[edit] Brief Description

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Description: What's an operating system?

If you are using a computer or a smart device, and you are cause otherwise there’s no way you could have landed on this page, then you must know what a operating system is. The core of a computer, an operating system is actually the interface between the user and the computer that manages thousands of applications. No matter if you are using a desktop, a laptop, a Macintosh, corporate server, a gadget, cell phone or even a wireless access point then the very first thing that pops up on your screen is the omnipresent operating system The main software program that in most of the cases comes installed with the the computer you buy, they are designed to control the operations of programs such as web browsers, word processors, email programs and many other

Short history of operating systems

In 1954 MIT developed its own and first operating system for UNIVAC 1103 and one year later General Motors made one for IBM 701 By 1960 computers still lacked an operating system. Machines loaded programs from punched paper and tape and they were set to work until the program finished its task or it crashed. The genesis of an operating system came a little bit later with libraries of support code that assisted the actual programs running. Mainframes computers had the first operating system produced by IBM, System/360 through the '60s. The core of IBMs current OSes are still distant descendants of OS/360. In 1970s midrange systems were developed, especially Unix and a commercially-popular minicomputer operating system called VMS. The microcomputer era in 1980 was shared between two big competitors, MS-DOS and Mac OS. In 1990 the Windows era began with Windows 95 being the most popular operating system. In the same decade popular Unix operating systems were FreeBsd and BeOS. Since then the most commonly used operating systems have been the Microsoft Windows family, Linux, and other Unix-like operating systems, most notably Mac OS X.

The structure of an operating system

There are three basic elements that make up the major design components of any operating system:

User interface

A user interacts with the operating system through the user interface. The user interface is the part of the operating system that can be used to issue commands by either typing them at a command prompt or pointing and clicking the mouse on a graphical user interface (GUI). Older operating systems integrated the GUI into the kernel but the modern ones have the user interface separating the graphics subsystem from the kernel (like in Linux and Mac OSX). Many operating systems allow the user to install or create any user interface they desire. The X Window System in conjunction with GNOME or KDE is a commonly found setup on most Unix and Unix derivative (BSD, Linux, Minix) systems. Graphical user interfaces evolve over time. Every time a major release of Windows the user interface for PC users is completely changed. Same for Mac users, the interface is dramatically changed with the Mac OS X launch.

Kernel

This is the core of the operating system. The kernel is responsible for loading and operating programs or processes and managing input and output.

File management system

The file management system is what the operating system uses to organize and manage files. A file is a collection of data. Virtually all of the information that a computer stores is in the form of a file. There are many types of files, including program files, data files, and text files. The way an operating system organizes information into files is called the file system. Most operating systems use a hierarchical file system, which organizes files into directories under a tree structure. The beginning of the directory system is called the root directory.

Basic Functions of operating systems

No matter what operating system you are using, how complex is your computer, the basic functions are all the same:

File and folder management

An operating system creates a file structure on the computer hard drive where the data can be stored and retrieved.

Applications management

Whenever a program is requested the operating system locates it and loads into the primary memory or RAM.

Support for built-in utility programs

The operating system comes with tools for maintenance and repairs. They identify the problem, they find lost files, repair the damaged ones and do backups for your data.

Computer hardware control

Operating systems facilitates the access of programs to the computer hardware through the BIOS and through device drivers.

Operating systems classification

Operating systems can be classified in many ways. Multiuser: when two or more users can work with programs and share peripheral devices (printer, scanner, fax)
Multitasking: multiple applications operated at the same time
Multiprocessing: more than one CPUs that can be shared
Multithreading: smaller parts of a program are loaded when needed by OS
There are also six main categories frequently used for operating systems and a seventh that's now rising called WebOS (operating systems build in your browser).

