Operating Systems - Dos Weakness

"Operating systems is the software, consisting of programs and data, that runs on computers, manages computer hardware resources, and provides common services for execution of various application software. Operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system. Without an operating system, a user cannot run an application program on their computer."

In this essay, I will be discussing the operation systems of dos, windows, and linux. The discussion will be comparing and contrasting the strengths and weakness of these systems. Also in these operating systems we will be discussing the importance of the operating systems.

DOS WEAKNESS

Dos is the foundation for all operating systems, but before I discuss dos's strengths. I would like to discuss its weakness. Some of dos's weaknesses are not having enough knowledge of how to use the computer properly for an example the Dos user interface or the monitor with all the applications is not very user friendly. Why is this you might ask? It is because the user interface does not have very many icons, pictures on the screen, or shortcuts for a person with no computer back ground to maneuverer and understand what or were to look for applications. This is why you would need to know how to properly use a computer and learn the commands to tell the computer what to do. Personally, at the being of the semester in this class I have had firsthand experience of having no earthly idea about how to use a computer or how to operate the computer properly. So, we will start with the key fundamentals first. Every computer has an on and off switch, a control panel, a prompt, which could also be dialog box or a terminal, these other versa names for a prompt. So, what is an on and off switch? The on and off switch is the button on your hard drive, it is the big tall tower next to the monitor, which turns on your computer. It also can turn off your computer, but I would not recommend this. If you go to you monitor screen and click the start button or systems, such as in Linux. You will find the off button or shut down button at the very end of the menu that pops up. You just click on the button on the computer to turn it off. The control panel is basically the control center for all the systems to the computer. A prompt is a box that pops up on your screen and lets you talk to the computer to tell it what to do. A computer command such as dos's is like learning a new language or like a baby learning how to walk. Commands can be scary but can be fun also. You are learning something new. Commands are not easy and it takes time to understand and learn there concepts. Basically, the computer commands such as dos is the language written to the computer to tell the computer what to do and how to do it. Some of dos's commands are: MD, DIR, CLS, COPY, XCOPY, DISKCOPY, TREE ect... Md makes a directory. A directory is place on the computer. Where the user, or yourself, puts information at to be used and stored. The directory is also called a file. Dir shows a listing of the directories. Cls clears the screen monitor. Copy copies files. XCOPY copies all files, folders, and subdirectories. Folders are files with in a file and subdirectories are directories with in a directory. Tree shows a listing of everything. Diskcopy copies floppy's. Floppy disks are useful in training students in how to use the computer command prompt and the computers commands together. The weakness of the floppy disks is that most modern computers today do not use floppy disk drives.

Strengths of Dos

The strengths of dos is that it's the key fundamental to all operating systems. If you can learn dos and the commands than you can use any operating system. Dos interacts with the computer by going straight to the command line to tell the computer what to do. So, it can have access to whatever it needs. Another convinces is the help command. If you get stuck, you can get a full listing of whatever you need help with. The help command can also look like this /?.

Weakness of Windows

The weakness of windows is not having allowed access to do whatever you want on the computer, scheduling tasks such as scan disk, and last but not least having Windows share the computer with another operating system. In dos the user or yourself was in control and could tell the computer what to do in Dos. In Windows, this is not the case. Yes, you can still tell to the computer what you want it to do but with limitations. Windows is basically set up for people who do not know how to use the computer or do not have an educational background in computer to be to be able to use them without harm the