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Operating Systems Comparison Chart - General Info
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| OS |
Creator |
First public release |
Predecessor |
Cost |
Preferred license |
Target system type |
AIX
 |
IBM |
1986 |
System V R3 |
Bundled with hardware |
Proprietary |
Server, Network Appliance, Workstation |
FreeBSD
 |
The FreeBSD Project |
December 1993 |
386BSD |
Free |
BSD |
Server, Workstation, Network Appliance |
HP-UX
 |
Hewlett-Packard |
1983 |
Unix |
$400 |
Proprietary |
Server, Workstation |
IRIX
 |
SGI |
1998 |
Unix |
Bundled with hardware and with updates available through overlays obtained from SGI Support |
Proprietary |
Server, Workstation |
Linux
 |
|
September 1991 |
Minix |
Free |
Usually GNU GPL/Copyleft |
Server, Workstation, Embedded |
Mac OS
 |
Apple Computer |
January 1984 |
None |
Free with OS X for PowerPC |
Proprietary |
Workstation, Home Desktop |
Mac OSX
|
Apple Computer |
March 2001 |
NeXTSTEP, Mac OS |
Bundled with hardware (but also sold separately)
Desktop $129 (Single User)
Family Pack $199 (5 license) |
Open source core system (Both Intel and Power PC versions) (APSL, GPL, others) with proprietary higher level API layers |
Workstation, Home Desktop |
Mac OSX Server
 |
Apple Computer |
March 2001 |
NeXTSTEP, Mac OS, Darwin |
Bundled with hardware (but also sold separately)
$499 (10 clients)
$999 (unlimited clients) |
Open source core system (Both Intel and Power PC versions) (APSL, GPL, others) with proprietary higher level API layers |
Server |
NetBSD
 |
The NetBSD Software Foundation |
May 1993 |
386BSD |
Free |
BSD |
Server, Workstation, Network Appliance, Router/Firewall, Enterprise Applications, HPC, Embedded, HPC, Diskless |
| NetWare |
Novell |
1985 |
S-Net |
$184 (1 user connection) |
Proprietary |
Server |
OpenBSD
 |
The OpenBSD Project |
October 1995 |
NetBSD 1.0 |
Free |
BSD |
Server, Network Appliance, Workstation, Embedded |
| OpenVMS |
DEC (now HP) |
February 1978 |
RSX-11M |
Free for non-commercial use |
Proprietary |
Server |
| OS/2 |
IBM and Microsoft |
December 1987 |
MS-DOS |
$300 |
Proprietary |
Home Desktop, Server |
| Plan 9 |
Bell Labs |
1993 |
Unix |
Free |
LPL |
Workstation, Server, Embedded, HPC |
Solaris
 |
Sun |
July 1992 |
SunOS |
Free |
CDDL |
Server, Workstation |
Windows Server
 |
Microsoft |
April 2003 |
Windows 2000 |
$379 Web Edition, $450 Small Business Server (Includes Exchange, ISA 2004, and more) |
Proprietary |
Server, Network Appliance, Embedded, HPC |
Windows
|
Microsoft |
October 2001 (Windows XP) |
Windows Me, Windows 2000 |
Home $199, Professional $299 (at launch, now cheaper) |
Proprietary |
Workstation, Home Desktop, Embedded |
SCO/UnixWare
 |
SCO |
1995 |
XENIX / Novell Unixware |
$599 - $9999 |
Proprietary |
Server, Workstation |
|
Operating Systems Comparison Chart - Technical Info
|
| OS |
Supported architectures |
Supported file systems |
Kernel type |
GUI on by default |
Package management |
Primary APIs |
AIX
|
POWER, PPC |
JFS, JFS2, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, GPFS |
Monolithic |
No |
installp, RPM |
SysV, POSIX |
FreeBSD
|
x86, x86-64, PC98, SPARC, others |
UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental) and others |
Monolithic with modules |
No |
ports tree, packages |
BSD, POSIX |
HP-UX
|
PA-RISC,IA-64 |
VxFS, HFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS |
Monolithic with modules |
No |
swinstall |
SysV, POSIX |
IRIX
|
MIPS |
XFS, NFS, FAT, HFS, ISO 9660 |
Monolithic with modules |
Yes |
packages |
POSIX, UNIX |
Linux
|
x86, x86-64, PPC, SPARC, Alpha, others |
EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, ReiserFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, JFS, and others |
Monolithic with modules |
No |
RPM, DEB, *Other |
POSIX |
Mac OS
|
68k, PPC |
HFS+, HFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF |
Monolithic with modules |
Yes |
Apple Installer |
proprietary, Carbon |
Mac OSX
|
PPC, x86 |
HFS+ (default), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV |
Hybrid |
