Front End Development – Resources

Operating Systems

Operating systems (OS) are essential to computing and the most important program that runs on a computer. The OS is responsible for performing basic tasks such as recognizing keyboard input, relaying output to the display, keeping track of the files and directories and controlling other devices such as disk drives and printers.

OS are classified as:

• Multi-user — allowing more than one user to run programs at the same time (some allow 1000s of users)
• Multiprocessing — allows running a program on more than one CPU.
• Multitasking — allows more than one program to run at the same time.
• Multithreading — allows different parts of a program to run at the same time.
• Real time — responds to input instantly. Dos and Unix (general purpose OS) are not real time.

Types of Operating Systems

UNIX

Originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, and originally designed to let a number of programmers access a computer at the same time and share its resources. The real-time component of UNIX makes it one of the most powerful OS ever.

It was originally designed by programmers for programmers yet provides a environment so powerful that it is found in all types of industries including, business, science, academia and commerce. Initially designed for medium-sized mini computers, the system was soon moved to large, mainframe computers. Then, as personal computers became more popular, UNIX found its way into these computers as well.

During the 1970s and 1980s, many variants of the UNIX system appeared including Linux (the base of Apple’s desktop and mobile OS). Today, there exist many UNIX variations and UNIX descendants.

UNIX, which has proven itself over the past 40 years, will not be disappearing anytime soon. However, with the advent of cheaper competing OSes, UNIX will see strong competition.

Linux

Since is advent in 1991, Linux has grown to become a leader in OSes, powering everything from the NYSE to mobile phones and supercomputers. It was originally developed by Linus Torvald as a personal project but since it is an open OS, it has been developed collaboratively by many companies and developers.

There are many ‘flavors’ of Linux that have been developed some of which include:

• CentO
• Debian
• Fedora
• FreeBSD
• Gentoo
• Slackware
• Ubuntu

What began as a server OS, Linux has become useful as a desktop OS as well. Due to the open source nature of the OS, Linux has seen extreme growth rivaling that of Windows and shows no signs of slowing down in the future.

Mac OS X

Released in 2002, Mac OS X is a ‘flavor’ of UNIX that has been a hugely successful OS for Apple and is included on their desktop and mobile products. The origins of Mac OS X come from Steve Job’s development at a company called NeXT (soon to be Apple).

The development of Mac OS X is closed source so only available to Apple developers which doesn’t seem to have hindered it’s popularity. Various versions have been released including:

• Lion
• Leopard
• Tiger
• Panther
• Jaguar
• Puma
• Cheetah
• Kodiak

As the popularity of Apple products grows and grows, Mac OS X will continue to see a strong consumer base and Apple will most likely continue to develop their OS geared towards pleasing their consumers.

Windows

Originally announced as a ‘next-generation OS that would provide a graphical user interface (GUI) and multitasking environment for IBM computers’, the Windows OS has become one of the lead OS for personal and server computers.

The brainchild of Bill Gates, Windows aimed at making personal computers user friendly. Despite facing strong competition from Apple, Windows still manages to maintain a large majority of the personal computer market – possibly attributed to its design and affordability.

Oracle Solaris

A UNIX version OS originally developed by AT&T and Sun in the 1990s, Solaris has recently been purchased by Oracle in an attempt to revitalize it for the future. The OS has many features it’s competition boasts but it has seen stunted growth probably attributed to its cost.

There are talks of releasing a ‘cloud-based’ OS in the future which may revitalize this struggling OS.

Front End Development – Resources.