Windows

Operating Systems
An Operating system (OS) is a software which acts as an interface between the end user and
computer hardware. Every computer must have at least one OS to run other programs. An
application like Chrome, MS Word, Games, etc needs some environment in which it will run and
perform its task. The OS helps you to communicate with the computer without knowing how to
speak the computer's language. It is not possible for the user to use any computer or mobile
device without having an operating system. Majority of home users use a Windows based
machine. Most of today’s applications and games are designed to run solely on Microsoft
systems.
Functions of an Operating System

In an operating system software performs each of the function:

1. Process management:- Process management helps OS to create and delete processes. It

also provides mechanisms for synchronization and communication among processes.

2. Memory management:- Memory management module performs the task of allocation

and de-allocation of memory space to programs in need of this resources.

3. File management:- It manages all the file-related activities such as organization storage,
retrieval, naming, sharing, and protection of files.
4. Security:- Security module protects the data and information of a computer system
against malware threat and authorized access.
5. Command interpretation: This module is interpreting commands given by the user and
acting system resources to process that commands.
6. Job accounting: Keeping track of time & resource used by various job and users.
7. Communication management: Coordination and assignment of compilers, interpreters,
and another software resource of the various users of the computer systems.

Introduction to Microsoft Windows

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.
History
Windows versions through the years

1985: Windows 1.0

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 release was a shaky start for the tech giant. Users found the
software unstable. (The amazing thing about Windows 1.01 is that it fitted on a single floppy
disk). However, the point-and-click interface made it easier for new users to operate a computer.
Windows 1.0 offered many of the common components found in today's graphical user interface,
such as scroll bars and "OK" buttons.

1987: Windows 2.0 and 2.11

Windows 2.0 was faster, more stable and had more GUI features. The GUI was very slightly
improved but still looked too similar to Windows 1.01.The system introduced the control panel
and ran the first versions of Excel and Word. Windows 2.0 supported extended memory, and
Microsoft updated it for compatibility with Intel's 80386 processor. It was during this time that
Microsoft became the largest software vendor in the world, just as computers were becoming
more commonplace. The fact that Windows systems were user-friendly and relatively affordable
was a contributing factor to the growing PC market.

1990: Windows 3.0

Windows 3.0 supported 16 colors and included the casual games familiar to most Windows
users: Solitaire, Minesweeper and Hearts. Games that required more processing power still ran
directly on MS-DOS. Exiting to DOS gave games direct hardware access made more system
resources available. Microsoft made an enormous impression with Windows 3.0 and 3.1.
Graphics and functionality were drastically improved. The Windows 3 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 3.11 for Workgroups. This
gave Windows the ability to function on a network.

1993: Windows New Technology (NT)

Windows NT's release marked the completion of a side project to build a new, advanced OS. NT
was 32-bit and had a hardware abstraction layer. DOS was available through the command
prompt, but it did not run the Windows OS. Microsoft designed NT as a workstation OS for
businesses rather than home users. The system introduced the Start button.

1995: Windows 95
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. Windows 95 facilitated hardware installation with its Plug and Play feature.
Microsoft also unveiled 32-bit color depth, enhanced multimedia capabilities
and TCP/IP network support.

1998: Windows 98

Microsoft Windows 98 was very similar to Windows 95, it offered a much tidier display and
enhanced multimedia support. Microsoft improved speed and Plug and Play hardware support in
Windows 98. The company also debuted USB support and the Quick Launch bar in this release.
DOS gaming began to wane as Windows gaming technology improved. The popularity of the OS
made it an attractive target for malware. Microsoft integrated web technology into the Windows
user interface and built its own web browser into the desktop.
2000: Windows Millennium Edition (ME)

Windows ME (Millennium Edition) was the last use of the Windows 95 codebase. Its most
notable new feature was System Restore. Many customers found this release to be unstable.
Some critics said ME stood for "mistake edition."

Microsoft released the professional desktop OS Windows 2000 (initially called NT 5.0) in the
same year for the business market. Improvements to the overall operating system allowed for
easier configuration and installation. Microsoft based this OS on the more stable Windows NT
code. Some home users installed Windows 2000 for its greater reliability. Microsoft updated
Plug and Play support, which spurred home users to switch to this OS. 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.
2001: Windows XP

Microsoft delivered Windows XP as the first NT-based system with a version aimed squarely at
the home user. Home users and critics rated XP highly. The system improved Windows
appearance with colorful themes and provided a more stable platform. Microsoft virtually ended
gaming in DOS with this release. DirectX-enabled features in 3D gaming that OpenGL had
difficulties with. XP offered the first Windows support for 64-bit computing, but it was not very
well supported, lacking drivers and applications to run.

2006: Windows Vista

Microsoft hyped Windows Vista after the company spent a lot of resources to develop a more
polished appearance. Vista had interesting visual effects but the OS was slow to start and run.
Vista's flaws -- coupled with the fact that many older computers lacked the resources to run the
system -- led to many home and business users staying with XP.

2009: Windows 7

Microsoft built Windows 7 on the Vista kernel. Windows 7 picked up Vista's visual capabilities
but featured more stability. To many end users, the biggest changes between Vista and Windows
7 were faster boot times, new user interface and the addition of Internet Explorer 8. With true 64-
bit support and more Direct X features, Windows 7 proved to be a popular release for Windows
users.

