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Comparison of operating systems

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

These tables provide a comparison of operating systems, of computer devices, as listing general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available PC or handheld (including smartphone and tablet computer) operating systems. The article "Usage share of operating systems" provides a broader, and more general, comparison of operating systems that includes servers, mainframes and supercomputers.

Because of 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 is also a variety of BSD and DOS operating systems, covered in comparison of BSD operating systems and comparison of DOS operating systems.

Nomenclature

[edit]

The nomenclature for operating systems varies among providers and sometimes within providers. For purposes of this article the terms used are;

kernel
In some operating systems, the OS is split into a low level region called the kernel and higher level code that relies on the kernel. Typically the kernel implements processes but its code does not run as part of a process.[disputed – discuss]
hybrid kernel
monolithic kernel
Nucleus
In some operating systems there is OS code permanently present in a contiguous region of memory addressable by unprivileged code; in IBM systems this is typically referred to as the nucleus. The nucleus typically contains both code that requires special privileges and code that can run in an unprivileged state. Typically some code in the nucleus runs in the context of a dispatching unit, e.g., address space, process, task, thread, while other code runs independent of any dispatching unit. In contemporary operating systems unprivileged applications cannot alter the nucleus.

License and pricing policies also vary among different systems. The tables below use the following terms:

BSD
BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses, imposing minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software.
bundled
The fee is included in the price of the hardware
bundled initially
The fee is included in the price of the hardware but upgrades require an additional fee.
GPL2
GPL3
Per user
The fee depends on the maximum number of users concurrently logged on.
MSU
The fee depends on the resources consumed by the user
MULC
Measured Usage License Charges
PSLC
Parallel Sysplex Software Pricing

General information

[edit]
Name Creator Initial public release Predecessor Current stable version Release date Cost, availability Preferred license[g 1] Target system type
AIX IBM 1986 UNIX System V Release 3 7.3 June 20, 2022 Commercial Proprietary Server, NAS, workstation
AIX/370 IBM 1989 IX/370 Release 2.1? Feb 22, 1991 Non-free Proprietary IBM System/370

AIX/ESA V1 & V2

AIX/ESA IBM 1992 AIX/370, OSF/1 Version 2 Release 2 Feb 26, 1993 Non-free Proprietary ESA/370
IBM System/390
AmigaOS classic Commodore International, Haage & Partner, Hyperion Entertainment 1985 TRIPOS (as the disk operating component of AmigaOS) 3.2.2.1 April 23, 2023 Bundled with hardware up to version 3.0 (Amiga International hardware came with 3.1); versions 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.5, 3.9 and the more recent 3.2 (2021) also available as separate packages Proprietary, open source clone available under AROS Public License Workstation, personal computer
AmigaOS 4 Hyperion Entertainment 2004 AmigaOS classic 4.1 Final Edition Update 2.1 January 12, 2021 4.0 bundled with hardware; 4.0 for classic and 4.1 available as standalone package at €29 Proprietary Workstation, personal computer
Android Android, Inc., Google 2008 None 16 June 10, 2025 No cost AOSP: Apache-2.0
Linux: GPL-2.0-only 		Smartphone, tablet computer
ArcaOS Arca Noae, LLC 2017 OS/2 5.1.0 August 27, 2023 Personal edition US$139.00
Commercial edition US$249.00 		Proprietary Server, workstation, personal computer
Classic Mac OS (retronym; had no name originally, later Macintosh System Software) Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.) 1984 None[g 2][g 3] 9.2.2 2000 Discontinued; Was bundled with 68k and PowerPC Macs;

versions 7.1-9 sold as retail upgrades[1]

