ncmark wrote:

A serious question....if you were studying computers with the intention of a job or possibly a degree later down the road, what is worth learning? I have lots of old DOS books and programming languages, and yes you can learn a lot about how computers really work that way, but how useful is that knowledge really??

I wouldn't study DOS to the extreme if you are doing a Computer Science degree, but any knowledge from the past will make your life easier.

They are also cheap to just muck around which is especially useful if you are working on any certifications like A+ or Network+.

You might run into it occasionally in legacy systems - it'll probably be niche uses though.

I think a lot of old Point of Sale terminals run DOS - newer ones, not so much. The software we use to compute meteor trajectories is an old DOS program developed by Czech meteor physicists.

You would probably be much better off learning the ins and outs of Linux or a similar Unix-based OS rather than DOS.

I once presented an article called "Downgrade and Abandonware" on a scientific conference. The main topic of the conference was linguistics, the section was called "Word formation".

I spoke about old hardware and software, why people get interested in it and how/why the words "downgrade" and "abandonware" appeared. Didn't go much further. You can see the full text here (although I'm not sure if anybody cares): http://www.phantom.sannata.ru/konkurs/2011/kt1108.shtml

As any aspect of modern culture, this can be worth studying. The topic itself is rather ineresting, but I doubt anyone can squeeze a Phd out of it.

I have always fooled around with programming with the idea of a second career ... but I am not sure the jobs are there like they used to be.

I know people at school with degrees in computer gaming and are answering phones at the help desk.....

It depends where you would end up working at and what industry. A lot of older companies in the US and EU are still operating older factories that are still using older equipment such as cnc machines that still run only on dos. The main reason is due to the very high expense of replacing it and lost income from not meeting contracts plus it can add up into the millions for some. Aerospace companies and organizations such as nasa still have to maintain older machines in order to keep compatibility, even pre ms dos era still kicking here and there a little but not much.

ncmark wrote:

I have always fooled around with programming with the idea of a second career ... but I am not sure the jobs are there like they used to be.

I know people at school with degrees in computer gaming and are answering phones at the help desk.....

That is why I didn't bother with game dev but for only one semester. Having second thoughts about the value of continuing Cisco and network admin.

I’m not sure what my job is as I get e new title with each new job! “(outsourced) IT guy” seems to follow me so maybe that? Basically something IT-ish doesn’t work I come and fix it

So from my experience
Old hardware sticks around till it breaks so I think basic knowledge is worth it within reason.
Last month I came across a P2 or P3 with a TNT AGP and ISA sound (keeping my eye on that)!
You still need to know about Primary, secondary IDE, basic things like that. But anything beyond basic things like that just google it.

Software side Vista and anything later killed dos commands off with powerscript plus add group policy and even batch files are becoming more rare, and if you do need them you can always google how to do that too!

dos used to be good for low level boot disks for troubleshooting remote installs, etc but that’s Linux’s area now

I think 1 or 2 more waves of “old school” techies are needed to see out the older technology, Already some of the younger guys I work with don’t really understand Exchange 03 way of things They have only really seen 07 or above! 😳
Everything is going 64bit, or “cloud” based both of which is actually a bigger change behind the scenes then people realise.

But then again I learnt basic Novell but really I wouldn’t be able to support it. I only been to one customer that used it. But the older guys (5 years difference) still talk about “the good ol days”

As for the job that’s changed big time. I miss the days the techies had at least some say in what equipment was brought.
I spend a lot of time now doing reactive support as the customer will go out get the new “In” hardware like Mac’s smart phones etc without telling us, then it’s our fault it doesn’t work properly or complain when we tell them they need to pay to upgrade the server side of things as well.

Classic one was they decided to go cloud based signed contracts and all without telling us. That’s great but they had no way of getting their Blackberry server on the cloud, yeh that’s our fault apparently?

I have SO many thoughts on this. First, I seriously question how much a degree really gives you. I picked up a book they were using at school on gaming design... and it was stuff like decide what kind of game you want, decide what kind of characters you want, etc..... very little actual code, very little on actual geometry, transformations, etc... what do you expect people to learn from this?????? I think that there is a huge gap between people who can "tinker" with code (like me) versus those who actually know enough to get something done. And I think it has all become so advanced and specialized now... the days are over when any one person could create a game. Now it takes a team of developers years to bring something like that to completion.

ncmark wrote:

the days are over when any one person could create a game. Now it takes a team of developers years to bring something like that to completion.

Heck, no! It happens all the time. It can take years and years and years of work, though, and a lot of people just can't stick with it.

Check out all the indie games available on Steam. The dream is still alive! 😉

in the real world, you'll still be dealing with systems up to 10 years old... you'll run into software issues that requires you to go into the command prompt in windows, which requires DOS skills... you will need to understand file systems when managing storage... when troubleshooting hardware, you still need to know IRQs, DMAs, I/O ports, etc on a very limited basis... good grasp of knowledge of legacy PC hardware allows you to quickly troubleshoot modern PC hardware because even after 30 years, PCs still have many things that are in the hardware that have functionality/ties with the original IBM PC... why do you think many software and some hardware are still backwards compatible?

for one thing, this knowledge helps you get an A+ certification easier 😀

all in all, knowing DOS and old school hardware is a good start
too many younguns these days know nothing about the deep down dirty guts of a PC

TheMAN wrote:

in the real world, you'll still be dealing with systems up to 10 years old

Ten years old these days is Windows XP. 😜 Encountering older stuff depends entirely on what field you're working in – and anything that's still in use after all this time is probably either better not messed with, or isn't going to be easily fixed if it goes kaput.

RacoonRider wrote:

I spoke about old hardware and software, why people get interested in it and how/why the words "downgrade" and "abandonware" appeared. Didn't go much further. You can see the full text here (although I'm not sure if anybody cares): http://www.phantom.sannata.ru/konkurs/2011/kt1108.shtml

Nice quick reading however i spoted an error:

• Mind-blownig games!

😉

Back in my C64/128 and Amiga days I would hack around in copy protection methods and schemes, moreso to learn how they worked then to really do much more then that.

Cracked a few of them too but again was more about how 6502 and 68k Machine Code worked for me.

I still have my copy of DOS for Dummies by Dan Gookin. I usually keep it near my wedding photo album, bible, and DeLorean repair manual. You know, the important books... 😉

Jorpho wrote:

TheMAN wrote:

in the real world, you'll still be dealing with systems up to 10 years old

Ten years old these days is Windows XP. 😜 Encountering older stuff depends entirely on what field you're working in – and anything that's still in use after all this time is probably either better not messed with, or isn't going to be easily fixed if it goes kaput.

systems from 10 years ago still had a lot of legacy hardware
even with XP, believe it or not, there's many advanced things you can't do in control panel... you have to do it from the command line!

And what did you have in mind?