These tables provide a comparison of operating systems, listing general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available PC and handheld (including smartphone and tablet computer) operating systems. The article, usage share of operating systems provides a broader, and more general, comparison of operating systems that includes servers, mainframes and supercomputers.
Because of the large number and variety of available Linux distributions, they are all grouped under a single entry; see comparison of Linux distributions for a detailed comparison. There are also a variety of BSD operating systems, covered in comparison of BSD operating systems. For information on views of each operating system, see operating system advocacy.
Because of the large number and variety of available Linux distributions, they are all grouped under a single entry; see comparison of Linux distributions for a detailed comparison. There are also a variety of BSD operating systems, covered in comparison of BSD operating systems. For information on views of each operating system, see operating system advocacy.
General information
| Name | Creator | First public release | Predecessor | Latest stable version | Latest release date | Cost, availability | Preferred license[g 1] | Target system type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIX | IBM | 1986 | UNIX System VRelease 3 | 7.1 | 2010 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Server, NAS, workstation |
| Android | Android, Inc., Google | 2008 | Linux | 4.3 (Jelly Bean) | 24 July 2013 | Free | Apache 2.0, GNU GPLv2 | Consumer, enterprise, military, education |
| AmigaOSclassic | Commodore International,Haage & Partner, Hyperion Entertainment | 1985 | TRIPOS (as the disk operating component of AmigaOS) | 3.9 | 2000, December 4 | Bundled with hardware up to version 3.0 (Amiga International Hardware came with 3.1); versions 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.5, 3.9 also available as separate packages | Proprietary, open source clone available under AROS Public License | Workstation, personal computer |
| AmigaOS 4 | Hyperion Entertainment | 2004 | AmigaOS classic | 4.1 update 6 | 2012 | 4.0 bundled with hardware; 4.0 for classic and 4.1 available as standalone package at €99 | Proprietary | Workstation, personal computer |
| eComStation | Serenity Systems, Mensys BV | 2001 | OS/2 | 2.1 | 2011 | Home-student edition (max. 5 per site) $149.00 business edition $259.00 | Proprietary | Server, workstation, personal computer |
| EPOC32 | Psion PLC | 1996 | ER5 | 1999 | Commercial | Proprietary | PDA | |
| FreeBSD | The FreeBSD Project | 1993 | 386BSD | 9.1 | 2012 | Free | BSD | Server, workstation, NAS,embedded |
| DragonFly BSD | Matthew Dillon | 2003 | FreeBSD | 3.4 | 2013 | Free | BSD | Server, workstation, NAS, embedded |
| Haiku | Haiku Inc. | 2009 | BeOS R5 | R1/Alpha4 | 2012 | Free | MIT | Personal computer |
| HP-UX | Hewlett-Packard | 1983 | UNIX System V | 11.31 "11i v3" | 2007 | $400 | Proprietary | Server, workstation |
| IBM i | IBM | 1988 | OS/400 | 7.1 | 2010 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Server |
| Inferno | Bell Labs | 1997 | Plan 9 | Fourth Edition | 2007 | Free | MIT, GNU GPL, GNU LGPL, LPL | NAS, server, embedded |
| iOS | Apple Inc. | 2007 | OS X | 7.0 | 2013 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (ARM versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others | Smartphone, music player,tablet computer |
| IRIX | SGI | 1988 | UNIX System V | 6.5.30 | 2006 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Server, workstation |
| Linux | Linus Torvalds, et al. | 1991Unix,[g 2]MINIX[g 3] | Linux kernel | 3.11.1 | 2013, September 14 | Free | GNU GPL, GNU LGPL, others | See: Comparison of Linux distributions |
| Mac OS | Apple Inc. | 1984 | None[g 4][g 5] | 10.8.3 | 2013 | Bundled with 68K and PowerPC Macs;
versions 7-9 sold as retail upgrades[g 6]
| Proprietary | Workstation, personal computer |
| OS X | Apple Inc. | 2001 | NeXTStep | 10.8.4 | 2013 | Bundled with hardware; upgrades sold separately: Desktop $169 (one-user Mac box set), $29 (one-user Mac OS X v10.6 upgrade) Family Pack $229 (5-user Mac box set), $49 (5-user Mac OS X v10.6 upgrade) | Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others | Workstation, personal computer, embedded |
