Comparison of operating systems

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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.

General information

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. [1]
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

Technical information

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.

Security

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.

References

1. ^ Operating System Market Share, May 2008, courtesy of Net Applications, a marketing company which obtains its data from the Alexa Toolbar or related products. Because people who install these products on their computers are not always aware that the product reports web browsing habits back to the marketers at Alexa some security software considers the Alexa Toolbar spyware and removes it. Both the automated removal-as-spyware and the self-selecting nature of those who install software that reports on personal web browsing habits raises questions as to whether the resulting data represents a unbiased statistical sample of Internet users.
2. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/compare-editions/default.aspx
3. ^ Jobs, Steve (August 2006). "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. ^ Ben Liblit, Andrew Begel, and Eve Sweetser. "Cognitive Perspectives on the Role of Naming in Computer Programs". Retrieved on 2007-12-26.

See also

• Usage share of desktop operating systems
• Comparison of open source operating systems
• Comparison of Linux distributions
• Comparison of Windows versions
• Comparison of BSD operating systems
• List of operating systems
• Comparison of file systems
• Comparison of kernels
• Comparison of computer shells
• Operating system advocacy
• Comparison of FTP client software
• Comparison of Windows and Linux
• MacvsWindows

Published - October 2008

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