1950s

1950s

The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...

• 1951
  • LEO I 'Lyons Electronic Office' was the commercial development of EDSAC
    EDSAC
    Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator was an early British computer. The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England...
    
     computing platform, supported by British firm J. Lyons and Co.
    J. Lyons and Co.
    J. Lyons & Co. was a market-dominant British restaurant-chain, food-manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1887 as a spin-off from the Salmon & Gluckstein tobacco company....
    
    
• 1954
  • MIT
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
    
    's Tape Director operating system made for UNIVAC 1103
    UNIVAC 1103
    The UNIVAC 1103 or ERA 1103, a successor to the UNIVAC 1101, was a computer system designed by Engineering Research Associates and built by the Remington Rand corporation in October, 1953...
    
    
• 1955
  • General Motors Operating System made for IBM 701
    IBM 701
    The IBM 701, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was announced to the public on April 29, 1952, and was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer...
    
    
• 1956
  • GM-NAA I/O
    GM-NAA I/O
    The GM-NAA I/O input/output system of General Motors and North American Aviation was the first operating system for the IBM 704 computer.It was created in 1956 by Robert L. Patrick of General Motors Research and Owen Mock of North American Aviation...
    
     for IBM 704
    IBM 704
    The IBM 704, the first mass-produced computer with floating point arithmetic hardware, was introduced by IBM in 1954. The 704 was significantly improved over the IBM 701 in terms of architecture as well as implementations which were not compatible with its predecessor.Changes from the 701 included...
    
    , based on General Motors Operating System
• 1957
  • Atlas Supervisor
    Atlas Supervisor
    The Atlas Supervisor was the program which managed the allocation of processing resources of Manchester University's Atlas Computer so that the machine was able to act on many tasks and user programs concurrently....
    
     (Manchester University
    University of Manchester
    The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
    
    ) (Atlas computer project start)
  • BESYS
    BESYS
    BESYS was an early computing environment originally implemented as a batch processing operating system in 1957 at Bell Labs for the IBM 704 computer. The initial version of the system BESYS2 was created by George Mealy and Gwen Hansen with Wanda Lee Mammel and utilized IBM's FORTRAN and North...
    
     (Bell Labs
    Bell Labs
    Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
    
    ), for IBM 7090
    IBM 7090
    The IBM 7090 was a second-generation transistorized version of the earlier IBM 709 vacuum tube mainframe computers and was designed for "large-scale scientific and technological applications". The 7090 was the third member of the IBM 700/7000 series scientific computers. The first 7090 installation...
    
     and IBM 7094
• 1958
  • University of Michigan Executive System
    University of Michigan Executive System
    The University of Michigan Executive System, or UMES, a batch operating system developed at the University of Michigan in 1958, was widely used at many universities...
    
     (UMES), for IBM 704, 709
    IBM 709
    The IBM 709 was an early computer system introduced by IBM in August, 1958. It was an improved version of the IBM 704 and the second member of the IBM 700/7000 series of scientific computers....
    
    , and 7090
    IBM 7090
    The IBM 7090 was a second-generation transistorized version of the earlier IBM 709 vacuum tube mainframe computers and was designed for "large-scale scientific and technological applications". The 7090 was the third member of the IBM 700/7000 series scientific computers. The first 7090 installation...
    
    
• 1959
  • SHARE Operating System
    SHARE Operating System
    The SHARE Operating System, also known as SOS, was created in 1959 as an improvement on the General Motors GM-NAA I/O operating system, the first operating system, by the SHARE user group...
    
     (SOS), based on GM-NAA I/O

1960s

1960s

The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

• 1960
  • IBSYS
    IBSYS
    IBSYS was the tape based operating system that IBM supplied with its IBM 7090 and IBM 7094 computers. A similar operating system , also called IBSYS, was provided with IBM 7040 and IBM 7044 computers...
    
     (IBM for its 7090
    IBM 7090
    The IBM 7090 was a second-generation transistorized version of the earlier IBM 709 vacuum tube mainframe computers and was designed for "large-scale scientific and technological applications". The 7090 was the third member of the IBM 700/7000 series scientific computers. The first 7090 installation...
    
     and 7094)
  • KDF9 Timesharing Director (English Electric
    English Electric
    English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...
    
    ) An early, fully hardware secured, fully pre-emptive process switching, multi-programming operating system for KDF9 (Announced)
• 1961
  • CTSS (MIT's
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
    
     Compatible Time-Sharing System for the IBM 7094)
  • MCP (Burroughs Master Control Program)
• 1962
  • Atlas Supervisor
    Atlas Supervisor
    The Atlas Supervisor was the program which managed the allocation of processing resources of Manchester University's Atlas Computer so that the machine was able to act on many tasks and user programs concurrently....
    
     (Manchester University
    University of Manchester
    The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
    
    ) (Atlas computer commissioned)
  • GCOS
    General Comprehensive Operating System
    General Comprehensive Operating System is a family of operating systems oriented toward mainframe computers.The original version of GCOS was developed by General Electric from 1962; originally called GECOS...
    
     (GE's
    General Electric
    General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
    
     General Comprehensive Operating System, originally GECOS, General Electric Comprehensive Operating Supervisor)
• 1963
  • Titan Supervisor
    Titan (computer)
    Titan was the prototype of the Atlas 2 computer developed by Ferranti and the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in Cambridge, England...
    
    , early time-sharing system begun
  • AN/FSQ-32
    AN/FSQ-32
    The AN/FSQ-32 was a computer made by IBM in 1960 and 1961 for the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command . IBM called it the 4020 Military Computer, but it was more commonly known as the Q-32. Only one unit was ever built.-History:The Q-32 was installed at System Development Corporation ...
    
    , another early time-sharing system begun
• 1964
  • EXEC 8 (UNIVAC
    UNIVAC
    UNIVAC is the name of a business unit and division of the Remington Rand company formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, and the associated line of computers which continues to this day...
    