| OS X Server | Apple Inc. | 2001 | BSD | 10.8.2 | 2012 | Bundled with hardware; and sold separately: $499 (unlimited clients) | Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others | Server |
| MINIX 3 | Andrew S. Tanenbaum | 2005 | Minix2 | 3.2.1 | 2013 | Free | BSD | Workstation |
| NetBSD | The NetBSD Project | 1993 | 386BSD | 6.1.1 | 2013 | Free | BSD | NAS, server, workstation, embedded |
| NetWare | Novell | 1985 | S-Net | 6.5 SP8 | 2008 | $184 (one-user) | Proprietary | Server |
| NeXTStep | NeXT | 1989 | Unix | 3.3 | 1995 | Bundled with hardware, then sold separately | Proprietary | Workstation |
| OpenBSD | The OpenBSD Project | 1995 | NetBSD 1.0 | 5.3 | 2013, May 1 | Free | ISC | Server, NAS, workstation, embedded |
| OpenIndiana | Many, based on software developed by Sun Microsystems and many others | 2010 | OpenSolaris | 2010, December 17 | Free | CDDL mostly, and others | Server, workstation | |
| OpenVMS | DEC (now HP) | 1977 | RSX-11M | 8.4 | 2010 | Commercial, free non-commercial use | Proprietary | Server, workstation |
| OS/2 | IBM and Microsoft | 1987 | Unix, Windows 3.x | 4.52 | 2001 | $300 | Proprietary | Personal computer, server |
| PC-BSD | PC-BSD Software | 2006 | FreeBSD[g 7] | 9.2 | 2012 | Free | BSD | Personal computer, workstation, server |
| Plan 9 | Bell Labs | 1993 | Unix | Fourth Edition | (Daily snapshots) | Free | LPL | Workstation, server, embedded, HPC |
| QNX | QNX Software Systems | 1982 | Unix, POSIX | 6.5.0 | 2012 | Bundled with BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook devices. Commercial; an academic version exists that needs authorization code before installing | Proprietary | Workstation, smartphones, consumer, server, industrial, automotive, embedded |
| Solaris | Sun | 1992 | SunOS | 11.1 | 2012 | Commercial; a free 90 days evaluation version exists | CDDL | Server, workstation |
| Symbian | Symbian Ltd. | 1998 | EPOC32 | 9.5 | 2009 | Commercial | Proprietary | Phones |
| Symbian platform | Symbian Foundation | 2010 | Symbian | 3.0.4 | 2010 | Free | EPL | embedded |
| Windows Server (NT family) | Microsoft | 1993 | MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x | Windows Server 2012(NT 6.2.9200) | 2012 | $469 Web Server; other editions dependent on number of CALs purchased | Proprietary | Server, NAS, embedded, HPC |
| Microsoft Windows(NT family) | Microsoft | 1993 | MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x | Windows 8(NT 6.2.9200) | 2012[g 8] | Home Basic retail $99.95, Home Premium retail $119.95, Business retail $299.95, Ultimate retail $300.95[1] | Proprietary | Workstation, personal computer, media center,Tablet PC, embedded |
| Microsoft Windows (classic family) | Microsoft | 1985 | MS-DOS, Windows 1.0 and later | Windows Me(Win 4.90.3000) | 2000[g 8] | Outdated, no longer sold | Proprietary | Personal computer, media center |
| RISC iX | Acorn Computers | 1988 | BSD 4.3 | 1.21c | 1993 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Workstation |
| RISC OS | Acorn Computers | 1987 | Arthur, also theBBC Master OS | 3.71 | 1997 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Education, personal computer |
| RISC OS | RISCOS Ltd, Pace plc | 1999 | RISC OS 4 | 4.39 | 2004 | Bundled with hardware, then sold separately at $127 (£70) | Proprietary | Education, personal computer |
| RISC OS | Castle Technology, RISC OS Open | 2002 | RISC OS 5 | 5.18 | 2012 | Free for non-commercial use (recent releases); formerly bundled with hardware | Shared Source | Education, personal computer |
| RISC OS | RISCOS Ltd | 2006 | RISC OS 6 | 6.20 | 2009 | Bundled with hardware, then sold separately at $127 (£70) | Proprietary | Education, personal computer |
| ZETA | yellowTAB | 2005 | BeOS R5 | 1.5 | 2007 | Discontinued | Proprietary | Personal computer, media center, workstation |
| STOP 6, XTS-400 | BAE Systems | 2003 | STOP 5, XTS-300 | 6.4.U1 | 2007 | Unknown; supplied to customers on-demand by BAE Systems | Proprietary | Server, workstation |
| ReactOS | ReactOS development team | 1996 | Windows NT | 0.3.15 | 2013 | Free | GNU GPL, GNU LGPL | Workstation, personal computer |
| VxWorks | Wind River Systems | 1987 | VRTX | 6.9 | 2011 | Paid | Proprietary | Embedded Real-time systems |
