I miss DOS

[SuperDemocrat]

I know DOS was a pain sometimes but it did force people to actually learn something about a computer in order for them to use it. There was just something about it that required you to have working knowledge of your computer in order to get it to work. Now we have windows type operating systems which require us to know jack shit about the computer. Now people are even stupider than before with them because if it ain't point and click then people don't figure it out.

 

[IsaacNewton]

And even using a mouse is too much for many now. New websites have been turned into minimalist nonsense. You go to a website and they have large pictures of what they want to show you and no way to see a list or search for what you are looking for. They force you to spend ridiculous amounts of time looking through their random selection of pictures. Honestly it is like the web has been dumbed down to a 7th grade level. A picture book for children that can't read.

I think a Graphical User Interface is fine, but I agree that DOS should still be front and center when needed. Windows has buried most of that stuff and you have to do a Where's Waldo search to find most of it. And don't expect this to get anything but worse. Millenials aren't suddenly going to start wanting to 'learn' something. They want it presented on a silver platter with big pictues. I think the smart phone is turning herds of people into semi-illiterates.

 

[Asclepias]

Get Linux. Its basically DOS on steroids.

 

[Asclepias]

And even using a mouse is too much for many now. New websites have been turned into minimalist nonsense. You go to a website and they have large pictures of what they want to show you and no way to see a list or search for what you are looking for. They force you to spend ridiculous amounts of time looking through their random selection of pictures. Honestly it is like the web has been dumbed down to a 7th grade level. A picture book for children that can't read.

I think a Graphical User Interface is fine, but I agree that DOS should still be front and center when needed. Windows has buried most of that stuff and you have to do a Where's Waldo search to find most of it. And don't expect this to get anything but worse. Millenials aren't suddenly going to start wanting to 'learn' something. They want it presented on a silver platter with big pictues. I think the smart phone is turning herds of people into semi-illiterates.

You cant access the cmd line in windows anymore?

 

[Ringel05]

And even using a mouse is too much for many now. New websites have been turned into minimalist nonsense. You go to a website and they have large pictures of what they want to show you and no way to see a list or search for what you are looking for. They force you to spend ridiculous amounts of time looking through their random selection of pictures. Honestly it is like the web has been dumbed down to a 7th grade level. A picture book for children that can't read.

I think a Graphical User Interface is fine, but I agree that DOS should still be front and center when needed. Windows has buried most of that stuff and you have to do a Where's Waldo search to find most of it. And don't expect this to get anything but worse. Millenials aren't suddenly going to start wanting to 'learn' something. They want it presented on a silver platter with big pictues. I think the smart phone is turning herds of people into semi-illiterates.

You cant access the cmd line in windows anymore?

Yes, you can. The "terminal" for Windows is now Powershell.

 

[Ringel05]

I know DOS was a pain sometimes but it did force people to actually learn something about a computer in order for them to use it. There was just something about it that required you to have working knowledge of your computer in order to get it to work. Now we have windows type operating systems which require us to know jack shit about the computer. Now people are even stupider than before with them because if it ain't point and click then people don't figure it out.

Computers would still be for professionals and hobbyists only if DOS (long dead) was the primary interface as most users don't want a clue, they just want it to work for them.

 

[SuperDemocrat]

And even using a mouse is too much for many now. New websites have been turned into minimalist nonsense. You go to a website and they have large pictures of what they want to show you and no way to see a list or search for what you are looking for. They force you to spend ridiculous amounts of time looking through their random selection of pictures. Honestly it is like the web has been dumbed down to a 7th grade level. A picture book for children that can't read.

I think a Graphical User Interface is fine, but I agree that DOS should still be front and center when needed. Windows has buried most of that stuff and you have to do a Where's Waldo search to find most of it. And don't expect this to get anything but worse. Millenials aren't suddenly going to start wanting to 'learn' something. They want it presented on a silver platter with big pictues. I think the smart phone is turning herds of people into semi-illiterates.

I think millennials just kind of grew up with the gui and have no idea what a command prompt is. It isn't their fault but I've notice that even with old users they have forgotten the basics of the computer such as knowing what a .exe file is. Seriously!

The good thing about DOS like systems is that they are stable and don't bog down the computer. The bad thing is that the graphics in DOS is kind of lacking so there is good and bad with them.

 

[SuperDemocrat]

And even using a mouse is too much for many now. New websites have been turned into minimalist nonsense. You go to a website and they have large pictures of what they want to show you and no way to see a list or search for what you are looking for. They force you to spend ridiculous amounts of time looking through their random selection of pictures. Honestly it is like the web has been dumbed down to a 7th grade level. A picture book for children that can't read.

I think a Graphical User Interface is fine, but I agree that DOS should still be front and center when needed. Windows has buried most of that stuff and you have to do a Where's Waldo search to find most of it. And don't expect this to get anything but worse. Millenials aren't suddenly going to start wanting to 'learn' something. They want it presented on a silver platter with big pictues. I think the smart phone is turning herds of people into semi-illiterates.

You cant access the cmd line in windows anymore?

Yes, you can. The "terminal" for Windows is now Powershell.

They have cmd.exe still. Is that powershell?

