When did Microsoft acquire 86-DOS and rename it to MS-DOS?
Microsoft purchased 86-DOS 1.10 in July 1981 after hiring Tim Paterson in May 1981. The company kept the original version number but renamed the product MS-DOS before licensing it to IBM.
Questions about MS-DOS
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What features did MS-DOS 2.0 introduce when it arrived in October 1983?
MS-DOS 2.0 became the first release to support double-sided 360 KB 5.25-inch floppy disks. It also introduced user-installable device drivers and a tree-structure filing system.
Why did Digital Research lose sales of DR-DOS 5.0 compared to MS-DOS 5.0?
Sales of DR-DOS dropped significantly after Microsoft announced the pending release of MS-DOS 5.0 in May 1990. Actual sales resumed only after MS-DOS 5.0 shipped in June 1991, and later releases were killed by pre-announcements from Microsoft.
How did Windows 95 change the role of MS-DOS as a boot loader?
With the release of Windows 95, the role of MS-DOS was reduced to that of a boot loader according to Microsoft. Version 7.0 appeared inside Windows 95's first retail release and contained support for VFAT long file names.
When did Microsoft declare all versions of MS-DOS 6.22 and older obsolete?
Microsoft declared all versions of MS-DOS 6.22 and older obsolete on the 31st of December 2001. Support ended when Windows 95 extended support concluded on that same date.