    )
  • OS/360 (IBM's primary OS for its S/360 series) (Announced)
  • TOPS-10
    TOPS-10
    The TOPS-10 System was a computer operating system from Digital Equipment Corporation for the PDP-10 mainframe computer launched in 1967...
    
     (DEC
    Digital Equipment Corporation
    Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
    
    , the name TOPS-10 wasn't adopted until 1970)
  • Berkeley Timesharing System
    Berkeley Timesharing System
    The Berkeley Timesharing System was a pioneering time-sharing operating system implemented between 1964 and 1967 at the University of California, Berkeley...
    
     (for Scientific Data Systems'
    Scientific Data Systems
    Scientific Data Systems, or SDS, was an American computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky, a veteran of Packard Bell and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists. SDS was an early adopter of integrated circuits in computer design and the first to employ silicon...
    
     SDS 940
    SDS 940
    The SDS 940 was Scientific Data Systems' first machine designed to support time sharing directly, and was based on the SDS 930's 24-bit CPU built primarily of integrated circuits. It was announced in February 1966 and shipped in April, becoming a major part of Tymshare's expansion during the 1960s...
    
    )
  • Dartmouth Time Sharing System
    Dartmouth Time Sharing System
    The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System, or DTSS for short, was the first large-scale time-sharing system to be implemented successfully. DTSS was inspired by a PDP-1-based time-sharing system at Bolt, Beranek and Newman. In 1962, John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College submitted a grant for...
    
     (Dartmouth College's
    Dartmouth College
    Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
    
     DTSS for GE computers)
• 1965
  • THE multiprogramming system
    THE multiprogramming system
    The THE multiprogramming system was a computer operating system designed by a team led by Edsger W. Dijkstra, described in monographs in 1965-66 and published in 1968....
    
     (Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven
    Eindhoven University of Technology
    The ' is a university of technology located in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The motto of the university is: Mens agitat molem . The university was the second of its kind in the Netherlands, only Delft University of Technology existed previously. Until mid-1980 it was known as the...
    
    )
  • Multics
    Multics
    Multics was an influential early time-sharing operating system. The project was started in 1964 in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
    
     (MIT, GE, Bell Labs
    Bell Labs
    Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
    
     for the GE-645) (Announced)
  • BOS/360 (IBM's Basic Operating System)
  • TOS/360 (IBM's Tape Operating System)
• 1966
  • OS/360 (IBM's primary OS for its S/360 series) PCP and MFT (Shipped)
  • DOS/360
    DOS/360
    Disk Operating System/360, also DOS/360, or simply DOS, was an operating system for IBM mainframes. It was announced by IBM on the last day of 1964, and it was first delivered in June 1966....
    
     (IBM's Disk Operating System)
  • MS/8
    MS/8
    MS/8 or The RL Monitor System was an operating system developed for the PDP-8 in 1966 by Richard F. Lary. It was submitted to DECUS in 1970. It was a disk oriented system, faster than its predecessor the 4K Disk Monitor System, with tricks to make it run quickly on DECtape based systems. MS/8 has...
    
     (Richard F. Lary's DEC PDP-8 system)
• 1967
  • CP/CMS
    CP/CMS
    CP/CMS was a time-sharing operating system of the late 60s and early 70s, known for its excellent performance and advanced features...
    
     (IBM, also known as CP-67
    CP-67
    CP-67 was the control program portion of CP/CMS, a virtual machine operating system developed for the IBM System/360-67 by IBM's Cambridge Scientific Center. It was a reimplementation of their earlier research system CP-40, which ran on a one-off customized S/360-40...
    
    )
  • Michigan Terminal System
    Michigan Terminal System
    The Michigan Terminal System is one of the first time-sharing computer operating systems. Initially developed in 1967 at the University of Michigan for use on IBM S/360-67, S/370 and compatible mainframe computers, it was developed and used by a consortium of eight universities in the United...
    
     (MTS) (time-sharing system for the IBM S/360-67 and successors)
  • ITS
    Incompatible Timesharing System
    ITS, the Incompatible Timesharing System , was an early, revolutionary, and influential time-sharing operating system from MIT; it was developed principally by the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, with some help from Project MAC.In addition to being technically influential ITS, the...
    
     (MIT's Incompatible Timesharing System for the DEC PDP-6 and PDP-10)
  • ORVYL (Stanford University's time-sharing system for the IBM S/360)
  • TSS/360
    TSS/360
    The IBM Time Sharing System TSS/360 was an early time-sharing operating system designed exclusively for a special model of the System/360 line of mainframes, the Model 67. Made available on a trial basis to a limited set of customers in 1967, it was never officially released as a supported product...
    
     (IBM's Time-sharing System for the S/360-67, never officially released, canceled in 1969 and again in 1971)
  • OS/360 MVT
  • WAITS
    WAITS
    WAITS was a heavily-modified variant of Digital Equipment Corporation's Monitor operating system for the PDP-6 and PDP-10 mainframe computers, used at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory up until 1990; the mainframe computer it ran on also went by the name of "SAIL".There was never an...
    
     (SAIL, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, time-sharing system for DEC PDP-6 and PDP-10, later TOPS-10)
• 1968
  • Airline Control Program (ACP) (IBM)
  • TSS-8
    TSS-8
    TSS-8 was a little time-sharing operating system co-written by Don Witcraft and John Everett at Digital Equipment Corporation in 1967. The operating system ran on the 12-bit PDP-8 computer and was released in 1968....
    
     (DEC for the PDP-8)
• 1969
  • TENEX
    TOPS-20
    The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation was the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. TOPS-20 began in 1969 as the TENEX operating system of Bolt, Beranek and Newman...
    
     (Bolt, Beranek and Newman for DEC systems, later TOPS-20
    TOPS-20
    The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation was the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. TOPS-20 began in 1969 as the TENEX operating system of Bolt, Beranek and Newman...
    
    )
  • Unics (later Unix)
    Unix
    Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
    
     (AT&T
    American Telephone & Telegraph
    AT&T Corp., originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. AT&T is the oldest telecommunications company...
    
