8/18/2015 Operating Systems
>>Type s of O S
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Examples of Operating Systems
DOS Navigation Tip
DOS (Disk Operating System) was the first wide ly-installe d To navigate through the
ope rating syste m for pe rsonal com pute rs. It is a m aste r we bsite , click on the
control program that is autom atically run whe n you start your coloure d circle s at the
PC . DO S stays in the com pute r all the tim e le tting you run a top of the scre e n.
program and m anage file s. It is a single-user ope rating
syste m from Microsoft for the PC . It was the first O S for the
PC and is the unde rlying control program for Windows 3.1, 95, Download
98 and ME. Windows NT, 2000 and XP e m ulate DO S in orde r
to support e x isting DO S applications. To use DO S, you m ust C lick he re to download
k now whe re your program s and data are store d and how to the de taile d ve rsion in
talk to DO S. '.doc' form at.
Popular Operating
Systems
Unix
Linux
MacO Sx
Microsoft W indows
UNIX
UNIX operating systems are use d in wide ly-sold work station
products from Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, IBM, and a Keyboard Go!
num be r of othe r com panie s. The UNIX e nvironm e nt and the
clie nt/se rve r program m ode l we re im portant e le m e nts in the
de ve lopm e nt of the Inte rne t and the re shaping of com puting
as ce nte re d in ne twork s rathe r than in individual com pute rs.
Linux, a UNIX de rivative available in both "fre e software " and
com m e rcial ve rsions, is incre asing in popularity as an
alte rnative to proprie tary ope rating syste m s.
UNIX is writte n in C. Both UNIX and C we re de ve lope d by AT&T
and fre e ly distribute d to gove rnm e nt and acade m ic
institutions, causing it to be porte d to a wide r varie ty of
m achine fam ilie s than any othe r ope rating syste m . As a
re sult, UNIX be cam e synonym ous with "ope n syste m s."
UNIX is m ade up of the kernel, file system and shell
(com m and line inte rface ). The m ajor she lls are the Bourne
shell (original), C shell and Korn shell. The UNIX vocabulary is
e x haustive with m ore than 600 com m ands that m anipulate
data and te x t in e ve ry way conce ivable . Many com m ands are
cryptic, but just as W indows hid the DO S prom pt, the Motif
GUI pre se nts a frie ndlie r im age to UNIX use rs. Eve n with its
m any ve rsions, UNIX is wide ly use d in m ission critical
applications for client/server and transaction processing
systems. The UNIX ve rsions that are wide ly use d are Sun's
Solaris, Digital's UNIX, HP's HP-UX, IBM's A IX and SCO's
UnixWare. A large num be r of IBM m ainfram e s also run UNIX
applications, be cause the UNIX inte rface s we re adde d to MVS
and O S/390, which have obtaine d UNIX branding. Linux ,
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anothe r variant of UNIX, is also gaining e norm ous popularity.
WINDOWS
Windows is a pe rsonal com pute r ope rating syste m from
Microsoft that, toge the r with som e com m only use d busine ss
applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel, has be com e a
de facto "standard" for individual use rs in m ost corporations
as we ll as in m ost hom e s. W indows contains built-in
ne twork ing, which allows use rs to share file s and applications
with e ach othe r if the ir PC s are conne cte d to a ne twork . In
large e nte rprise s, W indows clie nts are ofte n conne cte d to a
ne twork of UNIX and Ne tW are se rve rs. The se rve r ve rsions of
Windows NT and 2000> are gaining m ark e t share , providing a
W indows-only solution for both the clie nt and se rve r. W indows
is supporte d by Microsoft, the large st software com pany in the
world, as we ll as the W indows industry at large , which include s
te ns of thousands of software de ve lope rs.
This ne twork e ffe ct is the re ason W indows be cam e succe ssful
in the first place . Howe ve r, Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and
XP are com plicate d ope rating e nvironm e nts. C e rtain
com binations of hardware and software running toge the r can
cause proble m s, and trouble shooting can be daunting. Each
ne w ve rsion of W indows has inte rface change s that constantly
confuse use rs and k e e p support pe ople busy, and Installing
W indows applications is proble m atic too. Microsoft has work e d
hard to m ak e W indows 2000 and W indows XP m ore re silie nt
to installation proble m s and crashe s in ge ne ral.
MA CINTOSH
The Macintosh (often called "the Mac"), introduce d in 1984 by
A pple Computer, was the first wide ly-sold pe rsonal com pute r
with a graphical use r inte rface (GUI). The Mac was de signe d to
provide use rs with a natural, intuitive ly unde rstandable , and,
in ge ne ral, "use r-frie ndly" com pute r inte rface . This include s
the m ouse , the use of icons or sm all visual im age s to
re pre se nt obje cts or actions, the point-and-click and click -and-
drag actions, and a num be r of window ope ration ide as.
Microsoft was succe ssful in adapting use r inte rface conce pts
first m ade popular by the Mac in its first W indows ope rating
syste m . The prim ary disadvantage of the Mac is that the re are
fe we r Mac applications on the m ark e t than for W indows.
Howe ve r, all the fundam e ntal applications are available , and
the Macintosh is a pe rfe ctly use ful m achine for alm ost
e ve rybody. Data com patibility be twe e n W indows and Mac is an
issue , although it is ofte n ove rblown and re adily solve d.
The Macintosh has its own ope rating syste m , Mac O S which, in
its late st ve rsion is calle d Mac O S X. O riginally built on
Motorola's 68000 se rie s m icroproce ssors, Mac ve rsions today
are powe re d by the Powe rPC m icroproce ssor, which was
de ve lope d jointly by Apple , Motorola, and IBM. W hile Mac
use rs re pre se nt only about 5% of the total num be rs of
pe rsonal com pute r use rs, Macs are highly popular and alm ost
a cultural ne ce ssity am ong graphic de signe rs and online visual
artists and the com panie s the y work for. In ge ne ral, Mac use rs
te nd to be e nthusiasts.
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