Mainframes

Mainframes run multiple operating systems and operate not as a single computer but as a number of virtual machines. They are typically manufactured by large companies for large-scale computing purposes. Most popular:

z/OS from IBM. While IBM System z™ servers are supported by a number of different operating systems, their most advanced features are powered by z/OS

Embedded systems

Embedded systems are special-purpose systems in which the computer is completely encapsulated by the device it controls. Embedded systems perform pre-defined tasks that have very specific requirements. Real-time operating systems are embedded systems with certain time requirements. Most popular:

Symbian OS for smartphones

Cisco IOS for routers and switches

iPodLinux for ipods

Unix-like operating systems

The operating system Unix was developed in 1960 by a group of AT&T employees. Free Unix-like operating systems can be used, studied, modified and redistributed by anyone with no restrictions. It's a diverse group of operating systems with several major sub-categories including BSD, and Linux. Unix like operating systems run on a variety of computers but more frequently on server systems and in academic and engineering environments due to high stability for any kind of processing

Most popular:

Even though it's quite a new comer, Ubuntu managed to take off quite fast.Currently it's the most popular Linux distribution that can compete with any proprietary operating system. The success is due to many factors but the fact that they are shipping free cds to anyone interested made it spread easily

FreeBSD Fast, high-performance and extremely stable operating system, FreeBSD derived from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It is developed and maintained by a large team of individuals. Mainly used for web serving FreeBSD has been adopted by many search engines companies and other with mission-critical tasks. It doesn't compare well with popular Linux distributions and it offers little when it comes to hardware detection or system configuration

With a nice, polished desktop environment, good system administration utility and a lot of documentation if you buy the box version, openSUSE is followed by many satisfied users. The recent partnership between its sponsor, Novell and Microsoft made some users switch distribution

Largest collaborative software project ever created, Debian is a popular Linux distribution that has been developed by more than one thousand volunteer developers and has more than 20000 packages in its repository. Being the core for more than 100 other Linux distributions, Debian has a little drawback, it has slow release cycles On ITerating you can find a list with most important Debian packages

Innovative Linux Distribution with lots of enterprise users, Fedora is sort of a test version for its mother distribution, Red Hat. Due to high-performance security features and a lot of supported packages Fedora is a very popular Linux Distro and can be easily used as a very stable and secure operating system

Mac OS

Apple's Macintosh OS is an operating system with a very innovative and unique design.It represents a rather successful coming together of paradigms, ideologies, and technologies that have usually resisted each other in the past. The history of the company behind it, Apple, that's been around since 1976 is fascinating and so is its cool operating system Mac OS

Most popular:

Latest Mac OS X version,Leopard is a new innovative operating system with more than 300 features ready to be tryed out

Microsoft Windows

Dominating the world of personal computers, Windows is the most popular operating system. We call Windows any version of Microsoft OS and besides worldwide desktop users, it's also used on enterprise servers running applications like web servers and database servers. Because of its wide market share Windows has always been a target for virus creators. Even though Microsoft spent a lot of marketing and research proving that Microsoft can run any enterprise application, Windows operating system is criticized due to security issues (malware, viruses, trojan horses, worms), product activation, and performance.

Most Popular Operating System

XP, short for "eXPerience", is by far the most popular operating system nowadays. Everyone knows about it. Grandfather or child they all heard of it. No wonder cause it's the most used operating system, we are all used to it, and we all have it. Yes it's buggy, yes it breaks, yes it's very vulnerable to threats and viruses but still everyone installs it and uses it. It seems that even Microsoft itself likes Windows XP better than it's more recent version, as Vista has a new option that says "Downgrade to XP"

Latest version of the Windows operating system ,Vista is not adopted by the majority of Microsoft users, especially the ones one older hardware, because the upgrade will implicitly mean a complete change of the PC. Besides the hardware upgrade there are still a lot of programs that requires a bit of a hack to be installed and a lot of drivers missing. Because of that, more and more companies are considering switching to Linux or Mac

WebOS

The WebOS (Web Operating System) represent a new form of virtual operating system that runs directly in your browser. The main advantages of a web operating system is that you can access it from anywhere but it's very arguable if it's really an operating system or not because it runs over a browser window and have no relation whatsoever with the hardware and its drivers. You will still need an operating system to run a WebOS. So the most accepted term is Desktop OS Most popular

Its purpose is let users work from everywhere, despite of using a full featured modern computer, a mobile gadget or a completely obsolete pc and also being able to continue your activities from another place if the current operating system crashes

Popular operating systems

According to Market Share data, in October 2007 most popular operating system was by far Windows XP followed by Mac computers and Windows Vista with smaller percents

