Daniel Janzen

A4
History of Operating Systems

Windows 7
Windows 7 is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on
personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops,
netbooks, tablet PCs, and media center PCs. It was given to
manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available for retail
worldwide on October 22, 2009, less than three years after the release of
its predecessor, Windows Vista. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows
Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time. Windows 7 is succeeded
by Windows 8. It was originally developed by Bill Gates.

Mac
On January 24, 1984, Apple Computer Inc. now Apple introduced the
Macintosh personal computer, but ended up to become the Mac OS. Mac
has been credited for popularizing the GUI. Mac OS is preinstalled into
almost every Macintosh computers. The operating system is also sold
separately at Apple retail stores, and online. The Macintosh project

started in early 1979 with Jef Raskin envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost

computer for the average consumer. In September 1979, Raskin began
looking for an engineer who could put together a prototype.
LINUX
In the beginning, there was Unix, created by the bearded ones, Ken
Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, in 1969. After that, throughout the eighties, a
number of projects started life, all based on the encompassing vision that is
Unix. There are many legends that tell of the start of Linux, one of which is:
Linus, while playing around in MINIX, piped data to his hard drive instead of
his modem and wiped out the MINIX partitions he had created, thus leading
to his frustration at the limits of the OS and his decision to create his own.
The original GUI was a command based system. But it ended up turning into
the gnome KDE GUI. This made it much better for the Linux system. The
cool part about Linux is that you cannot download everything and that the
GUI is free.

UNIX
UNIX started in the early 1970's, by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie. The
success of the UNIX operating system has led to many different versions:
People started using the UNIX system code and all began developing their
own different versions in their own, different, ways for use and

sale. Universities, research institutes, government bodies and computer

companies all began using the powerful UNIX system to develop many of
the technologies which today are part of a UNIX system. Computer aided
design, manufacturing control systems, laboratory simulations, even the
Internet itself, all began life with and because of UNIX systems. Today,
without UNIX systems, the Internet would come to a screeching halt. Most
telephone calls could not be made and, electronic commerce would grind
to a halt.

Citations
-www.microsoft.com
-www.princeton.edu
-www.techradar.com
-www.unix.org