List of Operating System

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Operating Systems List: Overview

An Operating System is a software program that acts as an interface between the hardware, the application software, and the users, managing hardware and software resources on computer systems. There are mainly 5 popular operating systems: Apple macOS, Microsoft Windows, Google’s Android OS, Linux Operating System, and Apple iOS, representing different operating systems used across personal computers and mobile devices. An operating system can be categorized in various aspects, such as according to the technology used: UNIX based, non-UNIX based, and other based operating system architectures, according to the ownership: Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, etc., according to the historical aspect: Microsoft DOS, OS/2, etc.

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List of Operating Systems

Before learning about the list of operating systems, let us first get a brief understanding of the operating systems.

An Operating System is a software program that acts as an interface between the hardware, the application software, and the users. The main aim of an operating system is to manage all the computer resources and run and coordinate computer systems. So, we can say that the operating system gives a platform to the application software to perform their task.

Refer to the diagram below to understand the value and working of the operating system.

list of operating system

Operating System was not the same as we see today. Let us discuss the operating systems’ list and how they evolved during these years in detail.

Before the 1950s, there was no operating system, and users used to give programs to early computer systems. So, less speed and more errors were generated. Hence, the developers or the programmers had to provide the entire program in the form of sequential instruction in the form of a punched card. These punched cards were first translated into a punch card reader and then submitted to the operating system.

From (1955 - to 1965), we used a batch operating system in which the user(s) are used to prepare their instructions (tasks or jobs) in the form of jobs on an off-line device like punch cards and submits them to the computer operator. Now, out of these punch cards, similar punch cards of jobs were grouped and run as a group to speed up the entire process. The jobs consisted of program and input data along with the control instructions. The main task of the programmer or developer was to create jobs or programs and then hand them over to the operator in the form of punch cards. Now, it was the duty of an operator to sort the programs with similar requirements into batches.

Refer to the image for better visualization of the entire process.

os process isualization

After a few years, a multiprogramming operating system came into existence. In the multiprogramming operating system, several jobs or processes can be loaded into the main memory simultaneously with the help of a single processor. Now, it was the duty of a subpart of the operating system called job scheduler to schedule these processes so that maximum processes can be executed in minimum time. So, better CPU and memory utilization, along with the execution of several processes at a time, was the main aim of the multiprogramming operating system.

After the multiprogramming operating system, the time-sharing operating system came. In the time-sharing operating system, several jobs or processes can be loaded into the main memory simultaneously, and several users can also share the system. We can say that the time-sharing operating system was a logical extension of the multiprogramming operating system. The name time-sharing was used because the processes used to share an equal amount of time specified by the operating system developer.

Later parallel processing operating system was developed. In the parallel processing operating system, there we more than one processor. So, several jobs or processes can be loaded into the main memory simultaneously, and all the processors work concurrently on these processes. In a parallel processing operating system, a process is divided into several sub-processes (also known as threads), and these threads are distributed for execution among the various processors that are present in the system.

Nowadays, we are using distributed operating systems. In the distributed operating system, two or more nodes are connected. The distributed operating system is also known as a loosely coupled as various nodes are connected, but the processors do not share the memory or a clock. These nodes can communicate using telephone lines, high-speed buses, etc.

As we have now discussed the overview of the evolution of operating systems, let us see the list of operating systems in detail, including some of the most popular operating systems as well as other operating systems.

The operating system can be categorized in various aspects, such as:

  • According to the technology used: UNIX-based and non-UNIX based.

  • According to the ownership: Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, etc.

  • According to the historical aspect: Microsoft DOS, OS/2, etc.

etc.

There are mainly 5 popular operating systems: Apple macOS, Microsoft Windows, Google’s Android OS, Linux Operating System, and Apple iOS. These examples span desktop and mobile operating systems, and Android alongside Chrome OS shows how a linux based operating system family is used in practice across phones, laptops, and web-focused devices.

Note: There are more than 613 operating systems present in the world.

Let us see the list of operating systems:

1. The List of the Operating Systems that was Developed First

Below is the list of the earliest operating systems and their developers.

Operating SystemDeveloped By
CTSS (Compatible TimeShare System)MIT by Corbato and others
Incompatible Timesharing SystemMIT
MulticsBell Labs, GE, and MIT
THE operating systemDijkstra and others

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The First Proprietary Computer Operating Systems

Below is the list of the earliest proprietary computer operating systems for personal computers.

