DOS: am I crazy for missing it?

[Neverhoodian]

I miss using DOS (though I still kind of use it thanks to DOSBox). Yes it was clunky and inefficient, but that was part of its charm in a way. I think it helped foster good typing habits and intellectual stimulation.

In this day and age of user-friendly graphical interfaces, sometimes it feels like folks have become lazy when using computers. For example, your typical Youtube or Facebook comment is often plagued with spelling and grammatical errors. You couldn't be that careless when using DOS. The program required that you concentrate and type every command out exactly as ordered. Moreover, I felt interacting with a computer via DOS was more "intimate" than modern interfaces. By going through the process in a step-by-step fashion, you got a better "feel" for how computers operate than through a few simple mouse clicks.

What are your thoughts? Am I crazy for thinking this, or do you agree?

 

[DeadlyYellow]

For example, your typical Youtube or Facebook comment is often plagued with spelling and grammatical errors.

That in itself could be moderately excusable given the particular offense.

Until you remember that those services OFFER A FUCKING SPELLCHECK.

Personally I don't miss the old DOS system. Never had to use it extensively, and it's getting annoying having to refresh my memory of command prompts every time I come across something that needs it.

 

[Antari]

I miss using DOS (though I still kind of use it thanks to DOSBox). Yes it was clunky and inefficient, but that was part of its charm in a way. I think it helped foster good typing habits and intellectual stimulation.

In this day and age of user-friendly graphical interfaces, sometimes it feels like folks have become lazy when using computers. For example, your typical Youtube or Facebook comment is often plagued with spelling and grammatical errors. You couldn't be that careless when using DOS. The program required that you concentrate and type every command out exactly as ordered. Moreover, I felt interacting with a computer via DOS was more "intimate" than modern interfaces. By going through the process in a step-by-step fashion, you got a better "feel" for how computers operate than through a few simple mouse clicks.

What are your thoughts? Am I crazy for thinking this, or do you agree?

Well if your crazy for it. I am too. I don't think we are though.

 

[Ranorak]

Dos had it's charms, no doubt.
But I think it would get really old, really fast.

 

[kurupt87]

Get linux on your comp, that should satisfy your crazy urges.

It's the same with anything that is adapted so that it is able to be used easily by anyone; catering to the lowest common denominator is inherent in that process.

In this case though, I think ease of use wins out over accomplishment for doing something technical. Computers do so much now that having to use command line codes to do it all would be extremely tiresome.

 

[Gxas]

I do miss DOS. I also miss my windows 3.1 computer. Hell, I miss when windows was just a DOS shell.

You're not alone, brother!

 

[Lukeje]

Yeah, you definitely need to try a flavour of linux.

Get linux on your comp, that should satisfy your crazy urges.

It's the same with anything that is adapted so that it is able to be used easily by anyone; catering to the lowest common denominator is inherent in that process.

In this case though, I think ease of use wins out over accomplishment for doing something technical. Computers do so much now that having to use command line codes to do it all would be extremely tiresome.

The command line actually reduces the amount of work you have to do. Sure, if you're typing it all in by hand then it will take an age. This is where the concept of scripting comes in. You can replace many commands with just one script. This is something one can't do with an entirely GUI based environment. You have to keep doing the same repetitive clicking again and again.

 

[PettingZOOPONY]

Still have it running on a old x386 machine so I can play my my DOS games.

 

[Samwise137]

I use both DOSBox and the windows command line all the time. I miss DOS like crazy. You're not alone man.

 

[Jfswift]

Dos was just fun because you could easily tamper with and tweak the computers settings (or maybe I just like typing).