 

[miketx]

I started out on DOS and was a programmer for a while on the side. People were always trying to hack my code and delete stuff, so I learned a really cool way to prevent MOST people from deleting a file. Just rename the file to it's original name and and append ASCII character 255 to the end of the file name. Ascii 255 is invisible and will drive them nuts!

 

[Ringel05]

And even using a mouse is too much for many now. New websites have been turned into minimalist nonsense. You go to a website and they have large pictures of what they want to show you and no way to see a list or search for what you are looking for. They force you to spend ridiculous amounts of time looking through their random selection of pictures. Honestly it is like the web has been dumbed down to a 7th grade level. A picture book for children that can't read.

I think a Graphical User Interface is fine, but I agree that DOS should still be ont and center when needed. Windows has buried most of that stuff and you have to do a Where's Waldo search to find most of it. And don't expect this to get anything but worse. Millenials aren't suddenly going to start wanting to 'learn' something. They want it presented on a silver platter with big pictues. I think the smart phone is turning herds of people into semi-illiterates.

You cant access the cmd line in windows anymore?

Yes, you can. The "terminal" for Windows is now Powershell.

They have cmd.exe still. Is that powershell?

Yeah, cmd is still there for the ancients to use. Powershell is much more powerful, you can do more with it, it's basically based of the UNIX concept to some degree but different because Windows is not a document based system.

 

[IsaacNewton]

Colbert was talking about DOD computers last night. The computer that controls all of the US's nuclear codes and missiles is an IBM built in 1976.

'Da fuq?

 

[Asclepias]

Colbert was talking about DOD computers last night. The computer that controls all of the US's nuclear codes and missiles is an IBM built in 1976.

'Da fuq?

I cant imagine that is true.

 

[IsaacNewton]

Colbert was talking about DOD computers last night. The computer that controls all of the US's nuclear codes and missiles is an IBM built in 1976.

'Da fuq?

I cant imagine that is true.

I didn't think it could be true either but it is. The DOD uses a computer that uses 8" floppy discs to control our nuclear arsenal.

Report: US Defense still uses floppy disks in nuclear program

 

[Asclepias]

Colbert was talking about DOD computers last night. The computer that controls all of the US's nuclear codes and missiles is an IBM built in 1976.

'Da fuq?

I cant imagine that is true.

I didn't think it could be true either but it is. The DOD uses a computer that uses 8" floppy discs to control our nuclear arsenal.

Report: US Defense still uses floppy disks in nuclear program

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that possibly being true. I was in the military and my background is in the IT field. i've worked with the DOD on projects and their systems are more than just up to date.

 

[IsaacNewton]

I agree it seems pretty odd.

I think a modern cell phone could replace that whole system now.

 

[Ringel05]

Colbert was talking about DOD computers last night. The computer that controls all of the US's nuclear codes and missiles is an IBM built in 1976.

'Da fuq?

I cant imagine that is true.

It's not, it's annual budget prep time..........

 

[ogibillm]

no. screwing around for hours to load everything into hi or extended mem so i could squeeze everything out of the 640k of conventional memory to get the newest wing commander to run.

screw you config.sys
screw you autoexec.bat
screw you mscdex.exe
screw you mouse.bat
screw you himem.sys

 

[SuperDemocrat]

no. screwing around for hours to load everything into hi or extended mem so i could squeeze everything out of the 640k of conventional memory to get the newest wing commander to run.

screw you config.sys
screw you autoexec.bat
screw you mscdex.exe
screw you mouse.bat
screw you himem.sys

You have point there but couldn't DOS just be upgraded to treat all memory the same? I don't think it is a problem with the command prompt but more of a problem with lack of development for the OS.

I do remember doing all of that shit for Wing Commander. That is why Wing Commander on SUperNES was better.

 

[SuperDemocrat]

Colbert was talking about DOD computers last night. The computer that controls all of the US's nuclear codes and missiles is an IBM built in 1976.

'Da fuq?

I cant imagine that is true.

I didn't think it could be true either but it is. The DOD uses a computer that uses 8" floppy discs to control our nuclear arsenal.

Report: US Defense still uses floppy disks in nuclear program

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that possibly being true. I was in the military and my background is in the IT field. i've worked with the DOD on projects and their systems are more than just up to date.

Sometimes reliability becomes an issue with upgrades. Do you remember how well Windows 7 worked but then it stopped working when they upgraded everything? That could happen with the nukes so they leave it as it is. I hate to see "Would you like to reinstall" window appear during a time when we have to use them. It is a miracle computers don't accidentally crash right when we need them the most such as having to launch the space shuttle.

 

[ogibillm]

no. screwing around for hours to load everything into hi or extended mem so i could squeeze everything out of the 640k of conventional memory to get the newest wing commander to run.

screw you config.sys
screw you autoexec.bat
screw you mscdex.exe
screw you mouse.bat
screw you himem.sys

You have point there but couldn't DOS just be upgraded to treat all memory the same? I don't think it is a problem with the command prompt but more of a problem with lack of development for the OS.

all versions of ms-dos were limited to 640k of conventional memory. i do think 6.0 made the ems/xms better, but that might just be poor recollection.

I do remember doing all of that shit for Wing Commander. That is why Wing Commander on SUperNES was better.

blasphemy!