History and Evolution of Operating Systems

The OS play a huge role in today's society, highly automated. Without them, we couldn't do everything we do because they allow us to perform multiple tasks on a single computer.

Although today it is so simple and so broad in its different versions and types of operating systems (Mac OS, LINUX, Windows), originally It was based on a very simple structure which allowed for a single task. If you want to know more about it, feel free to read the following text.

In this post you will find a brief history and evolution of operating systems and all their versions until reaching the system we know today. All these systems, although different and with different purposes, come from the same mother system known as UNIX.

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What is an operating system and what are its main functions on a computer?

The operating system It is the most important software which must be installed on a computer, because without the operating system it is as if the computer did not work.

Before installing programs, operating systems are also primarily responsible for ensuring that drivers are working properly so that they can recognize the hardware. This includes keyboards, mice, cameras, etc.

Sometimes operating systems have many more responsibilities, such as traffic supervision, that is, ensuring that programs and users run correctly and at the same time.

They can also be used for security, to prevent outsiders from accessing private information, etc.

What was the first operating system ever? Who developed it and why?

What we know today as computing is the result of continuous development over time. The first steps were taken after the Second World War, in the mid-40s, when the term "operating system" did not yet exist.

At that time, programmers communicated with computers using machine language and programmed using only the numbers 0 and 1.

Then, in the 1950s, the concept of an operating system began to emerge, most famously in 1956 for the IBM 704 computer, which simply allowed other programs to run on it.

This system also evolved in the 60s, changing the original operating system to one that allowed multitasking or multi-user operation, with the arrival of UNIX, the basis of operating systems, in the same decade.

Mid 70s

In the 70s, the personal computer was born with an operating system created in the language of programming C, which was an evolution of UNIX.

Operating systems such as MacOS, MS-DOS and Windows entered the market in the 1980s. In the competition, New companies joined in the creation of new systems, and thus was born Linux, which in the 90s joined the GNU project, which is a completely free operating system.

UNIX What was the impact of this OS on the history of computing?

As already mentioned, Unix was not the first operating system, but it was the one that had the greatest impact on society and on the development of operating systems. It was created in 1969 and its creators were Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Rudd Canaday.

Originally It was called UNICS, but as it was not successful, it was renamed UNIX, which was developed by AT&T Bell Labs and General Electric, although the first version suffered some discrimination for being an expensive and slow operating system.

The University of California at Berkeley ended up using UNIX as a prototype to launch a new version. Later, Windows ran on UNIX, although it is said to have also worked with DOS.

Mid 1980

Microsoft He created for them a version of UNIX called XENIX, intended for use on microcomputers, somewhat smaller computers, and some machines of the time. This version was released in 1980, with continuous updates until 1989. Afterwards, Microsoft decided to work with DOS, which allowed it to improve the system architecture and considerably increase sales.

As with Windows, the same thing happened, but in a slightly different way, with GNU/LINUX, which was written from the beginning with the goal of having a completely free architecture. that could be adapted to devices and computers.

LINUX used MINIX and UNIX as the basis of its system, where it was called MINUX until the birth of Richard Stallman's GNU project.

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As there is a lot of competition in the market, Apple was not left behind and bet on UNIX, although not entirely, in 2001, which led to the birth of MAC OS X, which was written from scratch. Based on this, we can say that UNIX is the mother of operating systems, because without UNIX the systems we know today would not have been created.

The Birth of Modern Operating Systems When and how were Windows, MacOS and Linux born?

Next we will talk about most famous operating systems:

Windows

Windows was created in 1975 by William H. Gates III and Paul Allen, who were ordinary students at the time and shared a great passion for computers, decided to program using a PDP-10 computer from Digital Equipment Corporation.

As mentioned above, the basic architecture was inspired by UNIX. However, after a while MS-MOD Windows appeared with a slightly different architecture and with such great improvements that its sales began to grow significantly from there, giving rise to new versions after 2000 until reaching Windows 10.

Linux

As you know, it is an operating system implemented with the idea of a free and open system, so that anyone can access what is written in it and change its structure as they see fit.

In 1983, Richard Stallman created the GNU project, which was based on the UNIX framework and was POSIX-compatible, and two years later ceased to be just a project and became the Free Software Foundation.

As a system that allowed people to write frameworks and make changes, it experienced tremendous growth, even more than Windows. However, it does not have a good seed. Thanks to UNIX, it has experienced tremendous growth.

Other details

Although it was developed very quickly they never dared to release the first version of LINUX because they didn't like it, It was left for the personal use of its creator Linus TorvaldsSome time later (in 1991) they released the second version which was known as LINUX 0.02.

Later they released version 0.03. However, due to bugs and testing, they dropped all versions to 0.10. Then, in 1992, they moved to 0.95 and, due to recognition and good acceptance, they have the current versions of LINUX.

