Comparison of operating systems
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of operating systems. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.
The tables specifically do not include subjective viewpoints on the merits of each operating system. For this kind of information, please see operating system advocacy.
Due to the size and variety in differing Linux distributions available, a separate article compares different Linux distributions. See comparison of Linux distributions.
General
Basic general information about the operating systems: creator/company, license/price etc.
|
| Creator
| First public release date
| Predecessor
| Stable version
| Cost (USD)
| Preferred license2
| Target Audience
|
| Amiga OS
| Commodore International,
Amiga (from v.3.5),
Hyperion Entertainment (from v.4.0)
| 1985
| None
| 4.0
| $ ???
| Proprietary
| Home Desktop, Media creators
|
| BeOS
| Be
| November 1996
| None
| 5.03
| $49 Professional, Free Personal
| Proprietary
| Home Desktop, Media creators
|
| FreeBSD
| The FreeBSD Project
| December 1993
| 386BSD
| 5.3
| Free
| BSD
| Server, Enthusiast
|
| Linux
|
|
| Mac OS
| Apple
| January 1984
| None1
| 9.2
| Free up to 7.6.1, 9.2 is $20 for Mac OS X owners
| Proprietary
| Artists, Designers, Home Desktop
|
| Mac OS X
| Apple
| March 2001
| OPENSTEP, FreeBSD, Mach
| 10.3 (Panther)
| $129 or bundled
| Proprietary
Partially open source (APSL)
| Artists, Designers, Home Desktop, Media creators, Server
|
| NetBSD
| The NetBSD project
| May 1993
| 386BSD
| 2.0.2
| Free
| BSD
| Server, Research, Software development and portability, Embedded systems, Security, Fast-To-Market hardware, Enthusiast
|
| Netware
| Novell
| 1985
| S-Net
| 6.5
(current version)
| $184 base price + 1 user connection
(as of 1/1/2005)
| Proprietary
| Server, Secure Domain, Clustering
|
| OpenBSD
| OpenBSD project
| October 1995
| NetBSD
| 3.6
| Free
| BSD
| Server, Enthusiast, Security Professional
|
| OpenVMS
| Digital Equipment Corporation
(now Hewlett Packard)
| February 1978
| RSX-11M
| 8.2
(current version)
| Free for non-commercial use
| Hobbyist, Proprietary
| Server, Enthusiast, Secure Domain, Batch, Fully-Shared Clustering
|
| Plan 9 from Bell Labs
| Bell Labs
| 1993
| Unix
| Fourth Edition
| Free
| LPL (OSI approved)
| Research, software development, distributed systems, high performance computing, embedded systems.
|
| Solaris
| Sun
| July 1992
| SunOS
| 10
| Free
| CDDL
| Server, Business Desktop
|
| Windows Server 2003
| Microsoft
| 23 April 2003
| Windows 2000
| 5.2.3790 + SP1
| $999 (Std Ed, 5 clients)
$1,199 (Std Ed, 10 clients)
$3,999 (32/64-bit Ent Ed, 25 clients)
| Proprietary
| Server
|
| Windows XP
| Microsoft
| 25 October 2001
| Windows 2000
| 5.1.2600 + SP2
| $199 (Home)
$299 (Professional)
| Proprietary
| Home and Business Desktop, software development
|
| Windows Me
| Microsoft
| 14 September 2000
| Windows 98
| 4.90.3000
| $209
| Proprietary
| Home Desktop
|
| Windows 2000
| Microsoft
| February 2000
| Windows NT 4.0
| 5.00.2195 + SP4
| $319 (Professional)
$1,199 (Std Server, 10 clients)
$3,999 (Adv Server, 25 clients)
| Proprietary
| Server, Business Desktop, software development
|
| Windows 98
| Microsoft
| April 1999
| Windows 95
| 4.10.2222
(Windows 98 SE)
| $209
| Proprietary
| Home Desktop
|
| Windows NT 4.0
| Microsoft
| August 1993 (Workstation), 1995 (Server)
| Windows NT 3.51
| 4.00.1381 + SP 6a
| $319 (Workstation)
$809 (Server, 5 clients), $1,1619 (Server, 25 clients)
| Proprietary
| Business Desktop
|
| Windows 3.x
| Microsoft
| March 1992
| Windows 2.0
| Windows for Workgroups 3.11
| ?
| Proprietary
| Home Desktop
|
|
| Creator
| First public release date
| Predecessor
| Stable version
| Cost (USD)
| Preferred license2
| Target Audience
|
1 Although Lisa OS ran on the same microprocessor and was being developed at the same time by the same company as Mac OS, very little code was shared between the two. [1]
2 Most OS distributions include bundled software with various other licenses.
Technical
Information on technical aspects of the operating systems.
