The paper summarizes basic results on the development of differential absorption lidar (DIAL) systems with homemade laser sources that have been carried out at the Institute of Atmospheric Optics SB RAS, Siberian Physical-Technical Institute, Institute of Optical Monitoring SB RAS, and Radio-Physical Department of Tomsk State University since 1974. Field tests of lidar gas analyzers and measurements of the gas composition of the atmosphere are presented.