Proprietary Workstation, personal computer
ChromeOS Google 2011 none 129.0.6668.99 October 1, 2024 Bundled with hardware, 32-bit edition dropped Proprietary: Google OS Terms of Service. Open-source core system Chromebook, Chromebox, Chromebase and tablet
ChromiumOS Google 2009 none Rolling release October 7, 2021 No cost BSD
Linux Kernel GPL-2.0-only 		Personal computer
DragonFly BSD Matthew Dillon 2003 FreeBSD 6.4.0 June 9, 2022 No cost BSD Server, workstation, NAS, embedded system
eComStation Serenity Systems, Mensys BV 2001 OS/2 2.1 May 20, 2011 Discontinued; Commercial Proprietary Server, workstation, personal computer
EPOC32 Psion PLC 1996 ER5 1999 Discontinued; Commercial Proprietary PDA
EulerOS Huawei 2021 None V2.0SP8 2022 No cost Open source Server, workstation
FreeBSD The FreeBSD Project 1993 386BSD 14.1 June 4, 2024 No cost BSD Server, workstation, Desktop, NAS, embedded system
Genode Genode Labs 2008 None 25.05[2] Edit this on Wikidata 28 May 2025; 2 months ago (28 May 2025) No cost AGPL-3.0-only Desktop, embedded system, server
GhostBSD Eric Turgeon 2009 FreeBSD 21.05[3] May 13, 2021 No cost BSD Desktop, workstation
Linux Notable contributors include: Richard Stallman for GNU Project and Linus Torvalds for Linux and the Unixes they emulated; Red Hat, Debian Project See: Comparison of Linux distributions and Linux kernel#Development 1991 (kernel), See: Comparison of Linux distributions and History of Linux None 6.16.3[4] Edit this on Wikidata (kernel) 23 August 2025; 4 days ago (23 August 2025) (kernel) No cost GPL-2.0-only (kernel) See: Comparison of Linux distributions
Haiku Haiku Inc. 2002 BeOS R5 R1/Beta 5 September 13, 2024 No cost MIT Personal computer
HP NonStop HP (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise) 1976 None H06.24/J06.13 2012 Bundled with hardware? Proprietary HP Nonstop Servers
HP-UX HP (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise) 1983 UNIX System V HP-UX 11i v3 2023 / May 2023 May 2022 US$400 Proprietary Server
HarmonyOS Huawei 2019 OpenHarmony, LiteOS 5.0.0.102(SP3C00E73R4P17) October 23, 2024 Bundled with hardware and updates at no cost given to most existing users, subject to hardware requirements Proprietary software except for open-source components Internet of things, Smartphone, tablet computer, education, embedded system, smart watches
IBM i IBM 1988 CPF, SSP 7.5 May 10, 2022 Bundled with hardware Proprietary Server
Inferno Bell Labs 1996 Plan 9 Fourth Edition June 30, 2009 No cost MIT NAS, server, embedded
iOS (originally iPhone OS) Apple Inc. 2007 macOS 17.1.1 November 7, 2023 Bundled with hardware and updates at no cost given to most existing users, subject to hardware requirements Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (ARM versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others Smartphone, music player, tablet
IRIX SGI 1988 UNIX System V 6.5.30 2006 Discontinued; Bundled with hardware Proprietary Server, workstation
IX/370 IBM 1985 UNIX System V Release 1.4? Sep 25, 1987 Non-free Proprietary IBM System/370
macOS (originally Mac OS X) Apple Inc. 2001 NeXTSTEP, BSD 15.1 October 28, 2024 Bundled with hardware; No cost for updates and upgrades via Mac App Store for users of Mac OS X 10.6 or later Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (Apple Silicon-Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others Workstation, personal computer, embedded
macOS Server (originally Mac OS X Server) Apple Inc. 2001 NeXTSTEP, BSD 5.12 May 2, 2021 Discontinued; Previously bundled with hardware; No longer a separate operating system, but a group of services installed atop any version of macOS Monterey; US$19.99 on the Mac App Store Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others Server
MCP Unisys 1961 None CP OS 20.0 May 2021 Bundled with hardware Proprietary Server
MenuetOS Ville Turjanmaa and others 2000 None 1.49.00 2023 OS written in assembly language GPL or No cost Workstation
MINIX 3 Andrew S. Tanenbaum 2005 Minix2 3.3.0 2014 No cost BSD-3-Clause Workstation
MPE HP 1974 None MPE-V 1988 Discontinued; Was bundled with HP-3000 CISC hardware "Classic" Proprietary Server
MPE/XL HP 1987 MPE 7.5 2002 Discontinued; Was bundled with HP-3000 PA-RISC hardware Proprietary Server
MVS
(OS/VS2 R2 through R3.8) 		IBM 1972 OS/360 MVT, SVS Release 3.8 1974 Free (discontinued) Open source IBM System/370
MVS
(MVS/SE through MVS/ESA) 		IBM March 1978 OS/VS2 R3.7 for MVS/SE R1
OS/VS2 R3.8 for MVS/SE R2 through MVS/ESA 		z/OS Version 2.5 (V2R5) September 30, 2021 Price tied to processor capacity One Time Charge or monthly S/370

