Comparison of operating systems

These tables provide a comparison of operating systems, of computer devices, as listing general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available PC or handheld (including smartphone and tablet computer) operating systems. The article "Usage share of operating systems" provides a broader, and more general, comparison of operating systems that includes servers, mainframes and supercomputers.

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 comparison. There is also a variety of BSD and DOS operating systems, covered in comparison of BSD operating systems and comparison of DOS operating systems.

<!-- NOTES TO EDITORS, PLEASE READ THIS

- All tables in this article are meant to be sorted alphabetically

- All tables should list the same operating systems. If you add an OS, please add it to ALL tables.

- The unfixed bug count in the security table WAS updated automatically by User:SecuniBot. There WAS no need to update that column manually, except to add the link to the secunia.com page corresponding to an OS the first time. See below. The security table currently needs updating manually until this bot can be repaired/updated.

- When adding new data, first study the conventions used in exant table entries. E.g., the "Target system type" column should list system types like "server", "personal computer", "tablet", "workstation", "network appliance", "embedded system".

- No need exists to list all architectures in the "supported architectures" columns. List only the important ones, maybe up to five. If more exist, then add "N others", "some others", or a similar phrase.

Please do not add an arch to this list if only an experimental port exists.

Listed archs should be fully supported.

- The same goes for filesystems, list only important ones.

- Use "?" or the {inc} template for missing data, not "-". "-" is used to mean "none" / "n/a" in these tables.

- Some systems (AmigaOS, BeOS, Reactos) have been removed from this comparison by consensus on the talk page. Please study the discussion there before re-adding them.

- Footnotes shall be grouped references for their respective tables. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing sources#List-defined references -->

<!-- SECUNIBOT IS NOT PERMITTED

This comment forbids the bot User:SecuniBot permission to update the unpatched vulnerabilities

column of the Security table, until after the bot is updated to conform to the current Secunia URI scheme

and the current Security table format scheme. If the bot were to update an entry, it would have the format

| <number> || <date>

Where <number> is any sequence of digits, and <date> is either '-' or a date in numeric format, i.e.

while it should have the format

| <NUMBER_OF_UNPATCHED_VULNERABILITIES_LISTED_AS_Extremely critical>

| <NUMBER_OF_UNPATCHED_VULNERABILITIES_LISTED_AS_Highly critical>

| <NUMBER_OF_UNPATCHED_VULNERABILITIES_LISTED_AS_Moderately critical>

| <NUMBER_OF_UNPATCHED_VULNERABILITIES_LISTED_AS_Less critical>

| <NUMBER_OF_UNPATCHED_VULNERABILITIES_LISTED_AS_Not critical>{IF non-zero, then follow with oldest UNPATCHED_VULNERABILITY of this criticality} [http://secunia.com/advisories/<VULNERABILITY_NUMBER>/ ]

| <NUMBER_OF_VULNERABILITIES> [http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/<VULNERABILITY_NUMBER> ]

All other entries will be ignored. The current bot fetches the linked secunia.com page and counts the advisories marked less critical or above. The footnote below the table that gives the last updated date is also adjusted. The bot is run by User:Sperling, but has not been updated since 2006-08-27T07:40:31, nor has it's maintainer contributed since 2008-08-19T03:55:38. The source is available at User:SecuniBot/source. -->

Nomenclature

The nomenclature for operating systems varies among providers and sometimes within providers.

For purposes of this article the terms used are;

;kernel

:In some operating systems, the OS is split into a low level region called the kernel and higher level code that relies on the kernel. Typically the kernel implements processes but its code does not run as part of a process.

:;hybrid kernel

:;monolithic kernel

;Nucleus

:In some operating systems there is OS code permanently present in a contiguous region of memory addressable by unprivileged code; in IBM systems this is typically referred to as the nucleus. The nucleus typically contains both code that requires special privileges and code that can run in an unprivileged state. Typically some code in the nucleus runs in the context of a dispatching unit, e.g., address space, process, task, thread, while other code runs independent of any dispatching unit. In contemporary operating systems unprivileged applications cannot alter the nucleus.

License and pricing policies vary widely among different systems.

Among others, the tables below use the following terms:

;BSD

:BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses, imposing minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software.

;bundled

:The fee is included in the price of the hardware

General information

{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; sortby: name;"