| z/OS | IBM | 2000 | OS/390 | 1.12 | 2010 | Monthly license fee, about $130 and up | Proprietary | IBM mainframe |
| z/VSE | IBM | 2007 | VSE/ESA | 5.1.1 | 2012, June | Monthly license fee | Proprietary | IBM mainframe |
| z/VM | IBM | 2000 | VM | 6.2 | 2011 | Monthly license fee | Proprietary | IBM mainframe |
| HP NonStop | HP | 1974 | Guardian | H06.24/J06.13 | 2012 | Non-free | Proprietary | HP Nonstop Servers |
| Name | Creator | First public release | Predecessor | Latest stable version | Latest release date | Cost, availability | Preferred license[g 1] | Target system type |
- ^ a b Most OS distributions include bundled software with various other licenses.
- ^ GNU is a recursive acronym for GNU's Not Unix, which was chosen because its design is Unix-like, but differs from Unix by being free software and by containing no Unix code.
- ^ Minix inspired the Linux kernel. No code from Minix was used to create the Linux kernel.
- ^ Although Lisa OS ran on the same (albeit a slower version) microprocessor and was developed by Apple Computer at the same time as Mac OS, they were developed as different projects, sharing only a similar GUI between them. http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Hungarian.txt
- ^ Mac OS 7.6 was the first Macintosh system software to be labeled Mac OS. Operating systems before this were named System Software 0.1 (available only to developers) through System Software 7.5, and known as System #.# for short.
- ^ Mac OS versions up to 7.5.5 are available free of charge at http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html
- ^ PC-BSD uses FreeBSD as a base system with custom configuration and several desktop-oriented tools to make an easy to use FreeBSD system for desktops and workstations.
- ^ a b Windows Vista was released to manufacturing on November 8, 2006, and was subsequently made available to software developers and businesses in November 2006, with retail availability following on January 30, 2007
Technical information
| Name | Computer architecturessupported | File systems supported | Kernel type | Source lines of code | GUIdefault is on[t 1] | Package management | Update management | NativeAPIs[t 2] | Non-native APIs supported through subsystems |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIX | POWER, PowerPC-AS, PowerPC,Power Architecture | JFS, JFS2, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS,GPFS | Monolithic | No | installp, RPM | Service Update Management Assistant (SUMA) | SysV/POSIX | ||
| AmigaOSClassic | 68k, PowerPC | Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. | Microkernel | Yes | Installer[t 3] (almost not needed)[t 4] | Proprietary | BSD subset (available through 3rd partyixemul.library) | ||
| AmigaOS 4 | PowerPC | Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), JXFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. | Microkernel | Yes | Installer[t 3] (almost not needed)[t 4] | AmiUpdate(almost not needed)[t 5] | Proprietary | BSD subset (available through 3rd partyixemul.library) | |
| eComStation | x86 | HPFS (default), FAT, JFS, UDF, FAT32,NTFS (read only) | Hybrid | Yes | WarpIN, Feature Install, others | Maintenance Tool | Proprietary,DOS API, Win16 | POSIX, Java, others | |
| FreeBSD | x86, x86-64, PC98,SPARC, others | UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS(experimental), ZFS, others | Monolithic with modules | 6.25 million[10] | No | Ports collection, packages | by source, network binary update (freebsdupdate) | BSD/POSIX | Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6]Win32,[t 6] Linux |
| Haiku | x86, 68k | BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, ext3, NTFS | Hybrid | Yes | Ports collection (haikuport) | None | POSIX, BeOS API | ||
| HP-UX | PA-RISC, IA-64 | VxFS, HFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS | Monolithic with modules | No | swinstall | swa (HP-UX Software Assistant) | SysV/POSIX | ||
| Inferno | x86, PowerPC, SPARC, Alpha,MIPS, others | Styx/9P2000, kfs, FAT, ISO 9660 | Monolithic with modules, user space file systems | Yes | ? | ? | Proprietary | ||
| iOS | ARM | HFS+, FTP | Hybrid | ~80 million | Yes | ? | Software Update | Cocoa, BSD-POSIX | ? |