S/370-XA S/370-ESA ESA/390

NetBSD The NetBSD Project 1993 386BSD 9.3 August 4, 2022 No cost BSD NAS, server, workstation, embedded
NetWare Novell 1985 S-Net 6.5 SP8 May 6, 2009 Superseded by Novell Open Enterprise Server; Was US$184 (equivalent to $269.68 in 2024) (one-user) Proprietary Server
NeXTSTEP NeXT 1989 Unix 3.3 1995 Discontinued; Was bundled with hardware, then sold separately Proprietary Workstation
OpenBSD OpenBSD Project 1996 NetBSD 1.0 7.7 28 April, 2025 No cost ISC Server, NAS, workstation, embedded
OpenIndiana Many, based on software developed by Sun Microsystems and many others 2010 OpenSolaris 2023.04 April 30, 2021 No cost CDDL Server, workstation
OpenVMS DEC (now VSI) 1977 RSX-11M V9.2-3 November 20, 2024 Commercial, no cost for non-commercial use Proprietary Server, workstation
OpenHarmony Various (OpenAtom Foundation, Huawei and others) 2020 HarmonyOS, LiteOS 5.0.0 Release September 29, 2024 No cost Apache-2.0 Internet of things, embedded system, smart watches, mobile devices, personal computers
Oniro Various (Eclipse Foundation, Huawei and others) 2021 None 4.1 June 21, 2024 No cost Eclipse License, Apache-2.0 Internet of things, embedded system, smart watches, mobile devices, personal computers
OS/2 IBM and Microsoft 1987 MS-DOS 4.52 2001 Discontinued (see ArcaOS successor); Was US$300 (equivalent to $532.74 in 2024) Proprietary Personal computer, server
OS/360 IBM 1966 None Operating System/360 R21.8 August 1972 Free (discontinued) Open source S/360
S/370
OS/390 IBM 1995 MVS/ESA OS/390 version 2 R10 September 29, 2000 Price tied to processor capacity One Time Charge or monthly S/390
OS 2200 Unisys 1967 as Exec 8e Exec 8, OS 1100 CP OS 18 (Exec 49.2) July 18, 2018 Bundled with hardware Proprietary Server
OS/VS1 IBM 1972 OS/360 MFT II Release 7.0? Free (discontinued) — IBM System/370
OS/VS2 SVS IBM 1972 OS/360 MVT Release 1.7 Free (discontinued) — IBM System/370
Plan 9 Bell Labs 1992 Unix Fourth Edition 2003 (except for minor later updates) No cost MIT[5] Workstation, server, embedded system, HPC
QNX QNX Software Systems 1982 Unix, POSIX 7.1.0 July 2020 Bundled with BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook devices. Commercial; an academic version exists that needs authorization code before installing Proprietary Automotive, medical, smartphone, consumer, industrial, embedded system, safety
ReactOS ReactOS development team 1998 Windows NT (clone of) 0.4.14 April 9, 2020 No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Workstation, personal computer
Redox Jeremy Soller 2015 - 0.7.0 April 28, 2022 No cost MIT Desktop, workstation, server
RISC iX Acorn Computers 1988 BSD 4.3 1.21c 1993 Discontinued; Was bundled with hardware Proprietary Workstation
RISC OS Acorn Computers 1987 Arthur 3.71 1997 Discontinued; Was bundled with hardware Proprietary Education, personal computer
RISC OS 4 RISCOS Ltd, Pace plc 1999 RISC OS 4.39 2004 Bundled with hardware, then sold separately at £70 (US$127) Proprietary Education, personal computer
RISC OS 5 Castle Technology, RISC OS Open 2002 RISC OS 4 5.28[6] 2020 No cost Apache-2.0 Education, personal computer
RISC OS 6 RISCOS Ltd 2006 RISC OS 4 6.20 2009 Bundled with hardware, then sold separately at £70 (US$127) Proprietary Education, personal computer
Sailfish OS Jolla Ltd. 2013 Symbian 5.0 February 24, 2025 With Android App Support one time license fee of US$50 Source-available Smartphone
SerenityOS Andreas Kling 2018 None Continuous integration N/A No cost BSD-2-Clause Workstation, personal computer
Solaris Sun (now Oracle Corporation) 1992 SunOS 11.4 August 28, 2018 Commercial; (a perpetual license at no cost when used "for the purpose of developing, testing, prototyping and demonstrating your applications"[7]) CDDL Server, workstation
STOP 6, XTS-400 BAE Systems 2003 STOP 5, XTS-300 8.2 August 2008 US$60,000 (equivalent to $87,626 in 2024)+; bundled with XTS hardware and OEM licensed Proprietary Server, workstation
Symbian Symbian Ltd. 1998 EPOC32 9.5 2009 Discontinued; Commercial Proprietary Phone
Symbian platform Symbian Foundation 2010 (initially 1998 as Symbian) Symbian 3.0.4 2010 No cost EPL Embedded system
TempleOS Terry Davis 2005 (as J Operating System) None 5.03 2017 No cost Public domain Personal computer
Tru64 Digital Equipment Corporation January 1992 OSF/1 5.1B-6 October 1, 2010 Bundled with hardware Proprietary Server, workstation, HPC
VME ICL 1974 None SV294 1994 Bundled with hardware Proprietary ICL mainframe
VSEn 21st Century Software 1979 (as DOS/VSE) DOS/360
DOS/VS 		6.3 May 17, 2022 Monthly license fee Proprietary IBM Z
VxWorks Wind River Systems 1987 VRTX 7 March 2014 Paid Proprietary Embedded real-time system
Windows (classic 9x family) Microsoft 1995 MS-DOS Windows Me (Win 4.90.3000) 2000 Discontinued Proprietary Personal computer, media center
Windows (NT family) Microsoft 1993 OS/2 and Windows 3.1x Windows 11 (version 24H2) June 15, 2024 One time license fee Proprietary; Source-available Workstation, personal computer, media center, Tablet PC, embedded system
Windows Server (NT family) Microsoft 1993 OS/2 Windows Server 2025 (version 10.0.26100.2605) November 1, 2024 US$1050 5 CALs server; other editions dependent on number of CALs purchased Proprietary; Source-available Server, NAS, embedded system
z/OS IBM 2000 OS/390 Version 2.5 (V2R5) September 30, 2021 Price tied to processor capacity One Time Charge or monthly IBM Z
z/VM IBM 2000 VM/ESA 7.4 September 20, 2024[8] Monthly license fee Proprietary IBM Z
ZETA yellowTAB 2005 BeOS R5 1.5 2007 Discontinued Proprietary Personal computer, media center, workstation
Name Creator Initial public release Predecessor Current stable version Release date Cost, availability Preferred license[g 1] Target system type
  1. ^ a b Most OS distributions include bundled software with various other licenses.
  2. ^ "Hungarian". The Original Macintosh Anecdotes.. Although Lisa OS ran on the same, but a slower variant, microprocessor and was developed by Apple Computer Inc. at the same time as Classic Mac OS, they were developed as different projects, only sharing a similar GUI between them.
  3. ^ Mac OS 7.6 was the first Macintosh system software to be labeled Mac OS. Operating systems before this were named Macintosh System Software through System Software 7.5, and known as System #.# for short.

