Operating Systems

While we have covered the main operating systems above, there are still other minor systems to touch on.  We won’t go into great detail on these systems, but they are still worth mentioning.

Amiga computers have their own Amiga OS.  It has unique hardware in Amiga DOS which is a disk operating system.  Their windowing interface is called Intuition, and the graphical user interface is referred to as Workbench.  While Amiga OS isn’t as popular now as it used to be, there are still some Amiga computers out there running this operating system.

Solaris is a computer operating system developed by Sun Microsystems.  It is one of the largest open source projects in the computer community.  It continues to grow in features, members, and applications.  It is an independent operating system much as Unix is and is available for use on many computer systems.

Digital audio players run on free software called Rockbox.  It was released under the GNU General Public License.  This is a relatively new operating system and was first implemented on Archos Studio player because of owner frustration with limitations in the manufacturer-supplied user interface and device operations.  It is present or available for many different players including the new ones with multi-color video capabilities.

Apple Computers miniature MP3 players run on a version of Linux called ipod linux.  Newer players like the iPod shuffle are supported by its own version of operating system as the Linux system isn’t capable of supporting some of the new graphical abilities.

Most computer routers run on a Cisco operating system.  While the specific OS may vary slightly between versions, the basic set-up is essentially the same. 

There have been many, many operating systems that have been created over the years.  They have all evolved over the years to accommodate new technologies, and they will continue that evolution as our computers and electronic devices change.

Windows Vista has been the most recent OS to be released.  Mac will soon be releasing another version of Mac OS X as well dubbed “Leopard”.  As the open source OS market continues to grow and evolve, we are likely to see many more of these popping up as well.

The competition can be fierce.  As of late, some users have put pressure on Dell to pre-load all of its PCs and laptops with Linux operating system.  Whether or not this is a good move remains to be seen.  Many, many computer users are used to Windows, and learning a new system could be detrimental to one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world.

Another movement has been taken on to have new computers come without an operating system but with a coupon for a free OS of their choosing.  That way, users can decide for themselves which system they want to use.  Microsoft isn’t keen on this idea, as you can imagine, but we do have a free enterprise system in our country.  While they do have an almost corner on the market, some believe that these other companies should be able to go after their “piece of the pie” as well.

If you think you want to change your current operating system or if you have a computer without an operating system, you’ll need to know how to install the new OS.