Operating Systems

Multics

Unix

• UNIX - named as a play on the Multics operating system by Brian Kernighan.
• c. 1971
• Linux
• Sketched out on a piece of paper by Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson and un-named others (un-named in the book I'm reading, anyway). A simple kernel was coded by Thompson for a GE 645, though it was nly when a PDP-7 was located that the system design was properly implemented, cross-assembled at first on a GECOS machine (Honeywell 635), before finding it's own legs. It was at this point that it was given the UNIX name. Moved to a PDP-11 in 1971, it was rewritten in C (an unprecedented step at the time) in 1973.
  Originally distributed for free (due to a 1956 Consent Decree signed between AT&T and the Federal government?).
  Had an implementation of the TCP/IP protocol stack, which enabled it to become the operating system of choice for early workstations.

• developed by Bell Labs between 1977 and 1982, it combined several AT&T variants into a single system.

• internal version of the UNIX System III, evolved into System V.

• Evolved from UNIX System IV, officially supported from 1983-01. Added several features to UNIX System III.

• UNIX variant developed by the University of California at Berkeley, which provided some new features.

• IBM?
• Fred Brooks
• One of the first very large software projects, over 1,000 programmers. Amongst the most complex software systems every designed. Still used on the IBM 360 and descendants.

• Xerox
• 1981
• MacOS; Windows

• Apple
• 1984
• Xerox 8010 'Star'
• Windows
• Created for use on the Apple Macintosh.

• MicroSoft Disc Operating System
• Microsoft
• 1981
• Created to be shipped with IBM PC and compatible computers.

• 1984 (started)
• Free Software Foundation
• UNIX
• GNU/Linux
• Created to develop an entire UNIX-like operating system, much of it was of use in the early development of Linux, including the C compiler. It now has it's own kernel.

• Microsoft
• 1985
• Xeros 8010 'Star'
• Subsequent versions of Windows.
• Created as GUI for MS-DOS.  Neither powerful or popular.

• Microsoft
• 1987
• based on Windows
• Slightly more popular than the original Windows

• Microsoft
• 1990
• based on Windows 2
• PCs had better graphics by this time, and 80386 processors, allowing 'true' multitasking.  More efficient and reliable when running more than one application at the same time.  Allowed running and multitasking of older MS-DOS based software.  Made IBM PC competition for the Apple Mac/li>

• Microsoft
• improvement on Windows 3.0

• improvement on Windows 3.0 / 3.1

• Andrew Tanenbaum
• UNIX
• Linux
• Designed for teaching purposes. Limited, but much cheaper than UNIX.

• BSD
• NetBSD; FreeBSD; OpenBSD

• LInus UNiX (letters scrabbled around a bit), coined by Ari Lemmke (administrator at ftp.funet.fi)
• Linus Torvalds
• 1991-10 (version 0.02) / 1994-03 (version 1.0)
• Minix
• numerous descendants
• based on Minix and a terminal emulation program that Linus had written for his first PC
• A multi-tasking, multi-user 32 and 64 bit operating system released under the an Open Source licence, the name Linux refers to the kernel, what is usually referred to as Linux is in fact GNU/Linux.
  Designed by Linux Torvalds while at Helsinki University, which he attended from 1988-? Genereally pronounced to rhyme with 'win' rather than 'wine'.
  First corporate use (mainly due to lack of user interface for many of it's programs) was as file server, mail server, web server or firewall.
  KDE and Gnome are the most common desktop environments available, and the three biggest distros are Red Hat, SuSE (both produced by companies) and Debian (produced by a volunteer organisation).
  First ported from Intel 386 to a Digital Electronic Corporation Alpha processor. Later ported to Sun SPARC, UltraSPARC, Motorola 68000, PowerPC, PowerPC64, ARM, Hitachi SuperH, IBM S/390, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, Intel IA-64, DEC VAX, AMD x86-64, CRIS processors.

• Microsoft
• 1995-08
• based on Windows 3.11
• Combined operating system (no longer had to be installed on top of MS-DOS), 32 bit operating system written for 80386 processors. Multitasking (though not designed into, just added to the existing system).

• Microsoft
• 1998-06-25
• based on Windows 95
• More efficient storage of data on disks, supports disks larger than 2Gb.

• Windows New Technology
• Microsoft
• after 1995?
• 32 bit operating system. Developed alongside Windows for servers and businesses, more reliable and secure than Windows 95, but less compatible with older MS-DOS based software. Multitasking designed into the system.

• Microsoft
• 2000
• based on Windows NT5
• Aim was to merge Windows 9x and NT into one product, because of memory protection Windows 2000 unable to run some legacy software that Windows 9x can.  Basically Windows NT5 with prettier interface.

• Microsoft
• based on Windows 9x
• Developed because of Windows 2000's inability to run some legacy software (due to memory protection).

• Microsoft
• 2002

• Apple
• Mac OS 9; Linux
• Multitasking built into system (inherited from Linux kernel).

• IBM / Microsoft

• IBM / Microsoft
• pre-1995
• based on OS/2
• 32 bit operating system.  Unsuccessfully marketed.

• MIT
• late 1980s
• Not actually an operating system, but a GUI.  Source code is freely available and has become the standard GUI for more *nix systems, including most LInux distros.

etymology
creators
year
ancestors
descendants
genesis
notes

Uncategorised:

1980, UNIX/370, IBM System/370
1980, PC/IX, IBM PC/XT
1980, CPIX and S/1 IX,IBM S/1
1982, XENIX, IBM PC/AT, IBM CS9000
1980, VM/IX, IBM System/370
1984, IX/370, IBM 30xx
1986, AIX, IBM RT PC
1986, BSD4.2, IBM RT PC
1987, AIX, IBM PS/2 Model 80
1988 IBM announces AIX family definition

circa 1996 Solaris 2.5.1, had increased stability, performance and backward compatibility.

circa 1980 Coherent Unix. Mark Williams. commercial Unix work-alike

SysV

Irix

Multics