Technical information

[edit]
Name Computer architectures supported File systems supported Kernel type Source lines of code GUI default is on[t 1] Package management Update management Native APIs[t 2] Non-native APIs supported through subsystems
AIX POWER, PowerPC-AS, PowerPC, Power ISA JFS, JFS2, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, GPFS Monolithic with modules No installp, RPM Service Update Management Assistant (SUMA) SysV/POSIX
AmigaOS classic 68k, PowerPC Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. Microkernel Yes Installer[t 3] (almost not needed)[t 4] Proprietary BSD subset (available through 3rd party ixemul.library)
AmigaOS 4 PowerPC Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), JXFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. Microkernel Yes Installer[t 3] (almost not needed)[t 4] AmiUpdate (almost not needed)[t 5] Proprietary BSD subset (available through 3rd party ixemul.library)
ArcaOS IA-32 JFS (default), HPFS, ISO 9660, UDF, FAT32, NTFS Hybrid Yes ANPM (based on YUM and RPM) Update Facility OS/2 POSIX, Win16, DOS, Win32, Java
ChromeOS ARM, IA-32, x86-64 eCryptfs, NTFS, FAT, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, ext2, ext3, ext4, HFS+, MTP (read and write), ISO9660 (read-only), UDF (read-only) Monolithic with modules ≈17 million[9] Yes Portage Linux/POSIX
DragonFly BSD x86-64 UFS1, MFS, ext2, FAT (16/32), HAMMER, ISO 9660 Hybrid No dports, pkg git, cvsup, rsync, pkg BSD/POSIX Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Linux
eComStation IA-32 HPFS (default), FAT, JFS, UDF, FAT32, NTFS (read only) Hybrid Yes WarpIN, Feature Install, others Maintenance Tool Proprietary, DOS API, Win16 POSIX, Java, others
FreeBSD IA-32, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, others UFS2, ZFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, others Monolithic with modules 6.25 million[10] No Ports collection, packages by source, network binary update (freebsdupdate) BSD/POSIX Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Linux
Genode ARM, RISC-V, IA-32, x86-64 ext2, ext3, FAT32, ISO9660 Microkernel or Monolithic kernel ≈300,000 [citation needed] No Custom None Genode POSIX, Qt, SDL, MirageOS[11]
GhostBSD IA-32, x86-64 UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental), ZFS, others Monolithic with modules Yes Ports collection, packages by source, network binary update (freebsdupdate) BSD/POSIX Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Linux
Linux IA-32, x86-64, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC, others ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, F2FS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, and others Monolithic with modules ≈15 million (kernel)[12]

lines of code for userland libraries and applications vary depending on the distribution