! scope="col" | Name

! scope="col" | Creator

! scope="col" | Initial public release

! scope="col" | Predecessor

! scope="col" | Current stable version

! scope="col" | Latest release date

! scope="col" | Cost, availability

! scope="col" | Preferred license

| Workstation, personal computer

! scope="row" | ChromeOS

| Google

| 2011

| none

| 129.0.6668.99

| : Google OS Terms of Service. Open-source core system

| Chromebook, Chromebox, Chromebase and tablet

! scope="row" | ChromiumOS

| Google

| 2009

| none

| Rolling release

| Personal computer

! scope="row" | DragonFly BSD

| Matthew Dillon

| 2003

| FreeBSD

| 6.4.0

| Server, workstation, NAS, embedded system

! scope="row" | eComStation

| Serenity Systems, Mensys BV

| 2001

| OS/2

| 2.1

| Server, workstation, personal computer

! scope="row" | EPOC32

| Psion PLC

| 1996

| ER5

| PDA

! scope="row" | EulerOS

| Huawei

| 2021

| None

| V2.0SP8

| 2022

| Server, workstation

! scope="row" | FreeBSD

| The FreeBSD Project

| 1993

| 386BSD

| 14.1

| Server, workstation, Desktop, NAS, embedded system

! scope="row" | Genode

| Genode Labs

| 2008

| None

| Desktop, embedded system, server

! scope="row" | GhostBSD

| Eric Turgeon

| 2009

| FreeBSD

| 21.05

| Desktop, workstation

! scope="row" | Haiku

| Haiku Inc.

| 2002

| BeOS R5

| R1/Beta 5

| Personal computer

! scope="row" | HP NonStop

| HP (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise)

| 1976

| None

| H06.24/J06.13

| HP Nonstop Servers

! scope="row" | HP-UX

| HP (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise)

| 1983

| UNIX System V

| HP-UX 11i v3 2023 / May 2023

| Server

! scope="row" | HarmonyOS

| Huawei

| 2019

| OpenHarmony, LiteOS

| 5.0.0.102(SP3C00E73R4P17)

| software except for open-source components

| Internet of things, Smartphone, tablet computer, education, embedded system, smart watches

! scope="row" | IBM i

| IBM

| 1988

| CPF, SSP

| 7.5

| Server

! scope="row" | Inferno

| Bell Labs

| 1996

| Plan 9

| Fourth Edition

| NAS, server, embedded

! scope="row" | iOS (originally iPhone OS)

| Apple Inc.

| 2007

| macOS

| 26.0.1

| higher level API layers; open source core system (ARM versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others

| Smartphone, music player, tablet

! scope="row" | IRIX

| SGI

| 1988

| UNIX System V

| 6.5.30

| Server, workstation

! scope="row" | IX/370

| IBM

| 1985

| UNIX System V

| Release 1.4?

| IBM System/370

! scope="row" | Linux

| Notable contributors include: Linus Torvalds for the Linux kernel; Red Hat, Debian Project See: Comparison of Linux distributions and Linux kernel#Development

| 1991 (kernel), See: Comparison of Linux distributions and History of Linux

| None

| (kernel)

| See: Comparison of Linux distributions

! scope="row" | macOS (originally Mac OS X)

| Apple Inc.

| 2001

| NeXTSTEP, BSD

| 26.0.1

| higher level API layers; open source core system (Apple Silicon-Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others

| Workstation, personal computer, embedded

! scope="row" | macOS Server (originally Mac OS X Server)

| Apple Inc.

| 2001

| NeXTSTEP, BSD

| 5.12

| higher level API layers; open source core system (Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others

| Server

! scope="row" | MCP

| Unisys

| 1961

| None

| CP OS 20.0

| Server

! scope="row" | MenuetOS

| Ville Turjanmaa and others

| 2000

| None

| 1.49.00

| OS written in assembly language

| Workstation

! scope="row" | MINIX 3

| Andrew S. Tanenbaum

| 2005

| Minix2

| 3.3.0

| Workstation

! scope="row" | MPE

| HP

| 1974

| None

| MPE-V

| Server

! scope="row" | MPE/XL

| HP

| 1987

| MPE

| 7.5

|

| Server

! scope="row" | MVS (OS/VS2 R2 through R3.8)

| IBM

| 1972

| OS/360 MVT, SVS

| Release 3.8

| IBM System/370

! scope="row" | MVS (MVS/SE through MVS/ESA)

| IBM

| 1978 (March)

| OS/VS2 R3.7 for MVS/SE R1 OS/VS2 R3.8 for MVS/SE R2 through MVS/ESA

| MVS/ESA System Product Version 5.2.2

(V5R2.2)

| S/370

S/370-XA

S/370-ESA

ESA/390

! scope="row" | NetBSD

| The NetBSD Project

| 1993

| 386BSD

| 10.1

| NAS, server, workstation, embedded

! scope="row" | NetWare

| Novell

| 1983

| S-Net

| 6.5 SP8

| Server

! scope="row" | NeXTSTEP

| NeXT

| 1989

| Unix

| 3.3

| Workstation

!Oniro

|Various (Eclipse Foundation, Huawei and others)

|2021

|None

|4.1

|Internet of things, embedded system, smart watches, mobile devices, personal computers

! scope="row" |OpenBSD

| OpenBSD Project

| 1996

| NetBSD 1.0

| 7.7

| Server, NAS, workstation, embedded

! scope="row" | OpenHarmony

| Various (OpenAtom Foundation, Huawei and others)

| 2020

| HarmonyOS, LiteOS

| 5.0.0 Release

| Internet of things, embedded system, smart watches, mobile devices, personal computers

! scope="row" | OpenIndiana

| Many, based on software developed by Sun Microsystems and many others

| 2010

| OpenSolaris

| 2023.04

| