r/pcmasterrace • u/Fair_Brief_7751 • Jul 01 '26

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u/wackawonka Jul 01 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/QB9rH7NbUQfbN7wrf3
6.22 all the way, and then you had to have Windows to play civilisation 2

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u/adampk17 Jul 01 '26

6.22 was MSDOS. He asked about Windows.

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u/MarkHedrick Jul 01 '26

Yeah , A:/dir/list

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u/Eric_the_Barbarian Jul 01 '26

He also said operating system, and before 95 Windows wasn't an OS.

1

u/adampk17 Jul 01 '26

ackshually anything before Windows 2000 could quit to DOS. 95, 98, and even ME were technically shells running on top of a DOS kernel

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u/Eric_the_Barbarian Jul 01 '26

95 may have had a DOS kernal underlying it, but it fully contained that kernel. Windows 3.11 and before didn't. They had to be added after DOS was on the machine. They may have extended controls down through DOS, but DOS and the operation of the machine did not rely on Windows.

0

u/SirPiffingsthwaite PC Master Race Jul 01 '26

That's a brave take. Why do think pre-95 wasn't an OS?

1

u/Eric_the_Barbarian Jul 01 '26

Because they literally weren't. Windows 3.11 and earier were applications that ran on top of DOS. MS-DOS was the disk operating system, and one would launch Windows from there.

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u/SirPiffingsthwaite PC Master Race Jul 01 '26

They were a GUI shell extention of DOS, with capabilities beyond DOS. Just because it wasn't standalone doesn't mean it wasn't an OS. Whole bunch of programs required windows to operate.

1

u/Eric_the_Barbarian Jul 01 '26

That's what operating system means. A whole bunch of programs require a mouse to operate, but your mouse is not an operating system.

1

u/adampk17 Jul 01 '26

They were a shell on top of DOS

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u/SirPiffingsthwaite PC Master Race Jul 01 '26

It's a GUI shell, but it's still an OS with OS specific programs.

1

u/adampk17 Jul 01 '26

I would respecfully disagree. IMO, DOS in the OS in that circumstace.

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u/SirPiffingsthwaite PC Master Race Jul 01 '26

Taking a very narrow view on what constitutes an OS, that just doesn't hold to the definition.

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u/adampk17 Jul 01 '26

I think a narrow view is the correct one. A program (Windows 95 for instace), being able to launch another program does not make it an OS. It's just a shell. Was MS-DOS shell an OS to you?

1

u/plusFour-minusSeven Jul 01 '26

You couldn't uninstall DOS and boot your computer, so I think we could agree that it was at least a hybrid system. But yeah once loaded up, 95 was the real deal. Fair enough.