| Linux | x86, x86-64, PowerPC, SPARC, Alpha, others | ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, and others | Monolithic with modules | ~15 million (kernel)[11]
lines of code for userland applications vary depending on the distribution
| See: Comparison of Linux distributions | Linux/POSIX | Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6]Win32[t 6] | ||
| Mac OSClassic | 68k, PowerPC | HFS+, HFS, MFS (Mac OS 8.0 and before), AFP, ISO 9660, FAT(System 7 and later), UDF | Monolithic with modules | Yes | None | Software Update(only in Mac OS 9) | Toolbox,Carbon (from version 8.1) | ||
| OS X | PowerPC, x86, x86-64, (see also iOS for ARM) | HFS+ (default), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV, ZFS (experimental) | Hybrid | ~86 million[12] | Yes | OS X Installer | Software Update | Carbon,Cocoa, Java, BSD-POSIX | Toolbox (only in versions up to Mac OS X 10.4, not supported on x86 architecture), Win16,[t 6]Win32[t 6] |
| MINIX 3 | x86 | Microkernel | 4000 | No | POSIX | ||||
| NetBSD | x86, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC,SPARC64, others | UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS,LFS, and others | Monolithic with modules | No[t 7] | pkgsrc | by source or binary (using sysinst) | BSD-POSIX | Linux, others | |
| NetWare | x86 | NSS, NWFS, FAT, NFS, AFP, UDF, CIFS, ISO 9660 | Hybrid | Yes | NWCONFIG.NLM,RPM, X11-based GUI installer | binary updates, ZENWorks for Servers, Red Carpet | Proprietary | ||
| OpenBSD | x86, x86-64, SPARC, 68k, Alpha, VAX,others | ffs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, some others | Monolithic with modules | No[t 7] | Ports collection, packages | by source or binary (packages via pkg_add) | BSD-POSIX | ||
| OpenVMS | VAX, Alpha, IA-64 | Files-11 (ODS), ISO 9660, NFS, CIFS | Monolithic with modules | No | PCSI, VMSINSTAL | ? | Proprietary | POSIX | |
| OS/2 | x86 | HPFS, JFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS | Monolithic with modules | Yes | Feature Install and others | ? | Proprietary,DOS API, Win16 | Win32 | |
| PC-BSD | x86[t 8] | UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS(experimental) and others | Monolithic with modules | Yes | Ports collection, packages, PBI Graphical Installers | by PBI updates, source, network binary update (freebsdupdate) | BSD-POSIX | Win16,[t 6] Win32[t 6] | |
| Plan 9 | x86, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, others | fossil/venti, 9P2000, kfs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660 | Monolithic, user space file systems | Yes | None | replica | Proprietary (Unix-like) | POSIX compatibility layer | |
| QNX | x86, SH-4, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS | QNX4FS, QNX6, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660,Joliet, NFS, CIFS, ETFS, UDF, HFS, HFS+, NTFS, others | Microkernel | POSIX, Java | |||||
| ReactOS | x86, PowerPC, ARM | FAT | Hybrid | more than 2 million | Yes | None | None | Win32, NT API | |
| RISC OS | ARM (both 26 and 32-bit addressing modes) | Acorn ADFS, Econet ANFS, FAT, ISO 9660, many others as loadable filesystems | Monolithic with modules. Cooperative multitasking with limited memory protection.[13] | Yes | Applications self-contained; hardware drivers often in ROM | !IyoUpWtch | Huge number of SWI calls; extensive C libraries | ||
| Solaris | x86, x86-64, SPARC | UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others | Monolithic with modules | Yes | SysV packages(pkgadd) | Sun Connection | SysV/POSIX,GTK, Java | Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Mono, Linux[t 9] | |
| OpenSolaris | x86, x86-64, SPARC(AI) | UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others | Monolithic with modules | ~10 million | Yes | Image Packaging System (pkg),SysV packages(pkgadd) | Image Packaging System | SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java | Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Mono, Linux[t 9] |
| STOP 6, XTS-400 | x86 | Proprietary | Monolithic | No | RPM for some untrusted applications | Binary updates via postal mail and proprietary tools | Some: SysV, POSIX, Linux, proprietary | ||
| Symbian | ARM | FAT | Microkernel | Yes | SIS files | FOTA | Proprietary | POSIX compatibility layer | |
