Computer Operating Systems

By: Tanzeel Niazi
Almost all computers including handheld computers, desktop computers, supercomputers and video game consoles use an operating system of some type. If you have installed Windows Vista or Windows XP on your system then I am quite sure most of you will have no idea about Operating Systems.  This is not your fault because Microsoft Windows operating systems covers almost 90% of the PC market.   Operating System (OS) is an interface between the hardware and the user and is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and sharing of resources of the computer. Following are different types of Operating Systems:

Microsoft Windows

Recently Microsoft has released Windows 7 as their latest Windows operating system. Microsoft Windows is a family of proprietary operating systems, meaning that you can not modify or distribute it. When you use Windows Operating system you have some limitations at your side. Microsoft Windows holds a large amount of the worldwide desktop computing market share. It is also used on servers, supporting applications such as web servers and database servers. In recent years, Microsoft has spent significant marketing, research & development money to demonstrate that Windows is capable of running any enterprise application. The most widely used version of the Microsoft Windows family is Windows XP, released on October 25, 2001.

UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems

UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs. Today the term UNIX is used to describe any operating system that conforms to UNIX standards; meaning that the core operating system operates the same as the original UNIX operating system.

The term "Unix-like" is commonly used to refer to a large set of operating systems which resemble the original UNIX. Unix-like systems run on a wide variety of machine architectures. They are used heavily as servers in business, as well as workstations in academic and engineering environments. Free UNIX variants, such as GNU Linux and BSD, are popular in this area.

Linux OS

Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer Operating Systems based on the Linux kernel. Its development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed, both commercially and non-commercially, by anyone under the terms of the GNU GPL and other free software licenses.

Linux is predominantly known for its use in servers, although can be installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from embedded devices , mobile phones and even some watches to supercomputers. Linux distributions, installed on both desktop and laptop computers, have become increasingly commonplace in recent years. In short, Linux has become an operating system that can be run almost anywhere by almost anyone.

Mac OS

Mac OS is of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Mac OS was first introduced in 1984 with the original Macintosh, usually referred as the System software. Early versions of Mac OS were compatible only with Motorola based Macintoshes but Mac OS X, has superseded the "Classic" Mac OS and is compatible with both PowerPC and Intel processors.

Online OS

Besides of above mentioned Operating Systems there are some online Operating Systems that are browser dependant meaning that when you close the web browser operating systems disappears. Glide OS, OOS and webX are a few examples of online Operating systems.

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