Differences between current version and predecessor to the previous major change of OperatingSystems.
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| Newer page: | version 12 | Last edited on Saturday, February 7, 2004 1:04:55 am | by AristotlePagaltzis | |
| Older page: | version 11 | Last edited on Sunday, August 10, 2003 4:45:23 am | by JamesBraid | Revert |
@@ -1,50 +1 @@
-An operating system is the piece of software which gets executed immediately after the BootStrap part of a PersonalComputer's (not sure about mainframes, but probably the case for them as well) startup sequence.
-
-The most common variants of
OperatingSystems in general use are:
-* One of the many [Microsoft] [Windows] version (3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, 98SE, NT3.51, NT4, 2000 (aka NT5), Millenium (aka ME), and XP)
-* The antiquated [MS-DOS] or it's many clones and predecessors such as QDOS[1], and PC-DOS
-* One of the many [Linux] variants such as RedHat, DebianLinux, Mandrake, OpenCaldera, etc
-* One of the many [BSD] versions, amongst which are [FreeBSD] and [NetBSD]
-* A version of [BeOS]
-* An original [Unix], such as HP-UX, AIX, SCO-Unix, etc
-* A [Sun] varient [SunOS] or [Solaris]
-* [SGI] [IRIX]
-* Or even one of the many MacOS versions such as [MacOSX]
-* There are still a few old [VAX]s and [Alpha]s out there running [VMS]
-
-There are many more listen in the CategoryOperatingSystem wiki, and for help with all the acronyms, check there.
-
-Many others are undoubtly available to the persistent user, or someone may have been brave enough to have written their own[2].
-
-
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-
-From [fortune(6)]
- There was once a programmer who was attached to the court of the
- warlord of Wu. The warlord asked the programmer: "Which is easier to design:
- an accounting package or an operating system?"
- "An operating system," replied the programmer.
- The warlord uttered an exclamation of disbelief. "Surely an
- accounting package is trivial next to the complexity of an operating
- system," he said.
- "Not so," said the programmer, "when designing an accounting package,
- the programmer operates as a mediator between people having different ideas:
- how it must operate, how its reports must appear, and how it must conform to
- the tax laws. By contrast, an operating system is not limited by outside
- appearances. When designing an operating system, the programmer seeks the
- simplest harmony between machine and ideas. This is why an operating system
- is easier to design."
- The warlord of Wu nodded and smiled. "That is all good and well, but
- which is easier to debug?"
- The programmer made no reply.
- -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
-
-----
-
-__Footnotes__
-
-[1] QDOS is usually referenced in one of two ways. The first as "Quick Disk Operating System", the other as the correct "Quick and Dirty Operating System".
-[2] Writing your own operating system can be a lengthy and complicated process which will involve some form of [AssemblyLanguage
] programming
. However it gives a great sense of satisfaction at having completed such a difficult
+Describe [
OperatingSystems] here
.