    , initially on DEC computers)
  • RC 4000 Multiprogramming System
    RC 4000 Multiprogramming System
    The RC 4000 Multiprogramming System was an operating system developed for the RC 4000 minicomputer in 1969. It is historically notable for being the first attempt to break down an operating system into a group of interacting programs communicating via a message passing kernel...
    
     (RC
    Regnecentralen
    Regnecentralen, or RC for short, was the first Danish computer company, founded on October 12, 1955. Through the 1950s and 60s they designed a series of computers, originally for their own use, and later to be sold commercially. Descendants of these systems sold well into the 1980s...
    
    )
  • Multics
    Multics
    Multics was an influential early time-sharing operating system. The project was started in 1964 in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
    
     (MIT, GE, Bell Labs for the GE-645 and later the Honeywell 6180) (opened for paying customers in October)

1970s

1970s

File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

• 1970
  • DOS-11
    DEC BATCH-11/DOS-11
    BATCH-11/DOS-11, also known simply as DOS-11, was an operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation of Maynard, Massachusetts. The first version of DOS-11 was released in 1970 and was the first operating system to run on the Digital PDP-11 minicomputer.DOS-11 was not known to be easy to use...
    
     (PDP-11)
• 1971
  • RSTS-11
    RSTS/E
    RSTS is a multi-user time-sharing operating system, developed by Digital Equipment Corporation , for the PDP-11 series of 16-bit minicomputers. The first version of RSTS was implemented in 1970 by DEC software engineers that developed the TSS-8 time-sharing operating system for the PDP-8...
    
     2A-19 (First released version; PDP-11)
  • OS/8
    OS/8
    OS/8 was the primary operating system used on the PDP-8 minicomputer developed by Digital Equipment Corporation of Maynard, Massachusetts. OS/8 was originally called MS/8 and, for a brief time, PS/8 before Digital settled on the name OS/8 in 1971.A virtually identical version of OS/8, called...
    
    
• 1972
  • RDOS
    RDOS
    RDOS was a real-time operating system released in 1972 for the popular Data General Nova and Eclipse minicomputers...
    
    
  • SVS
  • VM/CMS
  • MUSIC/SP
    MUSIC/SP
    MUSIC/SP was developed at McGill University in the 1970s from an early IBM time-sharing system called RAX...
    
    
• 1973
  • Эльбрус-1 (Elbrus-1
    Elbrus (computer)
    The Elbrus is a line of Soviet and Russian computer systems developed by Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering.In 1992 a spin-off company Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies was created and continued development....
    
    ) - Soviet computer - created using high-level language uЭль-76 (AL-76/ALGOL 68
    ALGOL 68
    ALGOL 68 isan imperative computerprogramming language that was conceived as a successor to theALGOL 60 programming language, designed with the goal of a...
    
    ).
  • VME - implementation language S3
    S3 (programming language)
    S3 is a structured, imperative high-level computer programming language. It was developed by the UK company International Computers Limited for its 2900 Series mainframes. It is a system programming language based on ALGOL 68 but with data types and operators aligned to those offered by the 2900...
    
     (ALGOL 68
    ALGOL 68
    ALGOL 68 isan imperative computerprogramming language that was conceived as a successor to theALGOL 60 programming language, designed with the goal of a...
    
    ).
  • RSX-11D
    RSX-11
    RSX-11 is a family of real-time operating systems mainly for PDP-11 computers created by Digital Equipment Corporation , common in the late 1970s and early 1980s. RSX-11D first appeared on the PDP-11/40 in 1972...
    
    
  • RT-11
    RT-11
    RT-11 was a small, single-user real-time operating system for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11 family of 16-bit computers...
    
    
  • Alto OS
    Xerox Alto
    The Xerox Alto was one of the first computers designed for individual use , making it arguably what is now called a personal computer. It was developed at Xerox PARC in 1973...
    
    
• 1974
  • DOS-11
    DEC BATCH-11/DOS-11
    BATCH-11/DOS-11, also known simply as DOS-11, was an operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation of Maynard, Massachusetts. The first version of DOS-11 was released in 1970 and was the first operating system to run on the Digital PDP-11 minicomputer.DOS-11 was not known to be easy to use...
    
     V09-20C (Last stable release, June 1974)
  • SINTRAN III
    SINTRAN III
    SINTRAN III was a real-time, multitasking, multi-user operating system used with Norsk Data computers from 1974. Unlike its predecessors SINTRAN I and II, it was entirely written by Norsk Data....
    
    
  • MONECS
    MONECS
    MONECS was a computer operating system with BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal compilers, plus machine language facility...
    
    
• 1975
  • CP/M
    CP/M
    CP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...
    
    
  • BS2000
    BS2000
    BS2000 is a mainframe computer operating system developed by Fujitsu Technology Solutions.Unlike other mainframe systems, BS2000/OSD provides exactly the same user and programming interface in all operating modes and regardless of whether it is running natively or as a guest system in a virtual...
    
     V2.0 (First released version)
  • Sixth Edition Unix
• 1976
  • Cambridge CAP computerhttp://research.microsoft.com/pubs/72418/cap.pdf - All operating system procedures written in ALGOL 68C
    ALGOL 68C
    The ALGOL68C computer programming language compiler was developed for the CHAOS OS for the CAP capability computer at Cambridge University in 1971 by Stephen Bourne and Michael Guy as a dialect of ALGOL 68. Other early contributors were Andrew D. Birrell and Ian Walker.The initial compiler was...
    
    , with some closely associated protected procedures in BCPL
    BCPL
    BCPL is a procedural, imperative, and structured computer programming language designed by Martin Richards of the University of Cambridge in 1966.- Design :...
    
    .
  • Cray Operating System
    Cray Operating System
    The Cray Operating System was Cray Research's proprietary operating system for its Cray-1 and Cray X-MP supercomputers, and those platforms' main OS until replaced by UNICOS in the late 1980s...
    