Yes Depends on the distribution Linux/POSIX Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6] Win32[t 6]
Haiku IA-32, PowerPC, x86-64 BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, ext3, NTFS Hybrid ≈5.2 million[citation needed] Yes Ports collection (haikuport) pkgman, HaikuDepot POSIX, BeOS API Java, Qt
HP-UX PA-RISC, IA-64 VxFS, HFS, CDFS, EVFS, NFS, CIFS Monolithic with modules No SD, swinstall swa (HP-UX Software Assistant) SysV/POSIX
HarmonyOS 64-bit ARM, RISC-V, x86, x64 and LoongArch HMDFS, EROFS, NFS, RAMFS, FAT, JFFS2, exFAT Microkernel ≈239.6 million[13] (100 Deterministic Latency Engine)[14] Yes .app with HAP files Software Update Proprietary Java until 3.0.0
Inferno IA-32, PowerPC, SPARC, Alpha, MIPS, others Styx/9P2000, kfs, FAT, ISO 9660 Monolithic with modules, user space file systems Yes ? ? Proprietary
iOS ARMv8-A (iOS 7–present), ARMv7-A (iPhone OS 3–iOS 10), ARMv6 (iPhone OS 1–iOS 4.2.1) HFS+ (prior to version 10.3), APFS (since version 10.3) Hybrid ≈80 million[citation needed] Yes ? Software Update Cocoa, BSD-POSIX ?
Classic Mac OS 68k, PowerPC HFS+, HFS, MFS (Mac OS 8.0 and before), AFP, ISO 9660, FAT(System 7 and later), UDF Monolithic with modules Yes None Software Update (only in Mac OS 9) Toolbox, Carbon (from version 8.1)
macOS Apple silicon (11-present), x86-64 (10.4.7–present), IA-32 (10.4.4–10.6.8), PowerPC (10.0–10.5.8)
(see also iOS for ARM) 		HFS+ (default on hard drives, and on flash drives up to Sierra), APFS (default on flash drives in High Sierra), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV, ZFS (experimental) Hybrid with modules ≈86 million[15] Yes macOS Installer Software Update Carbon, Cocoa, Java, BSD-POSIX Toolbox (only in versions up to Mac OS X 10.4, not supported on x86 architecture), Win16,[t 6] Win32[t 6]
MINIX 3 IA-32 Microkernel ≈12,000 (C) + ≈1,400 (Assembly)[16] No POSIX
NetBSD IA-32, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, sparc64, others UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, LFS, and others Monolithic with modules No[t 7] pkgsrc by source or binary (using sysinst) BSD-POSIX Linux, others
NetWare 16-bit x86, IA-32 NSS, NWFS, FAT, NFS, AFP, UDF, CIFS, ISO 9660 Hybrid Yes NWCONFIG.NLM, RPM, X11-based GUI installer binary updates, ZENWorks for Servers, Red Carpet Proprietary
OpenBSD IA-32, x86-64, SPARC, 68k, Alpha, others ffs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, some others Monolithic No[t 7] Ports collection, packages by source or binary (packages via pkg_add) BSD-POSIX
OpenVMS VAX, Alpha, IA-64, x86-64 Files-11 (ODS), ISO 9660, NFS, CIFS Monolithic with modules No PCSI, VMSINSTAL ? Proprietary POSIX, RSX-11M
OS/2 16-bit x86 (1.x only), IA-32 HPFS, JFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS Monolithic with modules Yes Feature Install and others ? Proprietary, DOS API, Win16 Win32
OpenHarmony 64-bit ARM, RISC-V, x86, x64 and LoongArch HMDFS, EROFS, NFS, RAMFS, FAT, JFFS2, exFAT Multi-kernel ≈110 million+[17] Yes .app with HAP files Software Update Open-source, ArkUI, OpenHarmony API Kits Java until 3.0.0, React Native, Qt, Flutter, Electron, CEF
Oniro 64-bit ARM, RISC-V, x86, x64 HMDFS, EROFS, NFS, RAMFS, FAT, JFFS2, exFAT Multi-kernel Yes .app with HAP files Software Update Open-source, ArkUI, OpenHarmony and Oniro API Kits, React Native for ArkUI React Native, Qt, Flutter, Electron, CEF
Plan 9 IA-32, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, others fossil/venti, 9P2000, kfs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660 Hybrid, user space file systems ≈2.5 Million /sys/src (complete source of all supported architectures, kernels, commands and libraries) Yes None replica Proprietary (Unix-like) POSIX compatibility layer
QNX x86, SH-4, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS QNX4FS, QNX6, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, Joliet, NFS, CIFS, ETFS, UDF, HFS, HFS+, NTFS, others Microkernel POSIX, Java
