To invoke Dired, do C-x d or M-x dired. The command reads a directory name or wildcard file name pattern as a minibuffer argument to specify which files to list. Where dired differs from list-directory is in putting the buffer into Dired mode so that the special commands of Dired are available.
The variable dired-listing-switches specifies the options to give to ls for listing directory; this string must contain -l. If you use a numeric prefix argument with the dired command, you can specify the ls switches with the minibuffer before you enter the directory specification.
To display the Dired buffer in another window rather than in the selected window, use C-x 4 d (dired-other-window) instead of C-x d. C-x 5 d (dired-other-frame) uses a separate frame to display the Dired buffer.