    
  • FLEX
    FLEX (operating system)
    The FLEX single-tasking operating system was developed by Technical Systems Consultants of West Lafayette, Indiana, for the Motorola 6800 in 1976. The original version was for 8" floppy disks and the version for 5.25" floppies was called mini-Flex. It was also later ported to the Motorola 6809;...
    
    
  • TOPS-20
    TOPS-20
    The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation was the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. TOPS-20 began in 1969 as the TENEX operating system of Bolt, Beranek and Newman...
    
    
• 1977
  • 1BSD
    Berkeley Software Distribution
    Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...
    
    
  • KERNAL
    KERNAL
    The KERNAL is Commodore's name for the ROM-resident operating system core in its 8-bit home computers; from the original PET of 1977, followed by the extended but strongly related versions used in its successors; the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Plus/4, C16, and C128...
    
    
  • OASIS operating system
    OASIS operating system
    The OASIS operating system was originally developed and distributed in 1977 by Phase One Systems of Oakland, California...
    
    
  • TRS-DOS
    TRS-DOS
    TRS-DOS was the operating system for the Tandy TRS-80 line of 8-bit Zilog Z80 microcomputers that were sold through Radio Shack through the late 1970s and early 1980s. Tandy's manuals recommended that it be pronounced triss-doss...
    
    
  • Virtual Memory System (VMS) V1.0 (Initial commercial release, October 25)
• 1978
  • 2BSD
    Berkeley Software Distribution
    Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...
    
    
  • Apple DOS
    Apple DOS
    Apple DOS refers to operating systems for the Apple II series of microcomputers from late 1978 through early 1983. Apple DOS had three major releases: DOS 3.1, DOS 3.2, and DOS 3.3; each one of these three releases was followed by a second, minor "bug-fix" release, but only in the case of Apple DOS...
    
    
  • HDOS
    HDOS
    HDOS is an early microcomputer operating system, originally written for the Heathkit H8 computer system and later also available for the Heath H89 and Zenith Z-89 computers...
    
     1.0
  • TripOS
    TRIPOS
    TRIPOS is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 and it originally ran on a PDP-11. Later it was ported to the Computer Automation LSI4 and the...
    
    
  • UCSD p-System
    UCSD Pascal
    UCSD Pascal was a Pascal programming language system that ran on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1978...
    
     (First released version)
  • Lisp Machine
    Lisp machine
    Lisp machines were general-purpose computers designed to efficiently run Lisp as their main software language. In a sense, they were the first commercial single-user workstations...
    
     (CADR)
• 1979
  • Atari DOS
    Atari DOS
    Atari DOS is the disk operating system used with the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Operating system extensions loaded into memory were required in order for an Atari computer to access a disk drive. These extensions to the operating system added the disk handler and other file management...
    
    
  • POS
    PERQ
    The PERQ, also referred to as the Three Rivers PERQ or ICL PERQ, was a pioneering workstation computer produced in the early 1980s....
    
    
  • NLTSS
    NLTSS
    NLTSS, the Network Livermore Timesharing System, also sometimes known as the New Livermore Time Sharing System was an operating system that was actively developed at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory from 1979 until about 1988, though it continued to run production applications until 1995...
    
    
  • UNIX/32V
    UNIX/32V
    UNIX/32V was an early version of the Unix operating system from Bell Laboratories, released in June 1979. 32V was a direct port of the PDP-11 Seventh Edition Unix to the DEC VAX architecture....
    
    
  • Version 7 Unix
    Version 7 Unix
    Seventh Edition Unix, also called Version 7 Unix, Version 7 or just V7, was an important early release of the Unix operating system. V7, released in 1979, was the last Bell Laboratories release to see widespread distribution before the commercialization of Unix by AT&T in the early 1980s...
    
    

1980s

1980s

File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...

• 1980
  • CTOS
    Convergent Technologies Operating System
    The Convergent Technologies Operating System, also known variously as CTOS, BTOS and STARSYS, was a modular, message-passing, multiprocess-based operating system.-Overview:...
    
    
  • OS-9
    OS-9
    OS-9 is a family of real-time, process-based, multitasking, multi-user, Unix-like operating systems, developed in the 1980s, originally by Microware Systems Corporation for the Motorola 6809 microprocessor. It is currently owned by RadiSys Corporation....
    
    
  • 86-DOS
  • SOS
  • Pilot
    Pilot (operating system)
    Pilot was a single-user, multitasking operating system designed by Xerox PARC in early 1977. Pilot was written in the Mesa programming language, totalling about 24,000 lines of code....
    
     (Xerox Star
    Xerox Star
    The Star workstation, officially known as the Xerox 8010 Information System, was introduced by Xerox Corporation in 1981. It was the first commercial system to incorporate various technologies that today have become commonplace in personal computers, including a bitmapped display, a window-based...
    
     operating system)
  • Xenix
    Xenix
    Xenix is a version of the Unix operating system, licensed to Microsoft from AT&T in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and eventually superseded it with SCO UNIX ....
    
    
• 1981
  • PC-DOS
    PC-DOS
    IBM PC DOS is a DOS system for the IBM Personal Computer and compatibles, manufactured and sold by IBM from the 1980s to the 2000s....
    
    
  • MS-DOS
    MS-DOS
    MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
    
    
  • Business Operating System
  • UTS
    UTS (Mainframe UNIX)
    UTS is an implementation of the UNIX operating system for IBM mainframe computers. Amdahl created the first versions of UTS, and released it in May 1981, with UTS Global later acquiring rights to the product.- Features :...
    
    
  • Acorn MOS
    Acorn MOS
    Acorn's Machine Operating System or OS was a computer operating system used in the Acorn BBC computer range. It included support for four-channel sound and graphics, file system abstraction, and digital and analogue I/O including a daisy-chained fast expansion bus...
    
    
  • Aegis
    Domain/OS
    Domain/OS is the operating system used by the Apollo/Domain line of workstations manufactured by Apollo Computer, Inc. during the late 1980s, as the successor to the one previously used, AEGIS. It was one of the early distributed operating systems...
    
