The oldest of all Microsoft’s operating systems is MS-DOS (Microsoft
Disk Operating System). MS-DOS is a text-based operating system. Users
have to type commands rather than use the more friendly graphical user
interfaces (GUI’s) available today. Despite its very basic appearance,
MS-DOS is a very powerful operating system. There are many advanced
applications and games available for MS-DOS. A version of MS-DOS
underpins
Windows. Many advanced administration tasks in
Windows can
only be performed using MS-DOS.
The
history of Microsoft
Windows dates back to 1985, when Microsoft
released Microsoft Windows Version 1.01. Microsoft’s aim was to provide a
friendly user-interface known as a GUI (graphical user interface) which
allowed for easier navigation of the system features. Windows 1.01
never really caught on. (The amazing thing about
Windows 1.01 is that
it fitted on a single floppy disk!). In 1987 Microsoft revamped the
operating system and released Windows 2.03. The GUI was very slightly
improved but still looked too similar to Windows 1.01. The operating
system again failed to capture a wide audience.
Microsoft made an enormous impression with Windows 3.0 and 3.1.
Graphics and functionality were drastically improved. The Windows 3.x
family provided multimedia capabilities as well as vastly improved
graphics and
application support.
Building on the success of Windows 3.x, Microsoft released Microsoft
Windows For Workgroups 3.11. This gave Windows the ability to function
on a network. It is not uncommon to find companies still using Windows
3.11.
In 1993 Microsoft divided the operating system into two categories;
Business and home user. Windows NT (New Technology) was a lot more
reliable than Windows 3.x. Windows NT provided advanced network
features. On the business front, Windows NT continued to develop with
the release of version 3.51. Different versions were provided which
offered different functionality. Server provided the higher network
functions and Workstation was mainly for the client machines.
In 1995 Windows went through a major revamp and Microsoft Windows 95
was released. This provided greatly improved multimedia and a much more
polished user interface. The now familiar desktop and Start Menu
appeared.
Internet and networking support was built in Although Windows
95 was a home user operating system, it proved to be very popular in
schools and businesses.
After the success of Windows 95, Microsoft improved the GUI interface
of Windows NT and released Windows NT 4.0. NT4 could be tailored to the
size of the business, NT4 Server for small to medium sized businesses
and Enterprise Server for larger networks. Microsoft continued to
improve the Windows format. Although Microsoft Windows 98 was very
similar to Windows 95, it offered a much tidier display and enhanced
multimedia support.
Breaking
with its own naming conventions, Microsoft released Windows 2000
(initially called NT 5.0) for the business market. It appeared in 4
models: Professional -which replaced Workstation, Server, Advanced
Server and Datacenter Server catered for differing business
requirements.
Although Windows 2000 had a greatly improved user interface, the best
of the enhancements appeared on the server side. Active Directory was
introduced which allowed much greater control of security and
organisation. Improvements to the overall operating system allowed for
easier configuration and installation.
One big advantage of Windows 2000 was that operating system settings
could be modified easily without the need to restart the machine.
Windows 2000 proved to be a very stable operating system that offered
enhanced security and ease of administration.
The last incarnation of the Windows 9x family was Windows Millennium
Edition (ME). There were many different versions of Windows floating
around at this stage that Microsoft decided the next release of Windows
would consolidate both the business and home versions. Although Windows
ME was visually similar to Windows 2000. Windows ME was based on the
Windows 9x line. Windows 9x/ME systems are not as secure and stable as
Windows NT and 2000 systems.
Because of the stability of Windows NT/2000, Microsoft decided to end
the development of the Windows 9x line, and merge both the consumer and
business products. Microsoft Windows XP comes as the Home Edition and
Professional, each is based on Windows 2000. Windows 2000 Server has
been upgraded to Windows 2003. This appears in four variants: Web
Server, Standard Server, Enterprise Server and Datacenter Server, each
fulfilling a different business role. Windows XP has a very polished
look, but the overall functionality is very similar to Windows 2000.
Operating Systems
The most important piece of
software on any
computer is the operating
system. The operating system gives the framework upon which all other
services and
applications run. The majority of home users use a Windows
based machine. Most of today’s applications and games are designed to
run solely on Microsoft systems.
Microsoft Windows is extremely popular in schools and colleges, many businesses also use Windows.
The Windows family is the most widely used Operating System. There
are other operating systems in the computing world, and some are a lot
older than Microsoft Windows. Luckily most operating systems can
interoperate with each other. Many of today’s larger networks contain a
variety of operating systems.
UNIX
A big advantage of UNIX is that it can be run on nearly every
computer hardware platform including Apple Macintosh machines. The UNIX
operating system is one of the oldest and most powerful operating
systems. It was developed by Bell Laboratories. There are many variants
of UNIX available.
Novell NetWare
Novell NetWare is an advanced network operating system. It has an
advanced directory service structure similar to Microsoft’s Active
Directory. Fortunately both directory services are interoperable as both
directories use the x500 directory service standard.
Linux/FreeBSD
Two of the most popular variations of UNIX come in the form of Linux
and FreeBSD. A big advantage of both Linux and FreeBSD is that they are
both open-source, that is, any user can contribute to the development of
the OS. Versions of both operating systems are completely free.
Linux and FreeBSD can easily take the role of a server or client
machine. However, they are considered to be more difficult to master as
both utilize the command line rather than a user friendly GUI. There are
several different distributions of Linux, but for each the underlying
operating system remains the same.
Apple Macintosh machines offer high performance sound and graphics
editing and are therefore extremely popular in the design industry.
Apple have developed their own operating system, the newest version of
which is the Mac OS X, which is based on UNIX.
Mac OS X is a very user friendly operating system and is increasingly popular for home PCs.