• Windows XP 79.07%
• Windows Vista 7.91%
• MacIntel 3.41%
• Windows 2000 3.16%
• Mac OS 3.14%
• Windows 98 0.82%
• Linux 0.81%
• Windows NT 0.61%
• Windows ME 0.46%
• Pike v7.6 release 92 0.15%
• Nintendo Wii 0.11%
• Unknown 0.10%
• iPhone 0.07%
• Windows CE 0.06%
• Series60 0.03%

What operating system best suits you

Home Desktop

If you ask your mum she'll tell you to use XP because she knows it so well, you ask your geek friend he'll recommend you Linux because it's so stable, if you ask the cool designer at work , he'll tell you Mac OS cause you can build so many amazing things with it. But if you are in a phase when you wonder what Operating System suits you the best then you certainly don't ask anyone, you just ask yourself what you want and need. Here's a list of pros and cons for major operating systems:

Windows

+ Pros:

• Cumulative experience from a wide range of users worldwide makes Microsoft aware all the time of the threats, bugs vulnerabilities so updates are always there to fix your Windows version
• Always new generation of graphic capabilities with DirectX 10
• It's a very easy to install operating system with user prompt messages that help you on the way
• Easy to use, as anybody does learn quickly to figure out things
• Application support - for every program or application you can think of, the chances it's made for Windows, or has a Windows version are very high
• Gaming - Also for every game out there for sure there's a Windows version as well. And don't forget Solitaire and Minesweeper, we all played them
• The familiar look of Windows operating system, especially with Windows XP, the green and the blue makes us feel at home
• All peripherals have drivers for Windows
• Because of the amount of Microsoft Windows users and the broader driver support, Windows has a much larger support for hardware devices and a good majority of hardware manufacturers will support their products in Microsoft Windows

- Cons

• It's commercial so you have to pay money for it. Up to $330 for Windows Vista Ultimate
• Not secure: viruses, firewall breaches, adware, spywares are there to prove that. You really have to protect your computer
• Not stable: has a long crash history
• For latest Windows version, Windows Vista you need a powerful hardware configuration to make it work smoothly

Mac

+ Pros:

• The GUI is just great. With an outstanding user interface, nicer fonts, nicer icons, nicer everything Mac makes any other operating system look old
• It comes with a remote and transforms your computer a media center
• It's great for graphic designers. It inspires them, it gives them strength,it makes them better
• Lots of little things that make your experience better: like previewing with one click your docs, creating files instantly when dragging text from browsers, nearly everywhere on your computer you can look for a word in the dictionary or search it on Google
• Lots of cool gadgets and widgets that you can play with on your computer
• Because they do both hardware and software the support is great.They have to fix everything you report, they can't blame it on the software vendor or the hardware manufacturer
• With Boot Camp, you can run Windows operating system on it
• Very secure. Rarely does a mac get infected with any virus or trojan
• It's an Apple product. Everything that Apple makes you are sure to like it. Never the last such a cool operating system

- Cons

• The keyboard is different. Different than on Windows or Linux Machines. Home and end keys don't work as they expect them to work
• The mouse is different too. It's not the left and the right click. It's just one click and you wonder what to do with it
• Many games don't have a Mac version
• Lots of software products don't work on Macs

Linux

+ Pros:

• It's as free as you can get if you download it, if you order the CD online then you pay 2 dollars. If you buy some manuals then you pay a little bit more but still nobody takes Linux freedom away
• It comes with the source code so if you are a developer you might find that useful
• Stable - it's hard to crash a system with a Linux distribution on it
• Multi user and multi tasking
• Lots of forums with users ready to help if you are in a jam
• It can work with your older PCs, even with 386 processors, it only needs little ram and little storage but it can also work with big stations and high power computers
• Secure - because the code is open, there are thousand of eyes that are watching it all the time so it's hard to slip security holes in the system. Also because usually Linux runs with little privileges, it's hard for a hacker to do significant damage to your computer

- Cons

• A lot of programs don't run on Linux, especially commercial ones as you already guessed. Even though, there are free substitutes for each program that doesn't run on Linux systems
• No support. You can't call no one to complain about your operating system. You can find your issues on forums or you can pay a company to help you
• It's hard to install, learn and use. Traditionally, Linux comes with a console , a unix-like command line that takes time to learn. However, more recently Linux distributions come with a Windows like interface that makes your life easier.If the computer crashes (very rare but it can happen) it might revert to the stable interface command line only and you'll still need to know the basics
• There are hundreds of distributions and it takes time to figure out which one is the right one for you
• It comes as a package with many technical features that require patience and experience to fully understand
• If you want to install a package that's not included in you distribution repository then you need some time to make some researches in order to make it work on your computer
• Linux assumes that you are an intelligent person. If you are not then don't install it