| Windows Server (NT family) | x86, x86-64, IA-64 | NTFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, ReiserFS,[t 10] and HFS | Hybrid | ~45 million[14] | Yes | MSI, custom installers | Windows Update | Win32, NT API | DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET |
| Windows(NT family) | x86, x86-64, ARM | NTFS, FAT exFAT ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, ReiserFS,[t 10] HFS+, FATX, and HFS (with third party driver) | Hybrid | ~40(XP)/64(Vista) million[citation needed] | Yes | MSI, custom installers | Windows Update | Win32, NT API | DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET |
| ZETA | x86 | BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, HFS, AFP, ext2, CIFS, NTFS (read only), ReiserFS (read only, up to v3.6) | Hybrid | Yes | SoftwareValet, script-based installers | None | POSIX, BeOS API | ||
| z/OS | z/Architecture | VSAM, BDAM, QSAM, BPAM, HFS, zFS, etc. | Protected, multithreading, multitasking nucleus with programmable/user replaceable extensions. Not kernel-based. | No | None, SMP/E | SMP/E | Filesystem access methods, Systems Services, etc. | POSIX, many others. | |
| Name | Computer architectures supported | File systems supported | Kernel type | Source lines of code | GUI default is on[t 1] | Package management | Update management | Native APIs[t 2] | Non-native APIs supported through subsystems |
- ^ a b Operating systems where the GUI is not installed and turned on by default are often bundled with an implementation of the X Window System, installation of which is usually optional.
- ^ a b Most operating systems use proprietary APIs in addition to any supported standards.
- ^ a b Amiga OS features since OS 2.0 version a standard centralized Install utility called Installer, which could be used by any software house to install programs. It works as a Lisp language interpreter, and install procedures could be listed as simple text. AmigaOS can also benefit of a 3rd party copyrighted library called XAD that is available for all POSIX (Unix, Linux, BSD, and for AmigaOS, MorphOS, etc.). This library is freely distributable and publicly available on Aminet Amiga centralized repository of all Open Source or Free programs and utilities. XAD.Library, complete with GUI Voodoo-X, is based on modules and capable to manage over 300 compression methods and package systems (Voodoo-X GUI supports 80 package systems), including those widely accepted as standards such as .ZIP, .CAB, .LHA, .LZX, .RPM, etc.
- ^ a b A standard AmigaOS installation requires usually only few files (typically 3 to 10 files) to be copied in their appropriate directory, and libraries and language files for national localization to be put in their standard OS directories. Any Amiga user with some minimal experience knows where these files should be copied and could perform programs installations by hand.
- ^ AmiUpdate is capable to update AmigaOS files and also all Amiga programs which are registered to use the same update program that is standard for Amiga. Updating AmigaOS requires only few libraries to be put in standard OS location (for example all libraries are stored in "Libs:" standard virtual device and absolute path finder for "Libs" directory, Fonts are all in "Fonts:" absolute locator, the files for language localization are all stored in "Locale:" and so on). This leaves Amiga users with a minimal knowledge of the system almost free to perform by hand the update of the system files.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l using Wine
- ^ a b NetBSD and OpenBSD include the X Window System as base install sets, managed in their respective main source repository, including local modifications. Packages are also provided for more up-to-date versions which may be less tested.
- ^ only i686 CPU
- ^ a b "BrandZ (Community Group brandz.WebHome) - XWiki". Opensolaris.org. 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- ^ a b Windows can read and write with Ext2 and Ext3 file systems only when a driver from FS-driver or Ext2Fsd is installed. However, using Explore2fs, Windows can read from, but not write to, Ext2 and Ext3 file systems. Windows can also access ReiserFS through rfstool and related programs.
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