     SR1 (First Apollo/DOMAIN systems shipped on March 27)
• 1982
  • Commodore DOS
    Commodore DOS
    Commodore DOS, aka CBM DOS, was the disk operating system used with Commodore's 8-bit computers. Unlike most other DOS systems before or since—which are booted from disk into the main computer's own RAM at startup, and executed there—CBM DOS was executed internally in the drive: the DOS...
    
    
  • LDOS (By Logical Systems, Inc. - For the Radio Shack TRS-80 Models I, II & III)
  • Sun UNIX (later SunOS
    SunOS
    SunOS is a version of the Unix operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The SunOS name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4 of SunOS...
    
    ) 0.7
  • QNX
    QNX
    QNX is a commercial Unix-like real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the embedded systems market. The product was originally developed by Canadian company, QNX Software Systems, which was later acquired by Canadian BlackBerry-producer Research In Motion.-Description:As a microkernel-based...
    
    
  • Ultrix
    Ultrix
    Ultrix was the brand name of Digital Equipment Corporation's native Unix systems. While ultrix is the Latin word for avenger, the name was chosen solely for its sound.-History:...
    
    
• 1983
  • Lisa Office System 7/7
    Apple Lisa
    The Apple Lisa—also known as the Lisa—is a :personal computer designed by Apple Computer, Inc. during the early 1980s....
    
    
  • Coherent
    Coherent (operating system)
    The Coherent operating system was a Version 7 Unix clone by the now-defunct Mark Williams Company, originally produced for the PDP-11 in 1980. A port was introduced in 1983 as the first Unix-like system for IBM PC compatible computers....
    
    
  • GNU
    GNU
    GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
    
     (project start)
  • Novell NetWare
    Novell NetWare
    NetWare is a network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, with network protocols based on the archetypal Xerox Network Systems stack....
    
     (S-Net
    Novell S-Net
    S-Net was a network operating system and the set of network protocols it used to talk to client machines on the network. Released by Novell in 1983, the S-Net operating system was an entirely proprietary operating system written for the Motorola 68000 processor. It used a star network...
    
    )
  • ProDOS
    ProDOS
    ProDOS was the name of two similar operating systems for the Apple II series of personal computers. The original ProDOS, renamed ProDOS 8 in version 1.2, was the last official operating system usable by all Apple II series computers, and was distributed from 1983 to 1993...
    
    
  • SunOS
    SunOS
    SunOS is a version of the Unix operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The SunOS name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4 of SunOS...
    
     1.0
• 1984
  • Mac OS (System 1.0)
  • MSX-DOS
    MSX-DOS
    MSX-DOS is a Disk operating system developed by Microsoft for the 8-bit home computer standard MSX, and is a cross between MS-DOS rev 1.0 and CP/M.-MSX-DOS:...
    
    
  • Sinclair QDOS
    Sinclair QDOS
    QDOS is the multitasking operating system found on the Sinclair QL personal computer and its clones...
    
    
  • QNX
    QNX
    QNX is a commercial Unix-like real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the embedded systems market. The product was originally developed by Canadian company, QNX Software Systems, which was later acquired by Canadian BlackBerry-producer Research In Motion.-Description:As a microkernel-based...
    
    
  • UNICOS
    Unicos
    UNICOS is the name of a range of Unix-like operating system variants developed by Cray for its supercomputers. UNICOS is the successor of the Cray Operating System . It provides network clustering and source code compatibility layers for some other Unixes. UNICOS was originally introduced in 1985...
    
    
  • Venix
    Venix
    Venix was a version of the Unix operating system developed by VenturCom.Venix 2.0, based on System III, ran on the DEC PRO-350 microcomputer , the DEC Rainbow 100 as well as PCs . It was released in 1984...
    
     2.0
• 1985
  • AmigaOS
    AmigaOS
    AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
    
    
  • Atari TOS
    Atari TOS
    TOS is the operating system of the Atari ST range of computers. This range includes the 520 and 1040ST, their STF/M/FM and STE variants and the Mega ST/STE. Later, 32-bit machines were developed using a new version of TOS, called MultiTOS, which allowed multitasking...
    
    
  • DG/UX
    DG/UX
    DG/UX was a Unix operating system developed by Data General for its Eclipse MV minicomputer line, and later the AViiON workstation and server line ....
    
    
  • MIPS OS
  • Oberon - written in Oberon-2
    Oberon-2
    Oberon-2 is an extension of the original Oberon programming language that adds limited reflection and object-oriented programming facilities, open arrays as pointer base types, read-only field export and reintroduces the FOR loop from Modula-2....
    
    
  • SunOS
    SunOS
    SunOS is a version of the Unix operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The SunOS name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4 of SunOS...
    
     2.0
  • Version 8 Unix
    Version 8 Unix
    Eighth Edition Unix, also known as Version 8 Unix or V8, was a version of the Research Unix operating system developed and used internally at Bell Labs and a select number of universities. It was "released" in February 1985, ran on VAX hardware, and was a variant of 4.1cBSD with some System V.1 ...
    
    
  • Windows 1.0
    Windows 1.0
    Windows 1.0 is a 16-bit graphical operating environment, developed by Microsoft and released on 20 November 1985. It was Microsoft's first attempt to implement a multi-tasking graphical user interface-based operating environment on the PC platform. Windows 1.0 was the first version of Windows...
    
    
  • Xenix
    Xenix
    Xenix is a version of the Unix operating system, licensed to Microsoft from AT&T in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and eventually superseded it with SCO UNIX ....
    
     2.0
• 1986
  • AIX
    AIX operating system
    AIX AIX AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive, pronounced "a i ex" is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms...
    
     1.0
  • GS-OS
    Apple IIGS
    The Apple , the fifth and most powerful model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The "GS" in the name stands for Graphics and Sound, referring to its enhanced graphics and sound capabilities, both of which greatly surpassed previous models of the line...
    
    
  • Genera 7.0
  • HP-UX
    HP-UX
    HP-UX is Hewlett-Packard's proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system, based on UNIX System V and first released in 1984...
    
