS \u2013 Windows 2.x"}, {"id": 765441584, "item_id": 47840099, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47840099", "by": "GMoromisato", "date": "2026-04-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "we improved it until it had all the security and capabilities we needed", "excerpt": "Except MS-DOS ultimately won. I grew up in Boston in the 80s, when giants like DEC and Data General were at the leading edge of computing. I remember mainframe folks complaining that \"MS-DOS is so primitive! Here's a nickel, kid, buy yourself a real OS.\" By the 90s, when I was working on DOS/Windows software, I was inundated with resumes from engineers who had been laid off from those very same companies. And it wasn", "context": "worked on DOS/Windows software in the 90s", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS"}, {"id": 765371184, "item_id": 47835699, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47835699", "by": "projektfu", "date": "2026-04-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "later MS-DOS on an AT", "excerpt": "I used the Commodore 64, and later MS-DOS on an AT, to do typical computer tasks. Word processing, simple programs to automate things, spreadsheets, databases. We had a copy of Enable, a \"Works\"-like suite. I didn't have income taxes but I knew people who used DOS programs for that. Online things, mostly BBS for me, using Telix or Telemate and some QWK mail reader. BASICA programming. My machine wasn't really powerfu", "context": "", "use_case": "Word processing, spreadsheets, databases", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS"}, {"id": 753584816, "item_id": 47099051, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47099051", "by": "fuzzfactor", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I like the MS-DOS from Win98SE", "excerpt": "I've got an adapter that only goes up to 40GB because it's 20 yrs old. ATA (aka IDE or EIDE) was all they had before SATA so these adapters were all over the place. WTF is a Pi for? There's small little chips that do exactly this interface, still probably plenty available surplus for cheap since ATA is not popular any more. Any ATA HDD that works on a mainstream USB adapter will handle CHS for DOS usage just fine, or", "context": "", "use_case": "Retro OS for old hardware", "switched_from": "", "story": "ATAboy is a USB adapter for legacy CHS only style IDE (PATA) drives"}, {"id": 752303185, "item_id": 47018949, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018949", "by": "markus_zhang", "date": "2026-02-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think Windows and DOS do have good documents", "excerpt": "I think Windows and DOS do have good documents. I actually think they had way better ones than Linux at the time. But I could be wrong. For reference: https://jacobfilipp.com/msj-index/ And also MSDN.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows NT/OS2 Design Workbook"}, {"id": 744277585, "item_id": 46517349, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46517349", "by": "ferguess_k", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It should go straight into MS-DOS after booting -- from an emulator of course.", "excerpt": "I'm going to do the same thing when my son is older. 6-yr old is a bit stretch as he is easily addicted to TV so I think computer is definitely another level up. Maybe 7-yr old is better. But I need to do it before his friends introduce pads and phones to him so definitely before 8. I'm thinking about getting a Rpi box slapped with an old monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. It should go straight into MS-DOS after bootin", "context": "parent", "use_case": "kid's retro computer", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What kind of setup do you run for your children?"}, {"id": 737612049, "item_id": 46100753, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46100753", "by": "jasomill", "date": "2025-11-30", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "typing \"works\" at the MS-DOS prompt", "excerpt": "Reminds me of a silly thing that happened when I was a freshman in high school, ca. 1992. We had a dumb \"computer literacy\" class taught in an computer lab full of PS/2 Model 25s with no hard drives, and were each issued a bootable floppy disk containing both Microsoft Works and our assignment files (word processing documents, spreadsheets, etc.), which we turned in at the end of class for grading. We started Works i", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows drive letters are not limited to A-Z"}, {"id": 735704641, "item_id": 45981540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45981540", "by": "lproven", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "DOS proved a hit", "excerpt": "> had they not gotten lucky with the whole MS-DOS deal, maybe they would have kept Xenix and who knows how that would have turned out. Oh, absolutely, yes. It's one of the historical inflection points that's visible. My favourites... \u2022 MS wanted to go with Xenix but DOS proved a hit so it changed course. \u2022 DR had multitasking Concurrent DOS on the 80286 in 1985, but Intel's final released chip removed the feature CDO", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run ancient UNIX on modern hardware"}, {"id": 735662464, "item_id": 45978904, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45978904", "by": "amiga386", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "is there a difference in environment between running a COM executable for MS-DOS versus running a bootblock", "excerpt": "\"No operating system. [...] Just [...] BIOS\". Hmm. Out of interest, is there a difference in environment between running a COM executable for MS-DOS versus running a bootblock? I know there's the whole of MS-DOS, but a typical size-coded demo (http://www.sizecoding.org/wiki/DOS) will only use int 10h to switch mode, and that's it. Everything else is IO mapped (e.g. the keyboard) or memory mapped (e.g. screen memory).", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I wrote a Pong game in a 512-byte boot sector"}]}