Comparison of operating systems

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Usage share of desktop operating systems. Source: Median values from Usage share of desktop operating systems.      Windows XP (68.27%)      Windows Vista (22.29%)      Mac OS X (4.81%)      Windows 2000 (1.24%)      Linux (1.05%)

These tables compare general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available operating systems.

Due to 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.


Contents

[edit] General information

Name Creator First public release Predecessor Latest stable version Latest release date Cost/Availability Preferred license1 Target system type
AIX IBM 1986-?-? System V R3 6.1 2007-11-? Bundled with hardware Proprietary Server, NetApp, Workstation
AmigaOS Classic Commodore International, Haage & Partner 1985-07-23 TRIPOS (as the disk operating component of AmigaOS) 3.9 Bundled with hardware up to version 2.0. Versions 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.5 and 3.9 also available as separate package. Proprietary, Open source clone available under AROS Public License Workstation, Home Desktop
AmigaOS 4 Amiga, Inc. / Hyperion Entertainment 2004-05 AmigaOS Classic 4.1 2008-09-16 4.0 bundled with hardware. 4.0 for classic and 4.1 available as standalone package at € 99. Proprietary, Open source clone available under AROS Public License Workstation, Home Desktop
FreeBSD The FreeBSD Project 1993-12-? 386BSD 7.1 2009-01-05 Free BSD Server, Workstation, NetApp, Embedded
Haiku Haiku Inc. - BeOS R5 (Nightly builds) Free MIT License Home Desktop
HP-UX Hewlett-Packard 1983-?-? Unix 11.31 "11i v3" 2007-02-15 $400 Proprietary Server, Workstation
IBM i IBM 1988-?-? OS/400 V6R1 2008-04-? Bundled with hardware Proprietary Server
IRIX SGI 1988-?-? Unix 6.5.30 2006-08-16 Bundled with hardware Proprietary Server, Workstation
Inferno Bell Labs 1997-?-? Plan 9 Fourth Edition 2007-02-? Free MIT/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL/LPL NetApp, Server, Embedded
Linux Linus Torvalds, et al. 1992-08-25 Unix4, Minix5 Linux kernel 2.6.28; GNU C Library 2.7 2008-12-14; 2007-10-23 See Comparison of Linux distributions GNU GPL, GNU LGPL and other licenses See: Comparison of Linux distributions
Mac OS Apple Inc. 1984-01-24 None2 7 9.2.2 2002-05-12 Bundled with 68K and PowerPC Macs;