    
  • SunOS
    SunOS
    SunOS is a version of the Unix operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The SunOS name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4 of SunOS...
    
     3.0
  • GEOS
    GEOS (8-bit operating system)
    GEOS is an operating system from Berkeley Softworks . Originally designed for the Commodore 64 and released in 1986, it provided a graphical user interface for this popular 8-bit computer.GEOS closely resembled early versions of Mac OS and included a graphical word processor and paint program...
    
    
  • Version 9 Unix
    Version 9 Unix
    Ninth Edition Unix, also known as Version 9 Unix or V9, was a version of the Research Unix operating system developed and used internally at the Bell Labs Information Sciences Research Division, "released" in September 1986. V9 was the successor to V8, and the predecessor to the last Research Unix...
    
    
• 1987
  • Arthur
  • IRIX
    IRIX
    IRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. It was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.The last major version...
    
     (3.0 is first SGI version)
  • MINIX
    Minix
    MINIX is a Unix-like computer operating system based on a microkernel architecture created by Andrew S. Tanenbaum for educational purposes; MINIX also inspired the creation of the Linux kernel....
    
     1.0
  • BS2000
    BS2000
    BS2000 is a mainframe computer operating system developed by Fujitsu Technology Solutions.Unlike other mainframe systems, BS2000/OSD provides exactly the same user and programming interface in all operating modes and regardless of whether it is running natively or as a guest system in a virtual...
    
     V9.0
  • OS/2
    OS/2
    OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
    
     (1.0)
  • PC-MOS/386
    PC-MOS/386
    PC-MOS/386 was a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system produced by The Software Link, announced at COMDEX in November 1986 for February 1987 release. It will run much MS-DOS software on the host machine or a terminal connected to it...
    
    
  • Windows 2.0
    Windows 2.0
    Windows 2.0 is a 16-bit Microsoft Windows GUI-based operating environment that was released on December 9, 1987 and is the successor to Windows 1.0. With Windows 2.1x in 1988, Windows 2.0 was supplemented by Windows/286 and Windows/386...
    
    
• 1988
  • A/UX
    A/UX
    A/UX was Apple Computer’s implementation of the Unix operating system for some of their Macintosh computers. The later versions of A/UX ran on the Macintosh II, Quadra and Centris series of machines as well as the SE/30. A/UX was first released in 1988, with the final version released in 1995...
    
     (Apple Computer)
  • RISC iX
    RISC iX
    RISC iX was a Unix operating system designed to run on the Acorn Archimedes. Heavily based on 4.3BSD, it was initially completed in 1988 — a year after Arthur but prior to RISC OS.- Features :...
    
    
  • LynxOS
    LynxOS
    The LynxOS RTOS is a Unix-like real-time operating system from LynuxWorks . Sometimes known as the Lynx Operating System, LynxOS features full POSIX conformance and, more recently, Linux compatibility...
    
    
  • Mac OS
    Mac OS history
    On January 24, 1984, Apple Computer Inc. introduced the Macintosh personal computer, with the Macintosh 128K model, which came bundled with what was later renamed the Mac OS, but then known simply as the System Software....
    
     (System 6)
  • MVS/ESA
    MVS
    Multiple Virtual Storage, more commonly called MVS, was the most commonly used operating system on the System/370 and System/390 IBM mainframe computers...
    
    
  • OS/400
    OS/400
    IBM i is an EBCDIC based operating system that runs on IBM Power Systems. It is the current evolution of the operating system named i5/OS which was originally named OS/400 when it was introduced with the AS/400 computer system in 1988....
    
    
  • SpartaDOS X
    SpartaDOS X
    SpartaDOS X is a disk operating system for the Atari 8-bit family of computers that closely resembles MS-DOS. It was developed and sold by ICD, Inc. in 1987-93.- History :...
    
    
  • SunOS
    SunOS
    SunOS is a version of the Unix operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The SunOS name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4 of SunOS...
    
     4.0
  • TOPS-10
    TOPS-10
    The TOPS-10 System was a computer operating system from Digital Equipment Corporation for the PDP-10 mainframe computer launched in 1967...
    
     7.04 (Last stable release, July 1988)
  • HeliOS
    HeliOS
    HeliOS was a Unix-like operating system for parallel computers developed and sold by Perihelion Software. It was most commonly used on various Transputer systems, but also supported other architectures. The system provided a micro-kernel that implemented a distributed name space and messaging...
    
     1.0
• 1989
  • EPOC
  • NEXTSTEP
    NEXTSTEP
    NeXTSTEP was the object-oriented, multitasking operating system developed by NeXT Computer to run on its range of proprietary workstation computers, such as the NeXTcube...
    
     (1.0)
  • RISC OS
    RISC OS
    RISC OS is a computer operating system originally developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England for their range of desktop computers, based on their own ARM architecture. First released in 1987, under the name Arthur, the subsequent iteration was renamed as in 1988...
    
     (First release was to be called Arthur 2, but was renamed to RISC OS 2, and was first sold as RISC OS 2.00 in April 1989)
  • SCO UNIX (Release 3)
  • TSX-32
    TSX-32
    TSX-32 is a general purpose 32-bit multi-user multitasking operating system for x86 architecture platform, with a command line user interface. It is compatible with some 16-bit DOS applications and supports file systems FAT16 and FAT32. It was developed by S&H Computer Systems, and has been...
    
    
  • Version 10 Unix
    Version 10 Unix
    Tenth Edition Unix, also known as Version 10 Unix or V10, was the last version of the Research Unix operating system developed and used internally at Bell Labs. "Released" in 1989, it was the successor of V9...
    
    
  • Xenix
    Xenix
    Xenix is a version of the Unix operating system, licensed to Microsoft from AT&T in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and eventually superseded it with SCO UNIX ....
    
     2.3.4 (Last stable release)

1990s

1990s

File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...

• 1990
  • AmigaOS
    AmigaOS
    AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
    
     2.0
  • BeOS
    BeOS
    BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was optimized for digital media work and was written to take advantage of modern hardware facilities such as symmetric multiprocessing by utilizing...
    