Yes |
Mac OSX Installer |
Carbon, Cocoa, BSD/POSIX, X11 (since 10.3) |
Mac OSX Server
|
PPC, x86 |
HFS+ (default), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV |
Hybrid |
Yes |
Mac OSX Installer |
Carbon, Cocoa, BSD/POSIX, X11 (since 10.3) |
NetBSD
|
x86, x86-64, PPC, SPARC, 68k, Alpha, VAX, acorn26 acorn32 algor amd64 arm32 atari bebox cats cesfic cobalt dreamcast evbarm evbmips evbppc evbsh3 evbsh5 ews4800mips hp300 hp700 hpcarm hpcmips hpcsh i386 ibmnws iyonix macppc mipsco mmeye mvmeppc netwinder news68k newsmips ofppc pc532 pmax pmppc prep sandpoint sbmips sgimips sh3 sh5 shark sparc64 sun2 sun3 vax xen, others |
FFS, FFS2, UFS, UFS2, EXT2, EXT3, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, LFS, JFS, SMBFS, XFS, and others |
Monolithic with modules |
Yes |
pkgsrc, ports tree, packages |
BSD, POSIX, UNIX like |
| NetWare |
x86 |
NSS, NWFS, FAT, NFS, AFP, UDF, CIFS, ISO 9660 |
Hybrid |
No |
NWCONFIG.NLM, RPM, X-Windows-based GUI installer |
proprietary |
OpenBSD
|
x86, x86-64, SPARC, 68k, Alpha, others |
FFS, EXT2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, some others |
Monolithic with modules |
No |
ports tree, packages |
BSD, POSIX |
| OpenVMS |
VAX, Alpha, IA-64 |
Files-11, ISO 9660, NFS |
Monolithic with modules |
No |
PCSI, VMSINSTAL |
proprietary, Unix-like |
| OS/2 |
x86 |
HPFS, JFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS |
Monolithic |
Yes |
Feature Install and others |
proprietary |
| Plan 9 |
x86, Alpha, MIPS, PPC, SPARC, others |
fossil/venti, 9P2000, kfs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660 |
Monolithic, user space file systems |
Yes |
None |
Unix-like (and optional POSIX compatibility layer) |
Solaris
|
x86, x86-64, SPARC |
UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, some others |
Monolithic with modules |
Yes |
SysV packages (pkgadd) |
SysV, POSIX |
Windows Server
|
x86, x86-64, IA-64 |
NTFS, FAT, ISO 9660, Ext2, Ext3, UDF |
Hybrid |
Yes |
MSI, custom installers |
Windows API, .NET |
Windows
|
x86, x86-64, IA-64 |
NTFS, FAT, Ext2, Ext3, ISO 9660, UDF |
Hybrid |
Yes |
MSI, custom installers |
Windows API, .NET |
SCO/UnixWare
|
x86, MIPS |
UFS, VxFS, HTFS, EAFS |
Monolithic with modules |
No |
packages |
proprietary, POSIX |
|
Operating Systems Comparison Chart - Security Info
|
| OS |
Resource access control |
Subsystem isolation mechanisms |
Integrated firewall |
Encrypted file systems |
Data execution prevention |
| hardware |
emulation |
AIX
|
Unix, ACLs |
chroot |
IP Filter, IPSec VPNs, basic IDS |
No |
? |
FreeBSD
|
Unix, ACLs, MAC |
chroot, jail, MAC Partitions |
IPFW2, IPFilter, PF |
Yes |
? |
HP-UX
|
Unix, ACLs |
chroot |
IPFilter |
No |
? |
IRIX
|
Unix |
chroot |
Gauntlet |
? |
No |
No |
Linux
|
Unix, ACLs, MAC |
chroot, Capability-based-security, seccomp, SELinux, IPSec |
Netfilter/Varied by distribution |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Mac OS
|
none |
none |
none |
No |
No |
No |
Mac OSX
|
Unix, ACLs |
chroot |
ipfw |
Yes |
? |
Mac OSX Server
|
Unix, ACLs |
chroot |
ipfw |
Yes |
? |
NetBSD
|
Unix, Veriexec, ACLs |
chroot, jail, systrace, MAC Partitions |
IPFilter, PF |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| NetWare |
Directory-enabled ACLs |
Protected Address Spaces |
IPFLT.NLM |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
OpenBSD
|
Unix |
chroot, systrace |
PF |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| OpenVMS |
ACLs |
logical name tables |
? |
? |
? |
| OS/2 |
ACLs |
none |
none |
No |
? |
| Plan 9 |
Unix (?) |
Namespaces |
ipmux |
Yes |
No |
No |
Solaris
|
Unix, RBAC, ACLs, Privileges |
chroot, Containers |
IPFilter |
? |
Yes |
No |
Windows Server
|
ACLs |
Win32 WindowStation, Desktop, Job objects |
Windows Firewall,IPSec TCP\IP Filtering |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Windows
|
ACLs |
Win32 WindowStation, Desktop, Job objects |
Windows Firewall (XP and later), TCP\IP Filtering (NT Based systems), IPSec |
NTFS Only |
Yes |
Yes |
SCO/UnixWare
|
Unix |
chroot |
fwtk |
Yes |
? |
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