Many of these early proprietary systems were built as a disk operating system environment. A representative example was microsoft disk operating system, which used a command line interface.

  • Apple Computer.

  • Business Operating System (BOS).

  • Commodore PET.

  • First IBM-PC.

  • Flex, Flex9, and mini-FLEX.

  • Sinclair Micro and QX.

  • TRS-DOS, ROM OS.

  • TI99-4.

The list of the Operating Systems: Unix Based and POSIX-ready Operating Systems

Below is the list of Unix and Unix-like, POSIX-ready operating systems, including an operating system based on Unix such as FreeBSD, along with their developers. Linux relies on the linux kernel as its core, and it appears in many linux distributions.

  • AIX

  • Amoeba

  • AtheOS

  • A/UX

  • BSD

  • Cromix

  • Coherent

  • DNIX

  • Digital UNIX

  • FreeBSD

  • GNU/Hurd

  • Haiku

  • HP-UX

  • Idris

  • IRIX

  • LainOS

  • Linux

  • Minix

  • NetBSD

  • NeXTSTEP

  • OS-9, OS-9/68k, OS-9000, OS/360

  • OSF/1

  • OS X

  • OpenBSD

  • Plan 9

  • QNX

  • Rhapsody

  • RiscOS

  • SCO UNIX

  • Solaris

  • SunOS

  • System V

  • UNIX

  • UNIflex

  • Ultrix

  • UniCOS

  • Xenix

  • z/OS

Proprietary Operating Systems of some Famous Companies

The list of operating systems developed by Amazon:

  • Fire OS

The list of operating systems developed by Apple:

  • Apple DOS

  • A/UX

  • Darwin

  • GS/OS

  • iOS

  • Macintosh/Mac OS classic

  • macOS

  • Newton OS

  • ProDOS

The list of operating systems developed by HP:

  • AIS

  • ITS

  • OS-8

  • RSTS/E

  • RSX-11

  • RT-11

  • TENEX

  • TOPS-10

  • TOPS-20

  • VMS

  • WAITS

The list of operating systems developed by Google: Android is widely used on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Chromium OS, also known as Chrome OS, is a linux based operating system for laptops and desktops with a graphical user interface focus.

  • Chromium OS

  • Android

  • gLinux

  • Fuchsia

  • Wear OS

The list of operating systems developed by Huawei:

  • Harmony OS

  • LiteOS

The list of operating systems developed by Intel:

  • iRMX

  • ISIS, and ISIS-2

The list of operating systems developed by IBM:

  • AIX

  • ALCS

  • Basic Operating System

  • DOS/VSE

  • MFT

  • MVS

  • MVT

  • OS/2

  • OS/360

  • OS/390

  • OS/400

  • PC-DOS

  • SVS

  • TPF

  • VM/CMS

  • z/OS

The list of operating system developed by Microsoft: Windows became widely adopted in part because its visual design made the system easier to use for everyday users.

  • Xenix

  • MS-DOS

  • Microsoft Windows (Different versions of Microsoft Windows are depicted below)

  • Windows 1.0x

  • Windows 2.X

  • Windows 3.X

  • Windows NT

  • Windows NT 4.0

  • Windows 9x

  • Windows Me

  • Windows 2000

  • Windows XP

  • Windows Server 2003

  • Windows Vista

  • Windows Server 2008

  • Windows 7

  • Windows Server 2008 R2

  • Windows 8

  • Windows Server 2012

  • Windows 8.1

  • Windows Server 2012 R2

  • Windows 10

  • Windows Server 2016

  • Windows Server 2019

  • Windows 11

The list of operating systems developed by Samsung Electronics:

  • Bada

  • Tizen

  • Orsay

  • One UI

The list of operating systems developed by Sony:

  • PlayStation 3 system software

  • PlayStation 4 system software

  • PlayStation 5 system software

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Conclusion

  • An Operating System is a software program that acts as an interface between the hardware, the application software, and the users.

  • There are five popular different operating systems used across personal computers and mobile operating systems: Apple macOS, Microsoft Windows, Google’s Android OS, Linux Operating System, and Apple iOS.

  • An operating system can be categorized in various categories, such as -

    • according to the technology used:

      • UNIX-based, and
      • Non-UNIX based,
    • according to the owner, such as:

      • Mac OS,
      • Microsoft Windows, etc.,
    • according to the historical aspects such as:

      • Microsoft DOS,
      • OS/2, etc.
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