2012: Windows 8

Microsoft released Windows 8 with a number of enhancements and debuted its tile-
based Metro user interface. Windows 8 took better advantage of multicore processing, solid-state
drives (SSD), touchscreens and other alternate input methods.
2015: Windows 10

Microsoft announced Windows 10 in September 2014, skipping Windows 9 and launched on

July 2015. Version 10 includes the Start menu, which was absent from Windows 8. A responsive
design feature called Continuum adapts the interface depending on whether the user works with a
touch screen or a keyboard and mouse for input. New features like an onscreen back button
simplified touch input. Microsoft designed the OS to have a consistent interface across devices
including PCs, laptops and tablets.

LINUX OS

Linux is an operating system or a kernel. It is distributed under an open source license. Its
functionality list is quite like UNIX.

Who created Linux?

Linux is an operating system or a kernel which germinated as an idea in the mind of young and
bright Linus Torvalds when he was a computer science student. He used to work on the UNIX
OS (proprietary software) and thought that it needed improvements. However, when his
suggestions were rejected by the designers of UNIX, he thought of launching an OS which will
be receptive to changes, modifications suggested by its users.

As time passed by, he collaborated with other programmers in places like MIT and
applications for Linux started to appear. So around 1991, a working Linux operating system with
some applications was officially launched, and this was the start of one of the most loved and
open-source OS options available today.The earlier versions of Linux were not so user-
friendly as they were in use by computer programmers and Linus Torvalds never had it in
mind to commercialize his product.

This definitely curbed the Linux's popularity as other commercially oriented Operating System
Windows got famous. Nonetheless, the open-source aspect of the Linux operating system made
it more robust.

The main advantage of Linux was that programmers were able to use the Linux Kernel to design
their own custom operating systems. With time, a new range of user-friendly OS's stormed the
computer world. Now, Linux is one of the most popular and widely used Kernel, and it is the
backbone of popular operating systems like Debian, Knoppix, Ubuntu, and Fedora.
Nevertheless, the list does not end here as there are thousands of OS's based on Linux which
offer a variety of functions to the users. Linux Kernel is normally used in combination
of GNU project by Dr. Richard Stallman. All mordern distributions of Linux are actually
distributions of Linux/GNU

Properties of Linux

Linux Pros

A lot of the advantages of Linux are a consequence of Linux' origins, deeply rooted in UNIX,
except for the first advantage, of course:

1. Linux is free:

If you want to spend absolutely nothing, you don't even have to pay the price of a CD. Linux can
be downloaded in its entirety from the Internet completely for free. No registration fees, no costs
per user, free updates, and freely available source code in case you want to change the behavior
of your system.

2. Most of all, Linux is free as in free speech:

The license commonly used is the GNU Public License (GPL). The license says that anybody
who may want to do so, has the right to change Linux and eventually to redistribute a changed
version, on the one condition that the code is still available after redistribution.
 3. Linux is portable to any hardware platform:

A vendor who wants to sell a new type of computer and who doesn't know what kind of OS his
new machine will run (say the CPU in your car or washing machine), can take a Linux kernel
and make it work on his hardware.

4. Linux is secure and versatile:

The security model used in Linux is based on the UNIX idea of security, which is known to be
robust and of proven quality. But Linux is not only fit for use as a fort against enemy attacks
from the Internet: it will adapt equally to other situations, utilizing the same high standards for
security. Your development machine or control station will be as secure as your firewall.

5. Linux is scalable:

From a Palmtop with 2 MB of memory to a petabyte storage cluster with hundreds of nodes: add
or remove the appropriate packages and Linux fits all. You don't need a supercomputer anymore,
because you can use Linux to do big things using the building blocks provided with the system.
If you want to do little things, such as making an operating system for an embedded processor or
just recycling your old 486, Linux will do that as well.

6. The Linux OS and most Linux applications have very short debug-times:

Because Linux has been developed and tested by thousands of people, both errors and people to
fix them are usually found rather quickly. It sometimes happens that there are only a couple of
hours between discovery and fixing of a bug.

Linux Cons

There are far too many different distributions:

"Quot capites, tot rationes", as the Romans already said: the more people, the more opinions. At
first glance, the amount of Linux distributions can be frightening, or ridiculous, depending on
your point of view. But it also means that everyone will find what he or she needs. You don't
need to be an expert to find a suitable release.

When asked, generally every Linux user will say that the best distribution is the specific version
he is using. So which one should you choose? Don't worry too much about that: all releases
contain more or less the same set of basic packages. On top of the basics, special third party
software is added making, for example, TurboLinux more suitable for the small and medium
enterprise, RedHat for servers and SuSE for workstations. However, the differences are likely to
be very superficial. The best strategy is to test a couple of distributions; unfortunately not
everybody has the time for this. Luckily, there is plenty of advice on the subject of choosing your
Linux. A quick search on Google, using the keywords "choosing your distribution" brings up
tens of links to good advise. The Installation HOWTO also discusses choosing your distribution.

• Linux is not very user friendly and confusing for beginners:

It must be said that Linux, at least the core system, is less user-friendly to use than MS Windows
and certainly more difficult than MacOS, but... In light of its popularity, considerable effort has
been made to make Linux even easier to use, especially for new users.

Is an Open Source product trustworthy?

How can something that is free also be reliable? Linux users have the choice whether to use
Linux or not, which gives them an enormous advantage compared to users of proprietary
software, who don't have that kind of freedom. After long periods of testing, most Linux users
come to the conclusion that Linux is not only as good, but in many cases better and faster that the
traditional solutions. If Linux were not trustworthy, it would have been long gone, never
knowing the popularity it has now, with millions of users. Now users can influence their systems
and share their remarks with the community, so the system gets better and better every day.