Operating systems introduction

The operating system is a special program that runs when the PC starts and allows the user to start the applications that they want to run. Operating systems come with a variety of applications and these are generally included when most people refer to an operating system. Operating system can be paid for or free.

The Microsoft Windows operating system

Most office and home PCs run a version of Microsoft Windows and has to be purchased, ususally by being included the price of the PC. Windows dominates the office and home PC market with a market share of 91% (wikipedia.org 2015).

Companies generally run Windows on their desktop PCs for one or more of these reasons:

• They have already invested in applications that can only run under Windows and there would be considerable training (and possibly developement) costs to moving to another operating system
• They believe that commercial software is more reliable than free software and want the reassurance of support from Micrsosoft

Home users generally run Windows for one or more of these reasons:

• Primarily lack of choice. Most PCs come with Windows installed - indeed there is very little choice for buying a PC without it. The most credible explanation I read for this is that Microsoft will only offer cheap copies Windows to PC vendors if they agree to sell few or no barebones (no operating system installed) PCs and for a very limited range of their PCs.
• They are familiar with Windows and don't want to learn a different operating system

The commercial pressure to sell new versions of Windows that look noticebly different to the user has often lead to radical changes to the Windows user interface. While the home users may have this new version forced upon them when they buy a new PC, companies have more power. Microsoft's major change in Windows Vista and Windows 8 led to them being largely rejected by companies who insisted on using the preceeding version and it is the home users that make up most of the users of these versions of Windows.

The OS X operating sytem

The Apple Mac series of computers uses the OS X operating system (formerly Mac OS). This is a commercial operating system (included when you buy a Mac). It is derived from a version of the Unix operating system. Its market share on home and office PCs is a very distant second at about 7.3% (wikipedia.org 2015)

The Linux operating system

Most free operating system are some version of Linux. The core of Linux is based on the Unix operating system but was written from scratch to be free. Its market share on home and office PCs is thirs at about 1.5% ((wikipedia.org 2015)). Some companies save significant licence costs by using Linux, but may choose to pay for external support if they believe they need it. Home users of Linux tend to have more interest in and knowledge of computers in general, although modern versions of Linux are so user friendly that this is not required to use them. The lack of commercial pressure to sell new versions of an operatinng system has allowed Linux to develop progressively rather than in jumps and ths avoided the Windows failures mentioned above.

When it comes to company servers (the computers than run websites and databases etc.) the position is very different. Some small to mid sized companies may use server versions of Windows for their servers. Major companies use predominantly Linux or Unix. OS X does not have a significant market share.

Reasons for Linux and Unix success here include:

• Unix started as a server operating system while Windows started as only a desktop operating system
• Windows does not scale well to handle the volume of processing required in major companies
• Windows has a poor reputation for security bugs

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