Corporate Desktop

For corporate desktops you ask yourself if you want to use a Linux or a Windows Machines. There are pros and cons on both sides. What you should consider when deciding what you are going to use:

• Acquisition price for Linux is smaller or equal to zero. The initial investment in the software is significantly lower than with Windows. The exact amount you'll save depends on the distribution you select.
• Because Linux has its source code open your programmers can fix it or change it if something goes wrong
• The support on Linux side is mostly forums and user groups and bugs are solved quickly.
• Linux is stable and safe, it crashes very rare and it's not very vulnerable to viruses
• Windows works with all hardware configuration but Linux works with older PCs better so you can use it on cheaper hardware
• Not all programs are available for Linux, but there are alternatives. For that you might want to rethink the functionality you want
• For Linux you might need your users trained. Because Windows is widely used, everyone knows already how to use it, but for Linux switch you might need to get them prepared
• Productivity can be affected cause initially some users will have a hard time accepting any change

Servers

Server operating systems are designed to provide platforms for multi-users , for critical, network applications. Their main purpose is to provide security, stability and collaboration. Most of them come with a pack of dedicated software tools such as Web servers, e-mail agents and terminal services The common applications for server OSes are:

• File and printer sharing
• Application services (including databases)
• Web site services
• E-mail, groupware and messaging
• Terminal services
• Caching

Shared or virtual hosting usually have UNIX or Windows platform. Which one should you choose? When you have to make this decision you should take into consideration a few things:

• Administration- what tools enable you to do that and if they are easy to use
• Security - most important , hard to judge. For security FAQ you can visit W3 List.
• Stability - what's the uptime percent
• Features- you should look if it has the specific features you need
• Performance - See if the OS can run on your current hardware
• Scalability -how much can you extend it when your business grows
• TCO- The total cost
• Third-party applications - what other applications you can install if they are not already provided by the Server Operating System

Microsoft

• Designed for advanced Microsoft applications (FrontPage, Access and MS SQL)
• It offers specific programming environments such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic Scripts, and Cold Fusion
• Windows servers are available through a GUI-based remote administration packages such as PCAnywhere or through a customized control panel. These tools allow you to log into the server's desktop as chief administrator as long as you have full control over your server
• It can be more easily multiplexed and managed due to .NET technology
• It's the best choice if you want your own dedicated server
• Can be readily used as small business servers. The strength of Windows lies in the familiarity of the interface; wide support – there is a mass of third party development for the platform
• Windows hosting is complex and labor-intensive and should only be selected if a webmaster has extensive experience in maintaining Windows systems remotely and requires product/Web integration
• Significant maintenance for security resources is required (there is a history of viruses infecting IIS in particular)

Unix Platform

• A lot of hosting solutions are provided on the UNIX platform
• Specifically designed to accommodate heavy Web traffic and server loads
• Servers running on Unix are specifically designed to accommodate heavy Web traffic and server loads
• The interaction and customization is done real time from anywhere through a shell environment with a text based system
• A Unix server can be accessed from any computer with internet access, no need for expensive software
• Most UNIX systems with heavy traffic can provide 99 per cent uptime

Mac OS X

• Same interface as the Desktop Mac
• It's stable and it has a lot of features
• You must buy Apple hardware to use it
• There aren't many third party apps for it yet

Communities

Websites with user discussion on operating systems: Linux Communities

• Linux Questions
• JustLinux Forums
• Linux Forum

Mac Communities

• Mac-Forums
• Mac Os Hints
• Mac Rumors: News, Rumors and Forums

Windows Communities

• Windows IT Pro - Forum on Windows Operating System
• Windows XP Forums and Discussions |CNET
• Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum

See also

Learn more about

• Mainframes
• Web Operating Systems-More about in browser operating systems
• BSD OS
• Linux Distributions-Lots of Linux distributions with ratings and reviews
• Windows- Windows Operating Systems, top products, user reviews
• Mac OS
• Embedded Systems

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