ReactOS IA-32, PowerPC, ARM FAT, BTRFS, and NTFS (read only) Hybrid nearly 8 million[18] Yes ReactOS Applications Manager, MSI, custom installers None Win32, NT API DOS API
Redox x86-64 RedoxFS, TFS Microkernel Yes pkgutils POSIX
RISC OS ARM (both 26 and 32-bit addressing modes) Acorn ADFS, Econet ANFS, FAT, ISO 9660, many others as loadable filesystems Monolithic with modules. Cooperative multitasking with limited memory protection.[19] Yes Applications self-contained; hardware drivers often in ROM !IyoUpWtch Huge number of SWI calls; extensive C libraries
SerenityOS x86, x86-64 ext2 Microkernel ≈750,000 Yes None None POSIX, propertiary
Solaris IA-32, x86-64, SPARC UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others Monolithic with modules Yes SysV packages (pkgadd)
Image Packaging System (pkg) (Solaris 11 and later) 		Image Packaging System (Solaris 11 and later) SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Mono, Linux[t 8]
OpenSolaris IA-32, x86-64, SPARC(AI) UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others Monolithic with modules ≈18.8 million[20] Yes Image Packaging System (pkg), SysV packages (pkgadd) Image Packaging System SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Mono, Linux[t 8]
STOP 6, XTS-400 x86 Proprietary Monolithic No RPM for some untrusted applications Binary updates via postal mail and proprietary tools Some: SysV, POSIX, Linux, proprietary
Symbian ARM FAT Microkernel Yes SIS files FOTA Proprietary POSIX compatibility layer
TrueOS IA-32, x86-64[t 9] UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental) and others Monolithic with modules Yes Ports collection, packages, PBI Graphical Installers by PBI updates, source, network binary update (freebsdupdate) BSD-POSIX Win16,[t 6] Win32[t 6]
Windows Server (NT family) IA-32, x86-64, IA-64 NTFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, ReiserFS,[t 10] and HFS Hybrid with modules ≈45 million[21] Yes MSI, custom installers Windows Update Win32, NT API DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET
Windows (NT family) IA-32, x86-64, ARM, IA-64, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC NTFS, FAT exFAT ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support btrfs, ext2, ext3, ReiserFS,[t 10] HFS+, FATX, and HFS (with third party driver) Hybrid with modules ≈40 (XP)/64 (Vista and later) million[citation needed] Yes MSI, custom installers Windows Update Win32, NT API DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET
ZETA IA-32 BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, HFS, AFP, ext2, CIFS, NTFS (read only), ReiserFS (read only, up to v3.6) Hybrid Yes SoftwareValet, script-based installers None POSIX, BeOS API
z/OS z/Architecture VSAM, BDAM, QSAM, BPAM, HFS, zFS, etc. Protected, multithreading, multitasking nucleus with programmable/user replaceable extensions. Not kernel-based.[clarification needed] No None, SMP/E SMP/E Filesystem access methods, Systems Services, etc. POSIX, many others.
Name Computer architectures supported File systems supported Kernel type Source lines of code GUI default is on[t 1] Package management Update management Native APIs[t 2] Non-native APIs supported through subsystems
  1. ^ a b 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.
  2. ^ a b Most operating systems use proprietary APIs in addition to any supported standards.
  3. ^ a b 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 from 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.
  4. ^ a b 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.
  5. ^ AmiUpdate can update AmigaOS files and 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.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p using Wine
  7. ^ a b 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.
  8. ^ a b "BrandZ (Community Group brandz.WebHome) - XWiki". Opensolaris.org. October 26, 2009. Archived from the original on September 29, 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
  9. ^ only i686 CPU
  10. ^ a b 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.

