Currently there are only about 5 different versions of Operating Systems, with several sub-versions. They are:
- Windows
- MacOS
- iOS
- Android
- Unix/Linux
Now, technically Unix/Linux are different, and there are variations of these, but fundamentally at a high level they are the same.
There are some others out there, but they are rare and often on their way out. IBM’s AIX/AS400, which runs their mid-frame computes as an example is still around, but not very common and is losing market share by the day as it is not taught in any school and its main users are retiring without replacements.
Windows Mobile, PalmOS, OS/2 Warp, and many others have come and gone over the years, some more recently than others. Other OSes like DOS (of where there were several versions), DEC, IRIX, an dmore have been gone for many years now.
Chrome OS, which runs some of the Chrome Notebooks is often rumored to be on its way out and replaced with Android to simplify the Google product line, however an official end date is not known at this time.
The First OS
The first operating system is considered to be GM-NAA I/O, produced in 1956 by General Motors’ Research division for its IBM 704. Most early operating systems for IBM mainframes were also produced by customers. This was often because it needed to be tailor made to meet the needs of the customer.
IBM Mainframe OS
IBM finally started to work on developing its own OS System/360 for the machines it developed. This allowed for standardization between machines and users.
Mainframes sometimes had different versions of OSes based upon the needs of the customer and how the mainframe was being used. Each new mainframe often resulted in a new OS at the time, and often it was run by a data processor, not a normal user like you or I.
OSes of the 80’s
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs will forever be known for bringing computers to the masses in the 80’s. Both initially had command line Operating Systems which required a user to type in the commands to use. This wasn’t the most user friendly, however it allowed programs to access hardware, and given the power of standard the machines was about all they could handle at the time.
The Apple Computers had their version of the OS, and it was incompatible with the IBM PC and it’s clone’s. However for the “PC” there were various versions of DOS (Disk Operating System) including IBM’s PC DOS, Microsoft MS DOS, Novell DOS, and others.
Microsoft made first version of DOS for IBM, and then IBM decided to make their own, but MS DOS was already popular so most people stayed with it. Each vendor often changed or added some features.
To be considered MS DOS compatible, required an interesting test. You had to be able to play Microsoft Flight Simulator on it.
Early GUI OSes Windows
Early versions of Windows weren’t real OSes as we know them. They sat on top of DOS and made it easier for the user to perform tasks. The first version was Windows 286, and then it went to Windows 3.0, 3.1, and 3.11 (which added networking support).
MacOS was the first consumer level GUI OS. (There were a few that came before but were more for business only machines.) Microsoft launched Windows 95 to great fan-fare. It was a combination success and failure.
A lot of people loved it because it was much simpler, but it also was not 100% backwards compatible like almost all previous DOS versions were. It was delayed over a year to be released and was still fairly buggy in many ways when it was released.
However, as a 32 bit OS, it made things seems faster and allowed you to use your computer in a way that you didn’t feel like you had to be a rocket scientist first.
There were no real MS Windows OS clones due to the complexity of creating a GUI OS.
Microsoft created another OS, designed for businesses and servers, called Windows NT that launched about the same time. After a few years the consumer and business versions were essentially merged into a single product. Now we have “Home” and “Business” and “Server”, but the same basic code is there.
IBM tried to create a business oriented GUI OS called OS/2 Warp, but it didn’t take off. Much of that was because of the underlying business decisions that IBM had, not the product itself. Either way, it failed and now is only found in history lessons like this one.
On the consumer side, Windows had various versions. The running joke was every other one was considered good.
- Windows 95
- Windows 98
- Windows Me (Millennium – it’s code name, and often referenced by it)
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
- Windows 7
- Windows 8
- Windows 10
Why wasn’t there a Windows 9 you might ask? There was concern that some older applications might look for the first character after “Windows” see the “9” and assume it was 95/98. And given the changes from then till when Windows 10 came out, they decided to bypass V9, just to be safe.
History of Operating Systems was originally found on Access 2 Learn
