MS Windows NT - the intended successor to DOS and Windows 3.x
As soon as Windows 3.1 was released Microsoft started work on its successor.
That OS was Windows NT. However by the time of its release, (it was
late as always with Microsoft) it had grown into a too resource demanding
program. At a time when the average user had 2 MBs of RAM and a 120
MB hard drive NT needed 16 MBs of RAM and at least 160 MBs of hard drive
space. The guys and gals at Redmond rethought their marketing strategy
and sold NT in two versions, a network sever and a desktop client.
Networking software had been included with Windows 3.11 and they want to
get some of Novell's market share anyway. NT was the first "modern"
OS. (We are speaking of commercial OSs for PCs here. Linux has been
around sense 1990). By modern, we mean it has these four attributes:
Pre-emptive multi-tasking. Preemptive multi-tasking is much better
than co-operative. In pre-emptive multi-tasking the OS can "preempt"
and application which is not using its time slice and give it to another
application which needs it. Because of this the system is much more
efficient and stable. An application crashing will not
crash the entire system.
No Memory Barrier. NT can access all RAM without the need of special
drivers or programs.
32-bit architecture. NT can take full advantage of the 32-bit CPUs
GUI. NT has a GUI
MS Windows 2000 and XP Business are upgrades to Windows NT.
OS/2 Warp- IBM beats Microsoft
Because NT was not marketed to the ordinary private consumer, IBM's OS/2
Warp 3.0 was the first modern OS marketed to the private consumer. It had the
four attributes of a modern OS. OS/2 has not been commercially successful.
MS Windows 95/98 - the first commercially successfully market to the private
user
Because OS/2 was not successful, Windows 95 became the first modern OS which was
successfully marketed to the private user. 95 had the four attributes of a
modern OS and almost ever computer in America ran it or
its miner upgrade MS Windows 98. MS Windows ME is a minor upgrade to Windows 98.
Ms Windows XP is actually an upgrade to MS Windows NT.
Functions of an Operating System
Operating system do many things. All of these things can be broadly
categorized into three groups.
Managing the hardware resources of the computer
Acting as an interpreter between the computer and the application software
Providing a user interface
Other Operating Systems
Macintosh
These are the "other" microcomputers. Very small in market share
but big on graphics and all around good machines.
UNIX
UNIX is older than the other OSs we have talked about and was not really
designed for PCs. It was first developed at the University of Cal.
at Berkeley. Novell bought it in 1990. It is not only multi-tasking;
it is multi-user and multiprocessing.
Linux - a free UNIX
Linux is a UNIX clone and is free. Linux and UNIX links
