🚀 go-pugleaf

Psychoboy (mcr...@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
> Is Microsoft Windows 95 a true, real operating system?

This is totally subjective.

> Now, of course, this question has many loose ends, so I'll try to 
> set the variables.  Now, a lot of people think Windows 3.xx is an 
> operating system.  Well, it isn't...for most people, MS-DOS is.  Windows 
> 3.xx is, in essence, just a shell that will run a WIDE variety of 
> programs.  But it in itself is a program...a program run by DOS, which is 
> the operating system.  Disk Operating System...without it, or enough of 

While I would not QUITE call Windows 3 a true operating system, it is 
MUCH more than a shell (I know this from experience programming in 
Windows). It handles close to 100% of graphics, interface, sound, etc. 
that DOS programs must do for themselves.

> place you'd end up is in your setup, in your ROM.  DOS controls your 
> computer...it pretty much IS your computer.  So with this said, is 
> Windows 95 a shell, or a real operating system? Is it loaded from DOS? Do 
> you exit from it, or is it a real OS...like a graphical DOS?  I am 
> severely confused on this matter.  Where does DOS 7 come in? If Windows 
> 95 is a true OS, DOS 7 would be just a shell to run DOS programs, right? 
> Unless Windows 95 can run DOS programs some other way.  Please...someone 
> help me.  Thank you for any responses in advance.

One thing most people here seem to be missing is that nobody that's not a
programmer communicates directly with the OS. For example, you don't use
DOS; you use command.com, which uses DOS for you. I don't have much
experience with Win95, but I'd guess that Win95 and DOS 7 are the same 
thing, and you don't quit Windows, you merely switch from the graphical 
interface to the text interface, just as you can do with OS/2 or Windows 
NT, which nobody here has yet suggester are not real OSs.

Also, in a response to an earlier suggestion that Win95 is not a real OS 
because you can run the graphical shell from the command-line shell using 
"win", I have to ask this: Why shouldn't "win" be the new command to 
switch to the graphical shell? It's certainly what most people would expect.

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