Security

[edit]
Name Resource
access
control 		Subsystem
isolation
mechanisms 		Integrated
firewall 		Encrypted
file
systems 		No execute (NX)
page flag 		Manufacturer acknowledged unpatched vulnerabilities (by severity)[s 1]
Secunia Security-
Focus
Hardware
Emulation
 Extremely critical
(number / oldest) 		Highly
critical
(number / oldest) 		Moderately critical
(number / oldest) 		Less
critical
(number / oldest) 		Not
critical
(number / oldest) 		Total
(number / oldest)
AIX 7.1 POSIX, ACLs, MAC, Trusted AIX - MLS, RBAC chroot IPFilter, IPsec VPNs, basic IDS Yes Yes[s 2] — Un­known 0
FreeBSD 10.1 POSIX, ACLs, MAC chroot, Jails, MAC partitions, multilevel security, Biba Model, BSD file flags set using chflags, Capsicum Capability-based security IPFW2, IPFilter, PF, IPsec Yes Yes Yes[s 3] 0 0 0 0 0 >0
GhostBSD 3.1 POSIX, ACLs, MAC chroot, jail, MAC partitions, BSD file flags set using chflags IPFW2, IPFilter, PF Yes Yes Yes 0 0 0 0 0 >0
Genode Hierarchal,[22] least privilege capability-based security Virtual switch and NAPT controls in user-space No kernel dependent No Un­known
HP-UX 11.31 POSIX, ACLs chroot IPFilter Yes ? ? 0 0 3
June 30, 2004;
21 years ago (2004-06-30) 		2
December 12, 2002;
22 years ago (2002-12-12) 		0 >0
Inferno POSIX Namespaces,[23] capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit ? ? No No Un­known >0
Linux-based 2.6.39 POSIX, ACLs,[s 4] MAC chroot,[s 5] seccomp, Namespaces, SELinux, AppArmor Netfilter, varied by distribution Yes Yes Yes 0 0 0 6
June 24, 2004;
21 years ago (2004-06-24) 		11
April 4, 2005;
20 years ago (2005-04-04) 		>0
Mac OS 9.2.2 No No No No No No 0 0 0 0 0 >0
OS X 10.10.5 POSIX, ACLs[s 6] chroot, BSD file flags set using chflags ipfw Yes Yes (as of 10.5, X64 only) Yes (Intel only) 0 0 1
April 14, 2009;
16 years ago (2009-04-14) 		2
January 8, 2007;
18 years ago (2007-01-08) 		5
November 22, 2006;
18 years ago (2006-11-22) 		>0
NetBSD 6.1.2 POSIX, Veriexec, PaX, kauth chroot, kauth, BSD file flags set using chflags IPFilter, NPF, PF Yes Yes No Un­known >0
NetWare 6.5 SP8 Directory-enabled ACLs Protected address spaces IPFLT.NLM Yes Yes No 0 0 1
August 31, 2010;
14 years ago (2010-08-31) 		2
October 30, 2003;
21 years ago (2003-10-30) 		0 0
OES-Linux Directory-enabled ACLs chroot IPFilter Yes Yes No Un­known >0
OpenBSD 4.8 POSIX chroot, systrace, BSD file flags set using chflags PF Yes Yes Yes Un­known >0
OpenVMS 9.2 ACLs, privileges logical name tables ? ? Yes ? 0 0 0 0 0 Unknown
OS/2, eComStation, ArcaOS ACLs[s 7] No IPFilter No ? ? 0 0 0 0 0 0
TrueOS 8.1 POSIX, ACLs, MAC chroot, jail, MAC partitions IPFW2, IPFilter, PF Yes[s 8] ? ? 0 0 0 0 0 >0
Plan 9 POSIX ? Namespaces,[23] capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit ipmux Yes No No Un­known >0
QNX 6.5.0 POSIX ? PF, from NetBSD ? ? ? 0 0 0 5
November 20, 2002;
22 years ago (2002-11-20) 		1
November 7, 2002;
22 years ago (2002-11-07) 		Unknown
RISC OS No No IPFilter No No No Un­known
Solaris 10 POSIX, RBAC, ACLs, least privilege, Trusted Extensions chroot, Containers,[s 9] Logical Domains IPFilter Yes[s 10] Yes No 0 2
October 31, 2007;
17 years ago (2007-10-31) 		5
October 23, 2007;
17 years ago (2007-10-23) 		3
September 10, 2009;
15 years ago (2009-09-10) 		2
November 6, 2006;
18 years ago (2006-11-06) 		>0
OpenSolaris 2009.06 POSIX, RBAC, ACLs, least privilege, Trusted Extensions chroot, Containers,[s 9] Logical Domains IPFilter Yes[s 10] Yes No 0 0 0 0 0 >0
Windows Server 2012 ACLs, privileges, RBAC Win32 WindowStation, desktop, job objects Windows Firewall Yes Yes Yes 0 0 0 0 0 [Unknown]
Windows 8.1 ACLs, privileges, RBAC Win32 WindowStation, desktop, job objects Windows Firewall Yes Yes Yes 0 0 0 0 1
May 30, 2014;
11 years ago (2014-05-30) 		[Unknown]
ZETA POSIX[s 11] No No No No No Un­known
STOP 6, XTS-400[s 12] POSIX, multilevel security, Biba Model mandatory integrity, ACLs, privileges, subtype mechanism Multilevel security, Biba Model, subtype mechanism No No No No Un­known
z/OS 1.11 RACF RACF, low storage protection, page protection, storage protect key, execution key, subspace group facility, APF, ACR (alternate CPU recovery), more z/OS IPSecurity Optional Yes (storage protect key, execution key, APF, more) Yes 0 0 0 0 0 Unknown
Name Resource
access
control 		Subsystem
isolation
mechanisms 		Integrated
firewall 		Encrypted
file
systems
Hardware
Emulation
 Extremely critical
(number / oldest) 		Highly
critical
(number / oldest) 		Moderately critical
(number / oldest) 		Less
critical
(number / oldest) 		Not
critical
(number / oldest) 		Total
(number / oldest)
No execute (NX)
page flag 		Secunia Security-
Focus
Known unpatched vulnerabilities (severity is accounted for)[s 1]
  1. ^ a b Comparison of known unpatched vulnerabilities based on Secunia & SecurityFocus reports with severity of Not critical & above. Update lists manually with oldest published date(s).
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ The GCC stack protection (a.k.a. ProPolice stack-smashing protector) has been enabled in base system since FreeBSD 8.0-release.
  4. ^ Support for the 1997 withdrawn POSIX ACL draft is included in Linux 2.6, but requires a file system able to store them (such as ext3, XFS or ReiserFS).
  5. ^ A jail mechanism is available separately in the Linux-VServer project, but is not integrated into any mainline Linux kernel.
  6. ^ ACLs were added to Mac OS X starting with version 10.4.
  7. ^ ACLs are available only in OS/2 Server versions with HPFS386 filesystem.
  8. ^ Additionally swap space may be encrypted during installation, uses memory based tmp file storage by default.
  9. ^ a b "Solaris Containers" (including "Zones") are a jail-type mechanism introduced with Solaris 10.
  10. ^ a b Through ZFS
  11. ^ Zeta has full Unix file permissions, but the OS is single user, and users always run as superuser.
  12. ^ STOP 6 is certified under Common Criteria at EAL5+.