versions 7-9 sold as retail upgrades3

 Proprietary Workstation, home desktop
Mac OS X Apple Inc. 2001-03-24 NeXTStep / OPENSTEP / Rhapsody, Mac OS 10.5.6 "Leopard" 2008-12-15 Bundled with hardware; upgrades sold separately:
Desktop $129 (Single User)
Family Pack $199 (5 license)		 Open source core system (Both Intel and PowerPC versions) (APSL, GNU GPL, others) with proprietary higher level API layers Workstation, Home Desktop, Mobile (embedded)
Mac OS X Server Apple Inc. 2001-03-24 NeXTStep / OPENSTEP / Rhapsody, Mac OS 10.5.6 "Leopard Server" 2008-12-15 Bundled with hardware; also sold separately:
$499 (10 clients)
$999 (unlimited clients)		 Open source core system (Both Intel and PowerPC versions) (APSL, GNU GPL, others) with proprietary higher level API layers Server
Minix3 Andrew S. Tanenbaum 2005-10-? Minix2 3.1.2a 2006-05-29 Free BSD Workstation
NetBSD The NetBSD Project 1993-05-? 386BSD 4.0.1 2008-10-14 Free BSD NetApp, Server, Workstation, Embedded
NeXTStep NeXT 1989-9-18 Unix 3.3 1995-02-01 Bundled with hardware, then sold separately Proprietary Workstation
NetWare Novell 1985 S-Net 6.5 SP7 2007-10-? $184 (single-user) Proprietary Server
OpenBSD The OpenBSD Project 1995-10-? NetBSD 1.0 4.4 2008-11-01 Free BSD Server, NetApp, Workstation, Embedded
OpenVMS DEC (now HP) 1977-10-25 RSX-11M 8.3-1H1 2007-10-? Free for non-commercial use Proprietary Server, Workstation
OS/2 IBM and Microsoft 1987-12-? MS-DOS, Windows 3.x 4.52 2001-12-? $300 Proprietary Home Desktop, Server
PC-BSD PC-BSD Software 2006-?-? FreeBSD6 7.1 2009-01-05 Free BSD Desktop, Workstation, Server
Plan 9 Bell Labs 1993-?-? Unix Fourth Edition (Daily snapshots) Free LPL Workstation, Server, Embedded, HPC
QNX QNX Software Systems 1982-?-? Unix 6.4.0 2008-10-31  ? Proprietary Workstation, Server, Embedded
Solaris Sun 1992-07-? SunOS 10 10/08 2008-04-15 Free CDDL Server, Workstation
OpenSolaris Sun 2008.05 Solaris 2008.11 2008-12-04 Free CDDL Desktop, Workstation, Server
Windows Server (NT family) Microsoft 1993-07-27 MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x Windows Server 2008 (NT 6.0) 2008-02-27 $469 Web Server; other editions dependent on number of CALs purchased Proprietary Server, NetApp, Embedded, HPC
Microsoft Windows (NT family) Microsoft 1985-11-20 MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x Windows Vista (NT 6.0) 2006 November - 2007 January 8 Home Basic (Retail) $199.95, Home Premium (Retail) $259.95, Business (Retail) $299.95, Ultimate (Retail) $319.95[1] Proprietary Workstation, Home Desktop, media center, Tablet PC, embedded
RISC OS Acorn Computers, RISC OS Limited, Castle Technology Ltd 1989-04-? ARTHUR, also the BBC Master OS RISC OS 6.10 Select4i4 and RISC OS 5.13" 2008-05-28 $127 (£70) Proprietary; originally bundled with computer educational desktop, home computer
ZETA yellowTAB 2005-06-? BeOS R5 1.2 2006-04-27 Professional $110, Student $80 Proprietary Home Desktop, Media Workstation
STOP 6 / XTS-400 BAE Systems 2003-?-? STOP 5 / XTS-300 6.4.U1 2007-06-? Unknown; supplied to customers on-demand by BAE Systems Proprietary Server, Workstation, cross-domain solution, network guard
ReactOS ReactOS development team 1996-?-? Windows NT 0.3.8 2009-02-03 Free GNU GPL, GNU LGPL Workstation, Home Desktop
z/OS IBM 2000 OS/390 1.9 2007 Monthly License Charge (about $130 and up) Proprietary IBM mainframe
Name Creator First public release Predecessor Latest stable version Latest release date Cost/Availability Preferred license1 Target system type

Note 1: Most OS distributions include bundled software with various other licenses.
Note 2: 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. [3]
Note 3: Mac OS versions up to 7.5.5 are available free of charge here.
Note 4: 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 not containing any Unix code.
Note 5: Minix inspired the Linux kernel. No code from Minix was used to create the Linux kernel.
Note 6: PC-BSD uses FreeBSD as a base system with custom configuration and several desktop oriented tools to create an easy to use FreeBSD system for Desktops and Workstations.
Note 7: Mac OS 7.6 was the first Mac OS operating system to be labeled Mac OS. Operating systems prior to this were named System Software 0.1 (available only to developers) through System Software 7.5, and known as System #.# for short.
Note 8: 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

[edit] Technical information

Name Computer architectures supported File systems supported Kernel type Source lines of code GUI default is on6 Package management Update management Native APIs7 Non-native APIs supported through subsystems
AIX PowerPC JFS, JFS2, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, GPFS Monolithic No installp, RPM Service Update Management Assistant (SUMA) SysV, POSIX
AmigaOS Classic 68k Proprietary (OFS, FFS,SFS, PFS), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. Microkernel Yes Installer19 (almost not necessary)20 Proprietary UNIX (BSD) (available through 3rd party ixemul.library)
AmigaOS 4 PPC (x86 Clone available, see: AROS) Proprietary (OFS, FFS,SFS, PFS), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. Microkernel Yes Installer19 (almost not necessary)20 AmiUpdate (almost not necessary)21 Proprietary UNIX (BSD) (available through 3rd party ixemul.library)
FreeBSD x86, x86-64, PC98, SPARC, others UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental), ZFS (experimental) and others Monolithic with modules No ports tree, packages by source (CVSup, portsnap), network binary update (freebsdupdate) POSIX, BSD Mono, Java, Win16, Win32, Linux
Haiku x86, 68k BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660 Microkernel Yes - 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
Linux x86, x86-64, PPC, SPARC, Alpha, others ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, and others Monolithic with modules ~ 9 million [4] (Kernel)

