macOS vs. Windows vs. Linux

[JeffS7444]

In the beginning, there are only 2 computer operating systems which are IBM PC DOS (now become Windows) and UNIX (now become LINUX and Mac). Is this right?

No, of course not. Even if we stick to just personal/home computers, there was CP/M, Apple's DOS 3.3 and ProDOS,, and goodness knows what else.

The 1970s-90s were, IMO, a particularly exciting time to be a computing enthusiast! The market was chaotic but vibrant. I once saw an IMSAI in someone's collection: As far as I know, it had no real practical purpose, but you could program it via a set of toggle switches. On my way to university classes, I recall a local shop with an Ohio Scientific banner, wish I had stopped in to take a look. Kaypro, Osborne, Commodore, Atari, DEC Rainbow, Tandy, Sinclair, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard (as in, HP-150 touch screen PC!). And this was just stuff you might find in USA shops.

IBM's entry into personal computers was hailed as a landmark event, and I suppose it was, but not entirely for reasons that IBM had intended: They simultaneously legitimized personal computers in the mind of many individuals, but also inadvertently opened the door to workalike systems from the likes of Compaq, Michael Dell's PCs LImited, and countless others.

 

[bluefuzz]

See any code relationship between UNIX and LInux?

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ...

 

[KSTR]

Everybody's use case is different. For some people Mac best fits their use case, for some Windows is the best fit, for some it is Linux, etc.

This! Plus that one person may have several use cases.

All OS have their plusses and minusses.

I generally prefer my Linux systems (Mint XFCE ) but run some Windows stuff under WINE on those. Do as well have machines with native W10 and XP. W10 also hosts WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux) when I need native Linux environment and programs. Many times I like to use a terminal or remote desktop on a host to control/use other machines than the one I working on at a given moment.

 

[Berwhale]

No, of course not. Even if we stick to just personal/home computers, there was CP/M, Apple's DOS 3.3 and ProDOS,, and goodness knows what else.

The 1970s-90s were, IMO, a particularly exciting time to be a computing enthusiast! The market was chaotic but vibrant. I once saw an IMSAI in someone's collection: As far as I know, it had no real practical purpose, but you could program it via a set of toggle switches. On my way to university classes, I recall a local shop with an Ohio Scientific banner, wish I had stopped in to take a look. Kaypro, Osborne, Commodore, Atari, DEC Rainbow, Tandy, Sinclair, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard (as in, HP-150 touch screen PC!). And this was just stuff you might find in USA shops.

IBM's entry into personal computers was hailed as a landmark event, and I suppose it was, but not entirely for reasons that IBM had intended: They simultaneously legitimized personal computers in the mind of many individuals, but also inadvertently opened the door to workalike systems from the likes of Compaq, Michael Dell's PCs LImited, and countless others.

The Technical High School I attended in 1982 had two classrooms full of BBC Microcomputers (a mixture of A's and B's). All of the other classrooms had at least one BBC Micro and they were all connected on an Econet network (it was actually two networks with a bridge between them). One of the BBC Micros acted as a server and had an Intel 80186 co-processor installed and was attached to 20MB Winchester hard drive.

The BBC Micro ran MOS (the Machine Operating System). The BBC Micros and MOS were created for the BBC by a small company in Cambridge called Acorn Computers.

In 1987 the school received 3 of Acorn's new microcomputer known as the Acorn Archimedes. The Archimedes contained Acorn's new 32-bit CPU design based on the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture. It was very quick, perhaps the quickest microcomputer on the planet at the time. The Archimedes ran RISC OS, which you can still run on your RaspberryPi today (the RPi being the spiritual successor to the BBC Micro, hence the A and B versions of the first model).

The history of Acorn Computers is long and interesting, but essentially Acorn morphed into Acorn Risc Machines, which morphed into ARM Ltd. and then ARM Holdings and we all know how that's played out

Note that Apple's relationship with Acorn predates their joint formation of ARM Holdings in 1990... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Computers#ARM_Ltd.

