| Almost all computers including handheld | | | | variety of machine architectures. They are used |
| computers, desktop computers, supercomputers | | | | heavily as servers in business, as well as |
| and video game consoles use an operating | | | | workstations in academic and engineering |
| system of some type. If you have installed | | | | environments. Free UNIX variants, such as GNU |
| Windows Vista or Windows XP on your system | | | | Linux and BSD, are popular in this area. |
| then I am quite sure most of you will have no | | | | Linux OS |
| idea about Operating Systems. This is not your | | | | Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like |
| fault because Microsoft Windows operating | | | | computer Operating Systems based on the Linux |
| systems covers almost 90% of the PC | | | | kernel. Its development is one of the most |
| market. Operating System (OS) is an interface | | | | prominent examples of free and open source |
| between the hardware and the user and is | | | | software collaboration; typically all the source code |
| responsible for the management and coordination | | | | can be used, freely modified, and redistributed, |
| of activities and sharing of resources of the | | | | both commercially and non-commercially, by |
| computer. Following are different types of | | | | anyone under the terms of the GNU GPL and |
| Operating Systems: | | | | other free software licenses. |
| Microsoft Windows | | | | Linux is predominantly known for its use in |
| Recently Microsoft has released Windows 7 as | | | | servers, although can be installed on a wide |
| their latest Windows operating system. Microsoft | | | | variety of computer hardware, ranging from |
| Windows is a family of proprietary operating | | | | embedded devices , mobile phones and even |
| systems, meaning that you can not modify or | | | | some watches to supercomputers. Linux |
| distribute it. When you use Windows Operating | | | | distributions, installed on both desktop and laptop |
| system you have some limitations at your side. | | | | computers, have become increasingly |
| Microsoft Windows holds a large amount of the | | | | commonplace in recent years. In short, Linux has |
| worldwide desktop computing market share. It is | | | | become an operating system that can be run |
| also used on servers, supporting applications such | | | | almost anywhere by almost anyone. |
| as web servers and database servers. In recent | | | | Mac OS |
| years, Microsoft has spent significant marketing, | | | | Mac OS is of graphical user interface-based |
| research & development money to demonstrate | | | | operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for |
| that Windows is capable of running any enterprise | | | | their Macintosh line of computer systems. The |
| application. The most widely used version of the | | | | Mac OS was first introduced in 1984 with the |
| Microsoft Windows family is Windows XP, | | | | original Macintosh, usually referred as the System |
| released on October 25, 2001. | | | | software. Early versions of Mac OS were |
| UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems | | | | compatible only with Motorola based Macintoshes |
| UNIX is a computer operating system originally | | | | but Mac OS X, has superseded the "Classic" Mac |
| developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T | | | | OS and is compatible with both PowerPC and Intel |
| employees at Bell Labs. Today the term UNIX is | | | | processors. |
| used to describe any operating system that | | | | Online OS |
| conforms to UNIX standards; meaning that the | | | | Besides of above mentioned Operating Systems |
| core operating system operates the same as the | | | | there are some online Operating Systems that |
| original UNIX operating system. | | | | are browser dependant meaning that when you |
| The term "Unix-like" is commonly used to refer to | | | | close the web browser operating systems |
| a large set of operating systems which resemble | | | | disappears. Glide OS, OOS and webX are a few |
| the original UNIX. Unix-like systems run on a wide | | | | examples of online Operating systems. |