|
| Kernel type
| Default file system
| Other major file systems supported
| Architectural support
(first, primary platform)
| Default online OS update tool
| Default package management/
software installation tool
| Main API and language
for GUI applications
| Main API and language
for textual/CLI applications
|
| Amiga OS
| Microkernel
| FFS
| OFS, SFS, FAT, UDF, ISO 9660, HFS
| 68K, PPC
| NA
| Setup executable, Amiga Installer
| Amiga OS API
| Amiga OS API with C++
|
| BeOS
| Microkernel/
Monolithic
hybrid
| BFS
| ext2, FAT, NTFS, UDF, ISO 9660, HFS
| x86, PPC
| SoftwareValet
| SoftwareValet
| Be API
| Be API with C++
(POSIX conforming)
|
| FreeBSD
| Module-loading
monolithic
| UFS2
| ext2, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS
| x86, Alpha, x86-64, IA64, MIPS, PC98 , SPARC64
| By source (CVSup )
| packages, ports tree
| Various (no default)
| BSD with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
| Linux
|
|
| Mac OS
| Nanokernel
| HFS/HFS+
| ISO 9660, UDF
| PPC, 68K
| Software Update
| Apple Installer
| Carbon
| N/A
|
| Mac OS X
| Microkernel/
Monolithic
hybrid
| HFS+
| UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, NTFS
| PPC
| Software Update
| Installer
| Cocoa/Application Kit
Carbon
| Cocoa/Foundation Kit with Objective-C
|
| NetBSD
| Module-loading
monolithic
| UFS
| ext2, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, NFS, UFS2, LFS
| x86, 40+ others
| By source (CVS) or (FTP),
also binary patch releases
| packages (pkg_add),
pkgsrc tree
| Various (no default)
| BSD with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
| Netware
| Microkernel/
Monolithic
hybrid
| NSS
| NWFS, FAT, NFS, AFP, UDF, ISO 9660
| x86, x86-64
| http://download.novell.com
| nwconfig, ConsoleOne
| Java
| x86 assembly language, Netware API with C
|
| OpenBSD
| Monolithic
| UFS
| ext2, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, NFS
| x86, Alpha, x86-64, HP3000, PA-RISC, Mac/VME 68k, VME 88k, PPC, SPARC, SPARC64, VAX
| By source (CVS) or (FTP)
| packages (pkg_add),
ports tree
| Various (no default)
| BSD with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
| OpenVMS
| Privilege ring ,
modular-subsystem,
real time kernel
| Files-11
| ISO 9660, NFS
| VAX, Alpha, IA64, CHARON-VAX Emulator
| http://www1.sqp.com
| PCSI
VMSINSTALL
| Various
(language neutral,
no default),
CDE
| Various
(language neutral,
no default),
ANSI VT100
|
| Plan 9 from Bell Labs
| Monolithic, user space file systems.
| fossil /venti , 9P2000
| kfs , ext2, FAT, ISO 9660
| x86, SPARC, x86-64, 68k, i960, Alpha, MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, and others.
| replica [2]
| mk
| C, draw
| C, rc
|
| Solaris
| Module-loading
Monolithic
| UFS/ZFS
| ext2, FAT, NTFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS
| SPARC, SPARC64, x86, x86-64
| http://sunsolve.sun.com
| System V packages (pkgadd)
| Various (no default)
| SysV with C, various other
(POSIX conforming)
|
| Windows XP
| Microkernel/
Monolithic
hybrid
| NTFS
| FAT, ISO 9660, UDF
| x86, x86-64
| Windows Update
| Setup executable, Microsoft Installer
| Win32
MFC
.NET
| Win32
MFC
.NET
|
| Windows 98
| ?
| FAT32
| FAT16, FAT12
| x86
| Windows Update
| Setup executable
| Win32, Win16, DirectX
| Win32, Win16
|
| Windows 3.x
| ?
| FAT16
| FAT12
| x86
| None
| Setup executable
| Win16
| Win16
|
|
| Kernel type
| Default file system
| Other major file systems supported
| Architectural support
(first, primary platform)
| Default online OS update tool
| Default package management/
software installation tool
| Main API and language
for GUI applications
| Main API and language
for textual/CLI applications
|
Features
Information on features in the operating systems. Note that defaults shown as N/A (not available) simply mean that the system has no default and that the user has a plethora of choices of implementations to install via available packages.
1 Graphics software is either kernel-based or can run as a user-level program.
See also
External links
|
|