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General discussion (archive)Ever wish that Microsoft Windows had never caught on?(86 posts)(86 posts)
(86 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 22, 2011
I used to love using DOS, but I have to admit that dragging a file from one place to another is usually a lot faster than typing out the command with a semi long destination directory/folder path.
Posted June 22, 2011
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hedwards: Fanbois much?
buhahahaaha! me? fanboy? of Msoft?

you really don't get it. Windows, OSX, Linux, whatever. reread OPs post. What if we run dos! DOS.

and yeah. if we run dos with command lines then everything i said applies. if we run something else instead my point would not be probably valid. (and i did assume that there would be a better version of dos which can handle gigabytes of ram and other crap)

baha. that's a first one. i have been called names over the net many times. but a fanboy of microsoft? or at least windows?
that's a first one.
Posted June 22, 2011
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EndlessKnight: I used to love using DOS, but I have to admit that dragging a file from one place to another is usually a lot faster than typing out the command with a semi long destination directory/folder path.
Windows' GUI searching tools only barely caught up to "dir /s filename" with Windows 7 (or maybe Vista), and then only if you're reasonably sure of where the file is and that place is indexed.
Posted June 22, 2011
No, Windows 7 is amazing. DOS was a hassle, when I was forced to use it on some old computer.
Post edited June 22, 2011 by TheCheese33
Posted June 22, 2011
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Magnitus: I think a better compromise would be to extend your little deadline to at least 20 years OR until the developers are no longer committed to supporting the product, whichever comes first.
14 years. Final offer.
Posted June 22, 2011
It surprises me (though it shouldn't) that so many people don't realise that GUIs existed years before DOS did.
Posted June 22, 2011
Microsoft did really good things with Windows in the 'dumbing down' of Windows since it allowed more development to occur on the platform. If it was restricted to hobbyists like us then the progress would be much slower since the barrier of entry would be so high.

Not to mention Macs would be the main OS if Windows never showed up and that is the last thing I want.
Post edited June 22, 2011 by Whiteblade999
Posted June 22, 2011
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Poulscath: It surprises me (though it shouldn't) that so many people don't realise that GUIs existed years before DOS did.
Xerox 8010 Star Information System fanboy!
Posted June 22, 2011
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Whiteblade999: Not to mention Macs would be the main OS if Windows never showed up and that is the last thing I want.
This I agree with.
Posted June 22, 2011
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hedwards: Fanbois much?
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lukaszthegreat: buhahahaaha! me? fanboy? of Msoft?

you really don't get it. Windows, OSX, Linux, whatever. reread OPs post. What if we run dos! DOS.
Upon rereading it, I think you're right that I misread it. The internet provides way too little in the way of context if you miss a portion of post or get the reference wrong.

Although, most of what you posted was in my opinion wrong. But, as that requires time machine games, it's hard to say how things would have gone.

There have been web browsers without need for a windowing system. And with the advent of higher resolution displays, there's no reason why we couldn't be watching youtube and the web from DOS, other than the fact that they moved to Windows rather than updating DOS to either 32 or 64 bits.

And few people used incompatible versions of DOS for any sort of serious work, usually that was a vendor supplied boot disk as it didn't need to be completely compatible, just in the areas that count.
Posted June 22, 2011
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Whiteblade999: Macs would be the main OS if Windows never showed up and that is the last thing I want.
True. It is possible the Mac OS would not be as innovative if it didn't always have Windows nipping at it's coattails. :P
Posted June 22, 2011
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Thiev: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)]Logo[/url].
:P
Covers are going to take a little bit longer with this . . . =)
Posted June 22, 2011
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TheCheese33: No, Windows 7 is amazing. DOS was a hassle, when I was forced to use it on some old computer.
Windows 7 is meh, I've been using it for a week or so now, and have yet to find any sign of innovation or any features that make me go wow. DOS OTOH was pretty bad at the time, it mainly took off because IBM needed an OS that would actually run on commodity hardware. UNIX at the time was actually pretty amazing having benefited greatly from many years of development on better equipment.

DOS had some serious issues which MS never bothered to fix. I don't think they ever bothered to fix the bug which would eat all your data if you accidentally typed del . which would end up corrupting the entire partition.

I liked DOS a lot better before I got exposed to what a proper CLI can do, the DOS shell that they provided was pretty pathetic compared with the ones available for UNIX at the time.
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Whiteblade999: Macs would be the main OS if Windows never showed up and that is the last thing I want.
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Darling_Jimmy: True. It is possible the Mac OS would not be as innovative if it didn't always have Windows nipping at it's coattails. :P
And unfortunately, there's only so much stuff you can steal from PARC before people catch wind of it.
Post edited June 22, 2011 by hedwards
Posted June 22, 2011
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boct1584: I find myself thinking that a world where computers still ran on DOS would be nice occasionally, because it would mean that basic computer literacy would be required in order to use computers instead of having Windows do everything for you, allowing any moron to use it.

Opponents of this line of thinking proclaim that since Windows made computers so much more accessible, if it had never caught on, computers would never have become as ubiquitous as they have.

What do you guys think?
Letting any moron use it = $$ and that how a free economy rolls
Posted June 22, 2011
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Poulscath: It surprises me (though it shouldn't) that so many people don't realise that GUIs existed years before DOS did.
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Darling_Jimmy: Xerox 8010 Star Information System fanboy!
And Smalltalk-76 which was even earlier :)
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)Ever wish that Microsoft Windows had never caught on?(86 posts)(86 posts)
(86 posts)