Commands

[edit]

For POSIX compliant (or partly compliant) systems like FreeBSD, Linux, macOS or Solaris, the basic commands are the same because they are standardized.

Feature AROS FreeBSD Linux-based HP-UX OpenVMS macOS Solaris Windows (cmd) Windows (PowerShell)
List directory list, dir ls ls ls dir ls ls dir Get-ChildItem
Clear console clear clear clear clear ty/pa nl: clear clear cls Clear-Host
Copy file(s) copy cp cp cp copy cp cp copy Copy-Item
Move file(s) move mv mv mv ren mv mv move Move-Item
Rename file(s) rename mv mv, rename mv ren mv mv ren (rename) Rename-Item
Delete file(s) delete rm rm rm del rm rm del (erase) Remove-Item
Delete directory delete rmdir rmdir rmdir del rmdir rmdir rd (rmdir) Remove-Item
Create directory makedir mkdir mkdir mkdir create/dir mkdir mkdir md (mkdir) New-Item
Change current directory cd[c 1] cd cd cd set def cd cd cd (chdir) Set-Location
Run shell script with new shell shell file.shell sh file.sh sh file.sh sh file.sh @ file.com sh file.sh sh file.sh cmd /c file.cmd powershell file.ps1
Kill processes ? kill, killall killall, pkill, kill, skill kill stop kill, killall kill, pkill taskkill Stop-Process
Change process priority changetaskpri nice nice, chrt nice set proc/prio nice nice start /low, start /normal, start /high, start /realtime Start-Process, wmic
Change I/O priority ? [c 2] ionice ? set proc/prio nice[c 3] ? ? ?
Create file system format newfs mkfs newfs init mkfs newfs, zpool / zfs create format Format-Volume
File system check and recovery ? fsck fsck fsck analyze/disk fsck fsck chkdsk Repair-Volume
Create software raid ? atacontrol, gmirror, zfs create mdadm -C ? ? diskutil appleRAID metainit, zpool create diskpart (mirror only) diskpart (mirror only)
Mount device mount mount mount mount mount mount, diskutil mount mount mountvol New-PSDrive
Unmount device assign drivename: dismount umount umount umount dismount umount, diskutil unmount(disk) umount mountvol /d Remove-PSDrive
Mount file as block device ? mdconfig + mount mount -o loop ? ? hdid lofiadm + mount ? ?
Show network configuration ? ifconfig ip addr, ifconfig ifconfig, lanadmin tcpip sh net (sh net) ifconfig ifconfig ipconfig Get-NetIPInterface, ipconfig
Show network route ? netstat -r, route get, route monitor ip route, route netstat -r tcpip sh route netstat -r, route get, route monitor netstat -r route Get-NetRoute
Trace network route ? traceroute traceroute traceroute tcptrace traceroute traceroute tracert Test-NetConnection
Trace network route with pings ? traceroute -I traceroute -I, mtr ? tcptrace traceroute -I traceroute -I pathping pathping
Feature AROS FreeBSD Linux-based HP-UX OpenVMS macOS Solaris Windows (cmd) Windows (PowerShell)

NOTE: Linux systems may vary by distribution which specific program, or even 'command' is called, via the POSIX alias function. For example, if you wanted to use the DOS dir to give you a directory listing with one detailed file listing per line you could use alias dir='ls -lahF' (e.g. in a session configuration file).

  1. ^ May be omitted. Simply entering the directory name will change to it.
  2. ^ This feature is still in development, see [1].
  3. ^ The nice command utilizes the setpriority() system call, which affects I/O priority, see OS X man page .

See also

[edit]

Operating system comparisons

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Pogue, David (January 1997). MacWorld Macintosh Secrets 4th edition - Chapter 6: The System Software Museum (PDF). p. 225. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  2. ^ "Release 25.05". May 28, 2025. Retrieved June 15, 2025.
  3. ^ "GhostBSD 21.05.11 ISO now available". Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  4. ^ Greg Kroah-Hartman (August 23, 2025). "Linux 6.16.3". Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  5. ^ "'[9fans] Transfer of Plan 9 to the Plan 9 Foundation' - MARC".
  6. ^ Revill, Steve (October 24, 2020). "RISC OS 5.28 now available". RISC OS Open. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  7. ^ "Oracle Solaris OTN License". Oracle.com. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
  8. ^ "Introducing IBM z/VM 7.4". August 6, 2024.
  9. ^ "The Chromium (Google Chrome) Open Source Project on Open Hub". openhub.net.
  10. ^ Arno Wagner (December 11, 2009). "(S)LOC Count Evolution for Selected OSS Projects" (PDF). data for 2009, fig 1.
  11. ^ "Release notes for the Genode OS Framework 18.11".
  12. ^ Ryan Paul (April 4, 2012). "Linux kernel in 2011: 15 million total lines of code and Microsoft is a top contributor". arstechnica.com. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
  13. ^ Amit (November 5, 2022). "HarmonyOS 3.1: Huawei written 239.6 million lines of code and 16000 own APIs". Huawei Update. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
  14. ^ Hellard, Bobby. "What is HarmonyOS? A guide to Huawei's operating system". IT PRO. IT PRO. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  15. ^ Jobs, Steve (August 7, 2006). "Live from WWDC 2006: Steve Jobs Keynote". Retrieved February 16, 2007. 86 million lines of source code that was ported to run on an entirely new architecture with zero hiccups.
  16. ^ Tanenbaum, Andrew S. (2015). Modern Operating Systems: Global Edition. Pearson Education Limited. ISBN 9781292061955.
  17. ^ Benjamin. "OPENHARMONY HOLDS A TECHNICAL CONFERENCE IN CALIFORNIA, USA". HarmonyOSHub. HarmonyOSHub. Retrieved July 1, 2024.
  18. ^ "ReactOS Change Log". Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
  19. ^ "RISC OS Memory Protection - Drobe.co.uk archives". drobe.co.uk. Archived from the original on March 31, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
  20. ^ find usr/src -type f -exec wc -l {} + | grep total | awk '{ sum += $1 } END {print sum }' on [2] results in 18793105
  21. ^ Ben Liblit; Andrew Begel; Eve Sweetser. "Cognitive Perspectives on the Role of Naming in Computer Programs" (PDF). Retrieved December 26, 2007.
  22. ^ "Genode organizational structure".
  23. ^ a b Rob Pike; Dave Presotto; Ken Thompson; Howard Trickey; Phil Winterbottom. "The Use of Name Spaces in Plan 9".
[edit]
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: A Neutral Look at Operating Systems
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