MacOS

It is one of the youngest operating systems, and its first version dates back to mid-2001, although The operating system is named after of the version of Mac OS X launched in 1984.

Unlike its predecessors, the MAC OS X operating system is very close to UNIX, which is an important contribution to the technology developed by NeXT in the mid-80s.

After a while, Apple bought the company (1997) and released the real first version in 1999, known as Mac OS X Server 1.0, which was released in March 2001, which was actually version number 10.

Its development was not very easy, as some parts of the system were somewhat more complex and expensive than others. In addition to being one of the youngest, it continues to compete with Microsoft and LINUX.

Evolution of Operating Systems (Timeline)

Check out what we've highlighted below:

Windows

Windows was one of the first operating systems to hit the market. That's why There are many versions, which we call liberations or subversions.

• Windows 1 (1985)
• Windows 2 (1987)
• Windows 3 (1990)
• Windows NT (1993)
• Windows 95 (1994)
• Windows 98 (1998)
• Windows Me (2000)
• Windows XP (2001)
  • Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional
  • Windows XP Media Center
  • Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

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• Windows XP Starter
• Windows XPN
• Windows XP K & KN
• Windows XP Embedded
• Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
• Windows Vista (2007)
  • Windows Starter.
  • Windows Vista Home Basic.
  • Windows Vista Home Basic N (European Antitrust Version)
  • Windows Vista Home Premium (most widely used)
  • Windows Vista Business.
  • Windows Vista Business N (European Antitrust Version)
  • Windows Vista Enterprise.
  • Windows Vista Ultimate.
• Windows 7 (2009)
  • Starter
  • Home Basic
  • Home Premium
  • Professional
  • Ultimate
  • Enterprise
  • EmbeddedStandard

N and KN Editions

• Windows 7 Home Premium WOMEN
• Windows 7 Professional N
• Windows 7 Ultimate N

• Windows 8 (2012)
  • Windows 8 (Home)
  • Windows 8 Pro (Networking)
  • Windows 8 Enterprise (only available for businesses)
  • Windows 8 RT (for ARM processors in tablets, comes pre-installed)
  • Windows 8.1
• Windows 10 (2015)
  • Windows 10 Home
  • Windows 10 Pro
  • 10 Windows Enterprise
  • Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB
  • Windows 10 Education
  • 10 Windows Mobile
  • Windows 10 S
  • Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
  • Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise
  • windows 10 team
  • Windows 10 Pro Education
  • Windows 10 IoT
  • Windows 10 N and KN

MacOS

Let's remember that Mac OS has been building systems and software since mid-1984, but after becoming Apple, launched its first official operating system in 2001.

• 1984: System 1
• 1985: System 2
• 1986: System 3
• 1987: System 4
• 1988: System 6
• 1990: System 7
• 1997: Mac OS 8
• 1999: Mac OS 9
• 2001: Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah
• 2001: Mac OS X 10.1 Puma
• 2002: Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar
• 2003: Mac OS X 10.3 Panther
• 2005: Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
• 2007: Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
• 2009: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
• 2011: Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
• 2012: Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
• 2013: Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks
• 2014: Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite
• 2015: Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan
• 2016: Mac OS X 10.12 macOS Sierra
• 2017: Mac OS X 10.13 macOS High Sierra
• 2018: Mac OS X 10.14 macOS Mojave
• 2019: Mac OS X 10.15 macOS Catalina

Linux

Hundreds of developers have contributed to the project since it was announced in 1991, so let's take a look at some of its main milestones:

• 1983 – 1989: The first version of GNU GPL was created
• 1991: The LINUX kernel is created
• 1992: The LINUX kernel is licensed under the GNU GPL
• 1993: Many test versions are created
• 1994: The first version of LINUX 1.0 is published
• 1996: The second version (LINUX 2.0) is launched on the market
• 1997: LINUX is considered an open system and several software companies created Apps and programs for it and its versions
• 1998: Oracle is created with support for LINUX
• 2001: LINUX is discriminated between 64 bits and 32 bits, for better processing.
• 2007: Dell becomes the first computer manufacturer with the UBUNTU system preinstalled
• 2015: Simplifies its designs so that anyone can add new versions or designs.

Conclusion

Operating systems are constantly evolving. Programmers learn as operating systems evolve. evolve to improve the next stepBatch processing eliminated the problem of scheduling and configuring jobs for batch processing.

However, it was still an inefficient system that caused long delays between jobs. Multitasking and There shared solved the problem of CPU idle time and allowed multiple tasks and users to interact simultaneously.

Hardware vendors play an important role in improving performance by developing better processors and I/O controls. Modern technology continue to use the concepts of multitasking and time-sharing. However, modern graphical user interfaces integrate them into desktop environments.

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