     (v1)
  • Genera 8.0
  • OSF/1
    Tru64 UNIX
    Tru64 UNIX is a 64-bit UNIX operating system for the Alpha instruction set architecture , currently owned by Hewlett-Packard . Previously, Tru64 UNIX was a product of Compaq, and before that, Digital Equipment Corporation , where it was known as Digital UNIX .As its original name suggests, Tru64...
    
    
  • AIX 3.0
  • Windows 3.0
    Windows 3.0
    Windows 3.0, a graphical environment, is the third major release of Microsoft Windows, and was released on 22 May 1990. It became the first widely successful version of Windows and a rival to Apple Macintosh and the Commodore Amiga on the GUI front...
    
    
• 1991
  • Linux
    Linux kernel
    The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
    
    
  • Mac OS
    Mac OS history
    On January 24, 1984, Apple Computer Inc. introduced the Macintosh personal computer, with the Macintosh 128K model, which came bundled with what was later renamed the Mac OS, but then known simply as the System Software....
    
     (System 7
    System 7 (Macintosh)
    System 7 is a single-user graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers. It was introduced on May 13, 1991 by Apple Computer. It succeeded System 6, and was the main Macintosh operating system until it was succeeded by Mac OS 8 in 1997...
    
    )
  • MINIX
    Minix
    MINIX is a Unix-like computer operating system based on a microkernel architecture created by Andrew S. Tanenbaum for educational purposes; MINIX also inspired the creation of the Linux kernel....
    
     1.5
  • PenPoint OS
    PenPoint OS
    The PenPoint OS was a product of GO Corporation and was one of the earliest operating systems written specifically for graphical tablets and personal digital assistants...
    
    
  • RISC OS
    RISC OS
    RISC OS is a computer operating system originally developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England for their range of desktop computers, based on their own ARM architecture. First released in 1987, under the name Arthur, the subsequent iteration was renamed as in 1988...
    
     3
• 1992
  • 386BSD
    386BSD
    386BSD, sometimes called "Jolix", was a free Unix-like operating system based on BSD, first released in 1992. It ran on PC compatible computer systems based on the Intel 80386 microprocessor...
    
     0.1
  • AmigaOS
    AmigaOS
    AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
    
     3.0
  • Amiga Unix
    Amiga Unix
    Commodore-Amiga, Inc., in 1990, did a full port of AT&T Unix System V Release 4 for the Amiga computer family , informally known as Amix. Bundled with the Amiga 3000UX, Commodore's Unix was one of the first ports of SVR4 to the 68k architecture...
    
     2.01 (Latest stable release)
  • RSTS/E
    RSTS/E
    RSTS is a multi-user time-sharing operating system, developed by Digital Equipment Corporation , for the PDP-11 series of 16-bit minicomputers. The first version of RSTS was implemented in 1970 by DEC software engineers that developed the TSS-8 time-sharing operating system for the PDP-8...
    
     10.1 (Last stable release, September 1992)
  • Solaris 2.0 (Successor to SunOS 4.x; based on SVR4 instead of BSD)
  • OpenVMS
    OpenVMS
    OpenVMS , previously known as VAX-11/VMS, VAX/VMS or VMS, is a computer server operating system that runs on VAX, Alpha and Itanium-based families of computers. Contrary to what its name suggests, OpenVMS is not open source software; however, the source listings are available for purchase...
    
     V1.0 (First OpenVMS AXP (Alpha) specific version, November 1992)
  • Plan 9
    Plan 9 from Bell Labs
    Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a distributed operating system. It was developed primarily for research purposes as the successor to Unix by the Computing Sciences Research Center at Bell Labs between the mid-1980s and 2002...
    
     First Edition (First public release was made available to universities)
  • Windows 3.1
• 1993
  • FreeBSD
    FreeBSD
    FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
    
    
  • NetBSD
    NetBSD
    NetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...
    
    
  • Newton OS
  • Windows NT 3.1
    Windows NT 3.1
    Windows NT 3.1 is the first release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of server and business desktop operating systems, and was released to manufacturing on 27 July 1993. The version number was chosen to match the one of Windows 3.1, the then-latest operating environment from Microsoft, on account of...
    
     (First Windows NT kernel public release)
  • Open Genera 1.0
  • IBM 4690 Operating System
    IBM 4690 OS
    IBM 4690 Operating System, sometimes shortened to 4690 OS or 4690, is IBM's specially designed Point of Sale operating system. 4690 is widely used by IBM's retail customers to drive retail systems running their own applications as well as IBM's Application Client Server Environment , Supermarket...
    
    
  • Novell NetWare
    Novell NetWare
    NetWare is a network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, with network protocols based on the archetypal Xerox Network Systems stack....
    
     4
  • Slackware
    Slackware
    Slackware is a free and open source Linux-based operating system. It was one of the earliest operating systems to be built on top of the Linux kernel and is the oldest currently being maintained. Slackware was created by Patrick Volkerding of Slackware Linux, Inc. in 1993...
    
     1.0
  • Spring
• 1994
  • AIX 4.0, 4.1
  • RISC OS
    RISC OS
    RISC OS is a computer operating system originally developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England for their range of desktop computers, based on their own ARM architecture. First released in 1987, under the name Arthur, the subsequent iteration was renamed as in 1988...
    
     3.5
  • NetBSD
    NetBSD
    NetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...
    
     1.0 (First multi-platform release, October 1994)
• 1995
  • Digital UNIX
    Tru64 UNIX
    Tru64 UNIX is a 64-bit UNIX operating system for the Alpha instruction set architecture , currently owned by Hewlett-Packard . Previously, Tru64 UNIX was a product of Compaq, and before that, Digital Equipment Corporation , where it was known as Digital UNIX .As its original name suggests, Tru64...
    
     (aka Tru64 UNIX)
  • OpenBSD
    OpenBSD
    OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
    
    
  • OS/390
    OS/390
    OS/390 is an IBM operating system for the System/390 IBM mainframe computers.OS/390 was introduced in late 1995 in an effort, led by the late Randy Stelman, to simplify the packaging and ordering for the key, entitled elements needed to complete a fully functional MVS operating system package...
    
