OPERATING

SYSTEM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjNp0bBrjmU
Operating System
■ An Operating System or OS is
a software program that
enables the computer hardware
to communicate and operate
with the computer software.
Without a computer operating
system, a computer and
software programs would be
Examples of computer operating systems

1. Unix and Unix-like operating systems

Unix was originally written in assembly language
Unix-like systems run on a wide variety of computer
architectures. They are used heavily for servers in
business, as well as workstations in academic and
engineering environments. Free UNIX variants, such
as Linux and BSD, are popular in these areas.
Four operating systems are certified by The Open
Group (holder of the Unix trademark) as Unix. HP's
HP-UX and IBM's AIX are both descendants of the
original System V Unix and are designed to run only
on their respective vendor's hardware
2. OS X
OS X (formerly "Mac OS X") is a line of open core
graphical operating systems developed, marketed,
and sold by Apple Inc., the latest of which is preloaded
on all currently shipping Macintosh computers. OS X is
the successor to the original Mac OS, which had been
Apple's primary operating system since 1984. Unlike
its predecessor, OS X is a UNIX operating system built
on technology that had been developed at NeXT
through the second half of the 1980s and up until
Apple purchased the company in early 1997. The
operating system was first released in 1999 as Mac OS
X Server 1.0, with a desktoporiented version (Mac OS
X v10.0 "Cheetah") following in March 2001
3. Linux
The Linux kernel originated in 1991,
as a project of Linus Torvalds, while a
university student in Finland. He
posted information about his project
on a newsgroup for computer
students and programmers, and
received support and assistance from
volunteers who succeeded in creating
a complete and functional kernel
4. Google Chrome OS Chrome OS
is an operating system based on the
Linux kernel and designed by
Google. It is developed out in the
open in the Chromium OS open
source variant and Google makes a
proprietary variant of it (similar to
the split for the Chrome and
Chromium browser).
5. Microsoft Windows Microsoft
Windows
is a family of proprietary operating
systems designed by Microsoft
Corporation and primarily targeted
to Intel architecture based
computers, with an estimated 88.9
percent total usage share on Web
connected computers. The latest
version is Windows 10
Windows 3.1
■ As the name implies, Windows 95 arrived in
August 1995 and with it brought the first ever
Start button and Start menu (launched with a
gigantic advertising campaign that used the
Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up, and a couple of
months later
Friends stars Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry .
Could it be any more up-to-date?)
■ It also introduced the concept of “plug and play” –
connect a peripheral and the operating system
finds the appropriate drivers for it and makes it
work. That was the idea; it didn’t always work in
practice.
■ Windows 95 also introduced a 32-bit environment,
the task bar and focused on multitasking. MS-DOS
still played an important role for Windows 95,
which required it to run some programmes and
elements.
■ Internet Explorer also made its debut on Windows
95, but was not installed by default requiring the
Windows 95 Plus! pack. Later revisions of Windows
95 included IE by default, as Netscape Navigator
Windows 98

■ Released in June 1998, Windows 98 built on

Windows 95 and brought with it IE 4, Outlook
Express, Windows Address Book, Microsoft Chat
and NetShow Player, which was replaced by
Windows Media Player 6.2 in Windows 98 Second
Edition in 1999.
■ Windows 98 introduced the back and forward
navigation buttons and the address bar in
Windows Explorer, among other things. One of the
biggest changes was the introduction of the
Windows Driver Model for computer components
and accessories – one driver to support all future
versions of Windows.
Windows ME
■ Considered a low point in the Windows
series by many – at least, until they saw
Windows Vista – Windows Millennium Edition
was the last Windows to be based on MS-
DOS, and the last in the Windows 9x line.
■ Released in September 2000, it was the
consumer-aimed operating system twined
with Windows 2000 aimed at the enterprise
market. It introduced some important
concepts to consumers, including more
automated system recovery tools.
■ IE 5.5, Windows Media Player 7 and
Windows Movie Maker all made their
appearance for the first time. Autocomplete
also appeared in Windows Explorer, but the
operating system was notorious for being
buggy, failing to install properly and being
generally poor.
Windows 2000