For those feeling nostalgic for those days, here's a fragment of code from my A level Computer Science project written in 1988 - can you tell what it's calculating? (note: this ran on my own BBC Master 128, not the Archimedes)

Spoiler: Answer

 

[Ricardus]

Software is the most advanced tool humanity has ever created and it's usually built on macOS. The most advanced tools are built on/for macOS. There is no second best. There is no comparison. There are incredibly narrow specialties like aerospace built on raw iron, and gaming built on windows, but outside that it's macOS. The entire world including most websites are built using macOS. I understand you're not in the industry so you don't know.

Citation needed.

 

[terryforsythe]

Citation needed.

Here is the first citation that popped up when I searched. It states the contrary, Windows, then Unix/Linux, then macOS: https://www.statista.com/statistics/869211/worldwide-software-development-operating-system/
But polls never are completely accurate, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Here is the first citation that popped up when I searched. It states the contrary, Windows, then Unix/Linux, then macOS: https://www.statista.com/statistics/869211/worldwide-software-development-operating-system/
But polls never are completely accurate, so take it with a grain of salt.

I don't understand the graph. 61%, 45% and 46% for 2022? Similar totals of more than 140% for the other years. Is it because some developers report using more than one OS?

 

[JayGilb]

I don't understand the graph. 61%, 45% and 46% for 2022? Similar totals of more than 140% for the other years.

They are allowing for multiple operating systems to be used by each developer ? An app developer might want to port to a few different platforms.

 

[theREALdotnet]

If you're an "old Unix hand" you would know not to confuse UNIX and Linux

Oh please, most of us put that ideological debate to rest 20 years ago.

 

[Jeromeof]

In the beginning, there are only 2 computer operating systems which are IBM PC DOS (now become Windows) and UNIX (now become LINUX and Mac). Is this right?

No - you should get a book on computer history it is very interesting - but there were lots of operating systems before these - though Unix is pretty old.

But for example, Windows probably owes much to more DEC Alpha OS than the original PC DOS. As in Microsoft wanted a proper operating system to compete with IBM OS/2 and hired a bunch of DEC engineers which developed Windows NT - that become Windows XP and ultimately Windows 7 etc

Windows NT

Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system, designed to complement workstation versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS (including...

microsoft.fandom.com

But there are lots of twists and turns in the history of Computer operating systems.

 

[nugget]

Oh please, most of us put that ideological debate to rest 20 years ago.

I've been using Unix (Xenix, SunOS, Solaris, 386BSD, AIX, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD) since before Linux existed and I agree. These days It's all "Unix" but it's not all "UNIX®" and as long as it's POSIX you almost certainly have no reason to care. I've installed Linux from floppy disks. These days Linux has replaced all those others for me, but there's still a lot about FreeBSD that I miss and it's still better than Linux in a few ways.

I've been using macOS as my primary operating system since 2002. At the time, the fact that it was Unix but I could still run MS Office natively was a huge win over the alternatives. Since then, Linux on the desktop has gotten better, but is still barely good. Windows has gotten a lot better and gotten a lot Unixier, so if I were a Windows user today I'd probably be happy enough with the Windows Subsystem for Linux that I'd never be motivated enough to make the jump to macOS.

I have a Windows gaming box (Windows 11) and a ton of headless Linux servers and VMs that I admin solely via ssh. Still extremely happy with macOS and not tempted at all to migrate to anything else.

I've built tons of software and more than one software company all using macOS. Anyone who says that macOS is just a "toy OS" or is only for people who are non-technical is just exposing their lack of familiarity with the platform.

* Edit to add: I use a Razer Viper Mini signature edition mouse on my Mac

 

[Axo1989]

Here is the first citation that popped up when I searched. It states the contrary, Windows, then Unix/Linux, then macOS: https://www.statista.com/statistics/869211/worldwide-software-development-operating-system/
But polls never are completely accurate, so take it with a grain of salt.