~283 million [2] (Debian GNU/Linux)

 See: Comparison of Linux distributions POSIX Mono, Java, Win16, Win32
Inferno x86, PPC, SPARC, Alpha, MIPS, others Styx/9P2000, kfs, FAT, ISO 9660 Monolithic with modules, user space file systems Yes ? ? Proprietary
Mac OS Classic 68k, PPC HFS+, HFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF Monolithic with modules Yes None Software Update Toolbox, Carbon (from version 8.1)
Mac OS X PPC, x86, x86-64, ARM HFS+ (default), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS, FTP, WebDAV, ZFS (experimental) Hybrid ~86 million[3] Yes Mac 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, Win32
Minix3 x86 Microkernel 4000 No POSIX
NetBSD x86, x86-64, PPC, SPARC, 68k, Alpha, others UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, LFS, and others Monolithic with modules No8 pkgsrc by source (CVS, CVSup, rsync) or binary (using sysinst) BSD, POSIX
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 No8 ports tree, packages by source 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 No Feature Install and others ? Proprietary, DOS API, Win16 Win32
PC-BSD x86 10 UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental) and others Monolithic with modules Yes ports tree, packages, PBI Graphical Installers by PBI updates, source (CVSup, portsnap), network binary update (freebsdupdate) BSD, POSIX Win16, Win32
Plan 9 x86, Alpha, MIPS, PPC, 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 QNX, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, Joliet, NFS, CIFS, ETFS, other Micro POSIX, Java
ReactOS x86, PowerPC FAT Hybrid 1-2 mil Yes None None Win32, NT API
RISC OS ARM (both 26 and 32-bit) Acorn ADFS, Econet ANFS, FAT, ISO 9660, many others as loadable filesystems Unprotected monotasking microkernel with large number of relocatable modules 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, Win32, Mono, Linux[4]
OpenSolaris x86, x86-64 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, Win32, Mono, Linux[5]
STOP 6 / XTS-400 x86 Proprietary Monolithic No RPM for some untrusted applications Binary updates via postal mail and proprietary tools some SysV, some POSIX, some Linux, some proprietary
Windows Server (NT family) x86, x86-64, IA-64 NTFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, reiserfs9, and HFS Hybrid ~45 million[6] 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 NTFS, FAT ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, reiserfs9, and HFS 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 catalogs, HFS, zFS, etc. Monolithic No SMP/E SMP/E Access methods, etc. POSIX
Name Computer architectures supported File systems supported Kernel type Source lines of code GUI default is on6 Package management Update management Native APIs7 Non-native APIs supported through subsystems

Note 6: 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.
Note 7: Most operating systems use proprietary APIs in addition to any supported standards.
Note 8: 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.
Note 9: 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.
Note 10: only i686 CPU
Note 19: 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.
Note 20: 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.
Note 21: 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.