    
  • Plan 9
    Plan 9 from Bell Labs
    Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a distributed operating system. It was developed primarily for research purposes as the successor to Unix by the Computing Sciences Research Center at Bell Labs between the mid-1980s and 2002...
    
     Second Edition (Commercial second release version was made available to the general public)
  • Ultrix
    Ultrix
    Ultrix was the brand name of Digital Equipment Corporation's native Unix systems. While ultrix is the Latin word for avenger, the name was chosen solely for its sound.-History:...
    
     4.5 (Last major release)
  • Windows 95
    Windows 95
    Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
    
    
• 1996
  • Mac OS 7.6
    Mac OS history
    On January 24, 1984, Apple Computer Inc. introduced the Macintosh personal computer, with the Macintosh 128K model, which came bundled with what was later renamed the Mac OS, but then known simply as the System Software....
    
     (First officially-named Mac OS)
  • Windows NT 4.0
    Windows NT 4.0
    Windows NT 4.0 is a preemptive, graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It was the next release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on 31 July 1996...
    
    
  • RISC OS
    RISC OS
    RISC OS is a computer operating system originally developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England for their range of desktop computers, based on their own ARM architecture. First released in 1987, under the name Arthur, the subsequent iteration was renamed as in 1988...
    
     3.6
  • AIX 4.2
  • Palm OS
    Palm OS
    Palm OS is a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants in 1996. Palm OS is designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It is provided with a suite of basic applications for personal information management...
    
    
• 1997
  • Inferno
    Inferno (operating system)
    Inferno is a distributed operating system started at Bell Labs, but is now developed and maintained by Vita Nuova Holdings as free software. Inferno was based on the experience gained with Plan 9 from Bell Labs, and the further research of Bell Labs into operating systems, languages, on-the-fly...
    
    
  • Mac OS 8
    Mac OS 8
    Mac OS 8 is an operating system that was released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It represented the largest overhaul of the Mac OS since the release of System 7, some six years previously. It puts more emphasis on color than previous operating systems...
    
    
  • SkyOS
    SkyOS
    SkyOS was a prototype commercial, proprietary, graphical desktop operating system written for the x86 computer architecture. As of January 30, 2009 development has halted and no plans to resume its development have been announced.- History :...
    
    
  • MINIX
    Minix
    MINIX is a Unix-like computer operating system based on a microkernel architecture created by Andrew S. Tanenbaum for educational purposes; MINIX also inspired the creation of the Linux kernel....
    
     2.0
  • RISC OS
    RISC OS
    RISC OS is a computer operating system originally developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England for their range of desktop computers, based on their own ARM architecture. First released in 1987, under the name Arthur, the subsequent iteration was renamed as in 1988...
    
     3.7
  • AIX 4.3
• 1998
  • Solaris 7 (First 64-bit
    64-bit
    64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
    
     Solaris release. Names from this point drop "2.", otherwise would've been Solaris 2.7)
  • Windows 98
    Windows 98
    Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
    
    
  • RT-11
    RT-11
    RT-11 was a small, single-user real-time operating system for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11 family of 16-bit computers...
    
     5.7 (Last stable release, October 1998)
  • Novell NetWare
    Novell NetWare
    NetWare is a network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, with network protocols based on the archetypal Xerox Network Systems stack....
    
     5
  • JUNOS
    JUNOS
    Juniper Junos is the software or the network operating system used in Juniper Networks hardware systems. It is an operating system that is used in Juniper's routing, switching and security devices. Juniper offers a Software Development Kit to partners and customers to allow additional customization...
    
    
• 1999
  • AROS
    Aros
    Aros may refer to:*Aros , a river in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium*AROS Research Operating System, a free software implementation of AmigaOS* Aros, the original Viking name of Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark...
    
     (Boot for the first time in Stand Alone version)
  • RISC OS
    RISC OS
    RISC OS is a computer operating system originally developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England for their range of desktop computers, based on their own ARM architecture. First released in 1987, under the name Arthur, the subsequent iteration was renamed as in 1988...
    
     4
  • Mac OS 9
    Mac OS 9
    Mac OS 9 is the final major release of Apple's Mac OS before the launch of Mac OS X. Introduced on October 23, 1999, Apple positioned it as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever," highlighting Sherlock 2's Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as...
    
    
  • Windows 98 (2nd edition)
  • Inferno
    Inferno (operating system)
    Inferno is a distributed operating system started at Bell Labs, but is now developed and maintained by Vita Nuova Holdings as free software. Inferno was based on the experience gained with Plan 9 from Bell Labs, and the further research of Bell Labs into operating systems, languages, on-the-fly...
    
     Second Edition (Last distribution (Release 2.3, ca. July 1999) from Lucent's Inferno Business Unit)

2000s

2010s

See also

• Comparison of operating systems
  Comparison of operating systems
  These tables compare general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available operating systems.Because of the large number and variety of available Linux distributions, they are all grouped under a single entry; see comparison of Linux distributions for a detailed...
  
  
• List of operating systems
• List of Real-time operating systems
• Timeline of x86 DOS operating systems
  Timeline of x86 DOS operating systems
  This article presents a timeline of events in the history of x86 DOS operating systems from 1973 to 2006.-Important Events in DOS History:-See also:*Comparison of x86 DOS operating systems*Timeline of Microsoft Windows*Timeline of OpenBSD...
  
  
• Timeline of Linux distributions (Diagram 1992–2010)

Category links

External links

• http://www.levenez.com/unix/ — Timeline of UNIX
  Unix
  Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
  
  1969 and its descendants at present
• Concise Microsoft O.S. Timeline — A color-coded concise timeline for various Microsoft operating systems (1981–present)
• Bitsavers — an effort to capture, salvage, and archive historical computer software and manuals from minicomputers and mainframes of the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s
• A brief history of operating systems
• Microsoft operating system time-line