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Earth Operations Central. All comments are strictly my unsupported opinion
unless based upon promotional blurb extracted from the websites linked
herein. This is by no means an exhaustive nor definitive list, and no particular
recommendation nor assurance of solvency or utility is to be inferred from a
listing herein.
Without an operating system, a computer is essentially a great doorstop. A
computer can do many things, but until something tells it how to do it, it
won't do a thing. The Operating System (OS) controls some of the most
basic functions of a computer, controlling how it allocates memory, how it
interfaces with various system components such as the harddrives, modems,
printers, video displays, etc. Without the operating system as an interface
between the machine and the software, nothing happens.
Computer Operating Systems
Apple Computers. Apple produces
several operating systems, which are pretty machine-specific. They produce
the:
- MacOS Operating System for
the Macintosh, a Motorola 68000 processor-based computer.
- NewtonOS Operating System
for the Apple Newton Personal Digital Assistant.
- Digital Equipment Corporation
(DEC) makes the VMS Operating System for their own VAX architecture.
- International
Business Machines (IBM) produces the OS/2 family of software for their
own product line, and most Intel-architecture PCs will run it also.
- BeOS.
- Linux. This is a very stable and
powerful UNIX-like Operating System which will run on Intel-architecture
PCs, the Apple Macintosh PowerPC, Sun SPARC machines, DEC ALpha machines,
etc. It's the most diverse operating system in the world, comes with all
source code, and it's free.
- It's what I prefer.
Microsoft makes operating systems
for the IBM-Compatible PC, generally based on the Intel x86 processor
architecture.
- Go to the Computing MetaIndex Page.
- Visit the Earth Operations Central District Office.
- Go back to the main EarthOps Homepage.