9 •
December 15, 1988 • Portland Observer • Pag* /
COMPUTERS & YOU
What Is MS/DOS and PC/DOS
by T. West
Often times those ot us who use
personal computer regularly
lorget about the importance ot an
operating system.
In
fact, there are many
users
in
se veral
businesses who do not
know what an operating
system is nor its
purpose.
MS/DOS means Mi­
crosoft Disk Operating
System and PC/DOS
means Personal Com­
puter Operating System.
Both programs are oper­
ating systems. Without
an operating system your computer
hardware (the physical equipment)
could not communicate with other
devices such as disk drives, print­
ers, modems, scanners, etc. For
the IBM compatible systems MS/
DOS is required before you can use
such application programs as Lotus
123, DBASE III Plus, WordPerfect,
and others. The operating system
tell application programs how they
must function - how information
should be stored to the disk, how
information should be sent to the
printer, what disk drives are avail­
able, and other features such as
copying, deleting, formatting disks,
and backing up files. An operating
system is like a traffic cop to the
application programs instructing
them as to what can or cannot be
done.
Prior to the 1950s there were no
operating systems used with the
most sophisticated system s.
During the early 1950s General
Motors Research Laboratories
designed one of the first operating
system sforusew iththelB M 701. In
1955 with the help of North
American Aviation, General Motors
wrote an operating system for what
was at that time the most powerful
computers of that era, namely the
IBM 704. In fact, many of the early
operating systems were designed
by users, not the com puter
manufacturers.
AT&T's UNIX
operating system is another good
example of powerful operating
systems being designed by non­
computer manufacturers.
In the mid-1970s personal
computers were introduced to the
public and Digital Research
designed the CP/M operating
system for these microcomputers
In 1982 Microsoft designed the Mb/
Congratulations
Y 'p l ''-
• r. *
DOS operating system lor use in the
new 16 bit IBM PCs. During the first
six months of this introduction, IBM
PCs were established as the
stan d ard fo r the b u sin e ss
environment, this automatically
made M icrosoft and instant
success.
Soon thereafter, IBM
designed and marketed their own
operating system called PC/DOS,
which was basically the same as
MS/DOS but not precisely. You can
run into problems trying to use MS/
DOS on an IBM PC. However, you
can run PC/DOS on any 100% IBM
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The Evon G arlington Day Care Center Watch fo r upcom ing sto ry in ln »
Portland Observer.
compatible system, so there are
some internal differences between
the two operating systems.
Before you can use any of your
application programs the operating
system must first be loaded into
your computer’s memory. Usually
when you purchase your computer
you also receive a book, with the
supportive disks containing the
operating system. On these disks
(usually called the systems disk, or
boot disk) are the programs which
make up the operating system. The
computer is started by first inserting
the disk containing such programs
into your disk drive and turning your
computer on.
PORTLAND OBSERVER
"The Eyes and Ears of the Community"
288-0033
4r
V .
i'X.'-' C-s
O bserver or to T. W est a t 287-8511.
One of the world's most famous
real estate deals was completed on
Dec. 20. 1803. when more than a
million square miles of the Louisiana
Territory was purchased by the
United States from France. The
French leader Napoleon sold the land
for approximately $20 per square
mile hl
1988 PM Editorial Services
,988 PM Editorial Services
.............................. — - -
G pand
r
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vx-rc.'
A ll responses or comments max be made to the
December 19 marks the 30th anni­
versary of the first radio voice broad­
cast from space. Transmitted trom the
U S Earth satellite Atlas, the mes­
sage was a recorded Christmas greet­
ing from President Dwight D. Eisen­
hower: -To all mankind. America's
wish for peace on Earth and good
will toward men everywhere III
».
if.
A FEW GOOD M EN-As regional accounting supervisor for McDonald s
C orporation, Stephen A. Betts, left, keeps his eye on the com pany's
bottom line. And David M. Moore, center, is vice president and co­
o w n er of Q uality Croutons, whose product top s M cDonald's garden
salads. The two, however, have more in common than their McDonald's
a ffilia tio n . They recently were named by Dollars & Sense magazine
tw o of A m erica's Best and B rightest Young B usiness and Profes­
sio n al Men. Now in its second year, the "b e st" award salutes 60 of the
n atio n 's m ost talented, well-educated and h ig hly-m otivated men
between the ages of 25 and 40. Dollars and Sense pub lish e r Donald C.
W alker, right, was on hand to congratulate B etts and Moore at a
banquet held to celebrate the recipients
The PC/DOS operating system
is an area where many businesses
do not place enough emphasis.
Secretaries may know how to use
WordPerfect and not know how to
format a disk, backup files from the
harddisk to floppy disks or tape,
erase a group of files, configure the
DOS configuration file, create
subdirectories and manipulate
between them, and other operating
system features. It is vital that your
firm's personnel be trained properly
in the use of the operating system as
well as application programs. The
most efficiency of your business is
not because it uses a computer,
rather because the person who
instructs the computer knows how
to get every measure of power out of
the existing operating system as
well as the application programs.
Training should be a part of the cost
analysis study whenever your
business consider purchasing a
personal computer.
Louisiana Purchase
,
•xv’
This Dumb computer
has a mind of its o\
Christmas Greeting
o
Saluting....
To subscribí’, m il 2-I-H24O
283-9740
Tgke Qu( Qrders
open : 11 a.m.-io p.m.
230 N. Killlnqsworth • Portland, OR
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