In this article is presented, in a tabulated form, comparison information of some common operating systems according to the following topics: general information, technical information and security.
General information
| Name |
Creator |
First public release |
Predecessor |
Latest stable version |
Latest release date |
Cost/Availability |
Preferred license |
Target system type |
| Inferno |
Bell Labs |
1997-?-? |
Plan 9 |
Fourth Edition |
2007-02-? |
Free |
MIT/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL/LPL |
NetApp, Server, Embedded |
| GNU/Linux |
|
|
Unix, Minix |
|
|
Free as in Freedom |
GNU GPL |
|
| Mac OS |
Apple Inc. |
1984-01-24 |
None |
9.2.2 |
2002-05-12 |
Bundled with 68K and PowerPC Macs;
versions 7-9 sold as retail upgrades
|
Proprietary |
Workstation, home desktop |
| Mac OS X |
Apple Inc. |
2001-03-24 |
NeXTStep / OPENSTEP / Rhapsody, Mac OS, UNIX |
10.6.2 |
2009-11-09 |
Bundled with hardware; upgrades sold separately:
Desktop $169 (Single User Mac Box Set), $29 (Single User Mac OS X v10.5 Upgrade)
Family Pack $229 (5 User Mac Box Set), $49 (5 uUser Mac OS X v10.5 Upgrade) |
Open source core system (Both Intel and PowerPC versions) (APSL, GNU GPL, others) with proprietary higher level API layers |
Workstation, Home Desktop, Mobile (embedded) |
| OS/2 |
IBM and Microsoft |
1987-12-? |
UNIX, Windows 3.x |
4.52 |
2001-12-? |
$300 |
Proprietary |
Home Desktop, Server |
| Plan 9 |
Bell Labs |
1993-?-? |
Unix |
Fourth Edition |
(Daily snapshots) |
Free |
LPL |
Workstation, Server, Embedded, HPC |
| Windows Server (NT family) |
Microsoft |
1993-07-27 |
MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x |
Windows Server 2008 (NT 6.0) |
2008-02-27 |
$469 Web Server; other editions dependent on number of CALs purchased |
Proprietary |
Server, NetApp, Embedded, HPC |
| Microsoft Windows (NT family) |
Microsoft |
27 July 1993 |
MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x |
Windows 7 (NT 6.1.7600) |
2009-10-22 |
Home Basic (Retail) $99.95, Home Premium (Retail) $119.95, Business (Retail) $299.95, Ultimate (Retail) $300.95 |
Proprietary |
Workstation, Home Desktop, media center, Tablet PC, embedded |
| Microsoft Windows (Classic family) |
Microsoft |
1985-11-20 |
MS-DOS, Windows 1 and later |
Windows ME (Win 4.90.3000) |
2000-09-14 |
Outdated product. No longer for sale. |
Proprietary |
Home Desktop, Media Center |
| Name |
Creator |
First public release |
Predecessor |
Latest stable version |
Latest release date |
Cost/Availability |
Preferred license |
Target system type |
Technical information
| Name |
Computer architectures supported |
File systems supported |
Kernel type |
Source lines of code |
GUI default is on |
Package management |
Update management |
Native APIs |
Non-native APIs supported through subsystems |
| Linux |
x86, x86-64, PPC, SPARC, Alpha, others |
ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, and others |
Monolithic with modules |
~ 9 million (Kernel)
~283 million (Debian GNU/Linux)
|
See: Comparison of Linux distributions |
POSIX |
Mono, Java, Win16, Win32 |
| Inferno |
x86, PPC, SPARC, Alpha, MIPS, others |
Styx/9P2000, kfs, FAT, ISO 9660 |
Monolithic with modules, user space file systems |
|
Yes |
? |
? |
Proprietary |
|
| Mac OS Classic |
68k, PPC |
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) |
|
| Mac OS X |
PPC, x86, x86-64, ARM |
HFS+ (default), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV, ZFS (experimental) |
Hybrid |
~86 million |
Yes |
Mac OS X 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, Win32 |
| NetWare |
x86 |
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 |
|
| OS/2 |
x86 |
HPFS, JFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS |
Monolithic with modules |
|
Yes |
Feature Install and others |
? |
Proprietary, DOS API, Win16 |
Win32 |
| Plan 9 |
x86, Alpha, MIPS, PPC, SPARC, others |
fossil/venti, 9P2000, kfs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660 |
Monolithic, user space file systems |
|
Yes |
None |
replica |
Proprietary (Unix-like) |
POSIX compatibility layer |
Windows Server (NT family) |
x86, x86-64, IA-64 |
NTFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, reiserfs, and HFS |
Hybrid |
~45 million |
Yes |
MSI, custom installers |
Windows Update |
Win32, NT API |
DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET |
| Windows (NT family) |
x86, x86-64 |
NTFS, FAT exFAT ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, reiserfs, HFS+, FATX, and HFS |
Hybrid |
~ 40(XP)/64(Vista) million |
Yes |
MSI, custom installers |
Windows Update |
Win32, NT API |
DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET |
| Name |
Computer architectures supported |
File systems supported |
Kernel type |
Source lines of code |
GUI default is on |
Package management |
Update management |
Native APIs |
Non-native APIs supported through subsystems |
Security
|
Resource access control |
Subsystem isolation mechanisms |
Integrated firewall |
Encrypted file systems |
No execute (NX) page flag |
Known unpatched vulnerabilities (severity not accounted for) |
| Hardware |
Emulation |
Number |
Oldest |
| Inferno |
Unix |
Namespaces, Capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit |
? |
? |
No |
No |
Unknown |
| Linux |
Unix, ACLs, MAC |
chroot, Capability-based security, seccomp, SELinux |
Netfilter/Varied by distribution |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
10 |
10 May 2004 |
| Mac OS Classic |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
0 |
- |
| Mac OS X |
Unix, ACLs |
chroot |
ipfw |
Yes |
Yes (as of 10.5, X64 Only) |
Yes (Intel Only) |
5 |
22 November 2006 |
| NetWare |
Directory-enabled ACLs |
Protected Address Spaces |
IPFLT.NLM |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Unknown |
| OES-Linux |
Directory-enabled ACLs |
chroot |
IPFilter |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Unknown |
| OS/2 / eComStation |
ACLs |
No |
IP Filter |
No |
? |
Unknown |
| Plan 9 |
Unix (?) |
Namespaces, Capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit |
ipmux |
Yes |
No |
No |
Unknown |
| Windows Server 2008 |
ACLs, Privileges, RBAC |
Win32 WindowStation, Desktop, Job objects |
Windows Firewall, TCP/IP Filtering |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
0 |
- |
| Windows XP |
ACLs |
Win32 WindowStation, Desktop, Job objects |
Windows Firewall, TCP/IP Filtering |
Yes (With NTFS) |
Yes |
Yes |
4; 30 |
23 February 2007; 2 September 2002 |
Source: Wikipedia (All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License and Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.)
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