Looks like Mac and Unix/Linux swapped places in 2022 (and 2019) but likely within margin of error. I'd assume some people are reporting using more than one OS.

But closer to home, I was a bit surprised by this poll's result so far. More Mac users than Windows, and more Linux than I expected as well.

 

[OldTimer]

No - you should get a book on computer history it is very interesting - but there were lots of operating systems before these - though Unix is pretty old.

But for example, Windows probably owes much to more DEC Alpha OS than the original PC DOS. As in Microsoft wanted a proper operating system to compete with IBM OS/2 and hired a bunch of DEC engineers which developed Windows NT - that become Windows XP and ultimately Windows 7 etc

Windows NT

Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system, designed to complement workstation versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS (including...

microsoft.fandom.com

But there are lots of twists and turns in the history of Computer operating systems.

This the sequence I’ve ever used MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows NT, Linux, Windows XP/7/10, and MacOS. Windows is only for gaming.

 

[mhardy6647]

Besides minicomputers from DEC, I started with microcomputers running HDOS (Heathkit, baby!) and then CP/M. The latter was the de facto standard when "PCs" were mostly in the hobbyist (and, to some extent, the science/academic) domain (beginning of the 1980s).

 

[OldTimer]

This the sequence I’ve ever used MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows NT, Linux, Windows XP/7/10, and MacOS. Windows is only for gaming.

I forgot Windows 95/98/2000 before Windows XP. Then sometimes after Windows NT, I tried Linux but it was painful to use and tiring.

 

[celt]

In the beginning, there are only 2 computer operating systems which are IBM PC DOS (now become Windows) and UNIX (now become LINUX and Mac). Is this right?

No, not correct at all...

UNIX did not become Linux if that is what you are saying.

MacOS, after OSX (v10), designed a BSD based mach kernel (Darwin) for it's new system. So currently, MacOS is loosely UNIX based.

Linux is a "UNIX work-alike" that was a PhD. project of Linus Torvalds...he wanted to use FreeBSD for his PhD. project, but couldn't get the source code due to a lawsuit between AT&T and the University of California at Berkeley. Linus decided to change his Phd. project and design an open-sourced "UNIX work-alike" kernel - which through open source development and contributions from folks all over the world, we have Linux.

Linux is awesome, but understand, it is not UNIX, UNIX is not Linux - they are not interchangeable. They do provide very similar functions and services.

 

[celt]

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ...

You are submitting proof that you are not remotely knowledgeable on this topic.

 

[Berwhale]

No love for OS/2?

At my day job... Last year we finally decommissioned an IBM 3494 Automated Tape Library that was old enough to drink alcohol (in the UK) and ran OS/2 Warp displayed on a lovely black and white LCD display. The IBM 3494 won a design award in 1994 which was around the same time I was supporting OS/2 Warp on the desktop for Amex in the UK...

iF Design - IBM 3494

Tape library

ifdesign.com

 

[celt]

No love for OS/2?

At my day job... Last year we finally decommissioned an IBM 3494 Automated Tape Library that was old enough to drink alcohol (in the UK) and ran OS/2 Warp displayed on a lovely black and white LCD display. The IBM 3494 won a design award in 1994 which was around the same time I was supporting OS/2 Warp on the desktop for Amex in the UK...

iF Design - IBM 3494

Tape library

ifdesign.com

So very, very cool...

 

[audio_tony]

No love for OS/2?

I loved OS/2 and mourned it's decline.

I used to impress my friends by playing multiple videos and running Windows 3.1 at the same time on the same desktop (all on a 386 SX with 2M RAM).

It was so far ahead of it's time and had development continued, would probably knock the socks off anything we have today.

And before I'm corrected, I'm aware that Arca Noae, LLC announced that they had secured an agreement with IBM to resell OS/2 - however I understand that hardware support is currently limited.