[edit] Security

Resource access control Subsystem isolation mechanisms Integrated firewall Encrypted file systems No execute (NX) page flag Known unpatched vulnerabilities9
Hardware Emulation Number Oldest
AIX Unix, ACLs chroot IP Filter, IPSec VPNs, basic IDS No Yes24 n/a 3 2002-10-11
FreeBSD Unix, ACLs, MAC chroot, jail, MAC Partitions IPFW2, IPFilter, PF Yes Yes No25 Unknown
HP-UX Unix, ACLs chroot IPFilter No ? 4 2002-12-12
Inferno Unix Namespaces ? ? No No Unknown
Linux Unix, ACLs10, MAC chroot, Capability-based security11, seccomp, SELinux Netfilter/Varied by distribution Yes Yes Yes 10 2004-05-10
Mac OS Classic No No No No No No 0 -
Mac OS X Unix, ACLs13 chroot ipfw Yes No Yes (Intel Only) 5 2006-11-22
NetBSD Unix, Veriexec, PaX, kauth chroot, systrace, kauth IPFilter, PF Yes Yes No Unknown
NetWare Directory-enabled ACLs Protected Address Spaces IPFLT.NLM Yes Yes No Unknown
OES-Linux Directory-enabled ACLs chroot IPFilter Yes Yes No Unknown
OpenBSD Unix chroot, systrace PF Yes Yes Yes 0 8 -
OpenVMS ACLs, Privileges logical name tables ? ? ? 0 -
OS/2 / eComStation ACLs14 No IP Filter, IPSec VPNs (ported from AIX) No ? Unknown
PC-BSD Unix, ACLs, MAC chroot, jail, MAC Partitions IPFW2, IPFilter, PF Yes18 ? Unknown
Plan 9 Unix (?) Namespaces ipmux Yes No No Unknown
QNX Unix IP Filter, IPSec ? Unknown
Solaris Unix, RBAC, ACLs, Least privilege, Trusted Extensions chroot, Containers15 IPFilter Yes22 Yes No 5 2005-04-13
OpenSolaris Unix, RBAC, ACLs, Least privilege, Trusted Extensions chroot, Containers15 IPFilter Yes22 Yes No
Windows Server 2003 ACLs, Privileges, RBAC Win32 WindowStation, Desktop, Job objects Windows Firewall,IPSec TCP/IP Filtering Yes Yes Yes 10 2003-04-22
Windows XP ACLs Win32 WindowStation, Desktop, Job objects Windows Firewall, TCP/IP Filtering, IPSec Yes (With NTFS) Yes26 Yes27 5; 32 2007-02-23; 2002-09-02
ZETA Unix 16 No No No No No Unknown
STOP 6 / XTS-40017 Unix, Multilevel security, Biba mandatory integrity, ACLs, Privileges, subtype mechanism Multilevel security, Biba Integrity Model, subtype mechanism No No No No Unknown
z/OS RACF RACF, key-protected address spaces z/OS IPSecurity Optional Yes (key-protected address spaces) Yes 0 - -

Note 8: The one OpenBSD vulnerability mentioned in the report was patched. The patch is available through ftp here.
Note 9: Comparison of known unpatched vulnerabilities is based on Secunia vulnerabilities reports with a severity of less critical and above. Updated automatically.
Note 10: POSIX ACL support is included in Linux 2.6, but requires a file system capable of storing them (such as ext3, XFS or ReiserFS).
Note 11: A jail mechanism is available separately in the Linux-VServer project, but is not integrated into any mainline Linux kernel.
Note 12: The Exec Shield and PaX extensions provide NX emulation on x86 hardware. They are not yet integrated inside the mainline kernel but are available as patches or separate kernels
Note 13: ACLs were added to Mac OS X beginning with version 10.4.
Note 14: ACLs are available only in OS/2 Server versions with HPFS386 filesystem.
Note 15: "Solaris Containers" (including "Zones") are a jail-type mechanism introduced with Solaris 10.
Note 16: Zeta has full Unix file permissions, but the OS is single user, and users always run as superuser.
Note 17: STOP 6 is certified under Common Criteria at EAL5+.
Note 18: Additionally swap space may be encrypted during installation, uses memory based tmp file storage by default.
Note 22: Through ZFS
Note 23: Novell NetWare uses MSDOS to load itself in to memory and once it is running, MSDOS is not used and can be unloaded (it is a common misconception that NetWare "runs on top of MSDOS").
Note 24: AIX use the PowerPC architecture which offer page-level protection mechanism. Since AIX version 5300-03 (5.3), this feature can be activated using the sedmgr command.
Note 25: FreeBSD can be built with ProPolice/SSP.
Note 26: Available on XP sp2, 2003 sp1 and newer.
Note 27: By default, software-enforced DEP helps protect only limited system binaries.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/compare-editions/default.aspx
  2. ^ Amor, Juan José; et al (17 June 2007). "Measuring Etch: the size of Debian 4.0". https://penta.debconf.org/~joerg/attachments/33-measuring_etch_slides.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-09-16. 
  3. ^ Jobs, Steve (August 2006). "Live from WWDC 2006: Steve Jobs Keynote". http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/07/live-from-wwdc-2006-steve-jobs-keynote/. Retrieved on 2007-02-16. "86 million lines of source code that was ported to run on an entirely new architecture with zero hiccups." 
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ [2]
  6. ^ Ben Liblit, Andrew Begel, and Eve Sweetser. "Cognitive Perspectives on the Role of Naming in Computer Programs". http://research.microsoft.com/~abegel/papers/ppig-naming.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-12-26. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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