■The enterprise twin of ME,

Windows 2000 was released
in February 2000 and was
based on Microsoft’s business-
orientated system Windows
NT and later became the basis
for Windows XP.
■Microsoft’s automatic
updating played an important
role in Windows 2000 and
became the first Windows to
support hibernation.
■ Arguably one of the best Windows
versions, Windows XP was released in
October 2001 and brought Microsoft’s
enterprise line and consumer line of
operating systems under one roof.
■ It was based on Windows NT like
Windows 2000, but brought the
consumer-friendly elements from
Windows ME. The Start menu and
task bar got a visual overhaul,
bringing the familiar green Start
button, blue task bar and vista
wallpaper, along with various shadow
and other visual effects.
■ Windows XP was the longest running
Microsoft operating system, seeing
three major updates and support
up until April 2014 – 13 years from its
■ Windows XP stayed the course for
close to six years before being
replaced by Windows Vista in
January 2007. Vista updated the look
and feel of Windows with more focus
on transparent elements, search and
security.
■ PC gamers saw a boost from Vista’s
inclusion of Microsoft’s DirectX 10
technology.
■ Windows Media Player 11 and IE 7
debuted, along with Windows
Defender an anti-spyware
programme. Vista also included
speech recognition, Windows DVD
Maker and Photo Gallery, as well as
being the first Windows to be
distributed on DVD. Later a version
■ Considered by many as what
Windows Vista should have been,
Windows 7 was first released in
October 2009. It was intended to fix
all the problems and criticism faced
by Vista, with slight tweaks to its
appearance and a concentration on
user-friendly features and less
“dialogue box overload”
■ It was faster, more stable and easier
to use, becoming the operating
system most users and business
would upgrade to from Windows XP,
forgoing Vista entirely.
■ Handwriting recognition debuted in 7,
as did the ability to “snap” windows
to the tops or sides of the screen,
allowing faster more automatic
window resizing.
■ Released in October 2012, Windows 8 was
Microsoft’s most radical overhaul of the
Windows interface, ditching the Start
button and Start menu in favour of a more
touch-friendly Start screen.
■ The new tiled interface saw programme
icons and live tiles, which displayed at-a-
glance information normally associated
with “widgets”, replace the lists of
programmes and icons. A desktop was still
included, which resembled Windows 7.
■ Windows 8 was faster than previous
versions of Windows and included support
for the new, much faster USB 3.0 devices.
The Windows Store, which offers universal
Windows apps that run in a full-screen
mode only, was introduced. Programs could
still be installed from third-parties like other
iterations of Windows, but they could only
access the traditional desktop interface of
■ A free point release to Windows 8
introduced in October 2013,
Windows 8.1 marked a shift
towards yearly software updates
from Microsoft and included the
first step in Microsoft’s U-turn
around its new visual interface.
■ Windows 8.1 re-introduced the
Start button, which brought up
the Start screen from the desktop
view of Windows 8.1. Users could
also choose to boot directly into
the desktop of Windows 8.1,
which was more suitable for those
using a desktop computer with a
mouse and keyboard than the
touch-focused Start screen.
■ Announced on 30 September 2014,
Windows 10 has only been released as
a test version for keen users to try. The
“technical preview” is very much still a
work in progress.
■ Windows 10 represents another step in
Microsoft’s U-turn, bringing back the
Start menu and more balance to
traditional desktop computer users.
■ Some interesting features include the
ability to switch between a keyboard
and mouse mode and a tablet mode,
for those computers like the Surface
Pro 3 with a detachable keyboard.
■ Windows 10 – despite being the ninth
version of Windows – is designed to
unify all Windows platforms across
multiple devices, including Windows
Phone and tablets, with universal apps
Windows 11

■Windows 11 comes with a truckload of new

features, such as the ability to
download and run Android apps on your Wi
ndows PC
and updates to Microsoft Teams,
the Start menu and
the overall look of the software, which is
more clean and Mac-like in design.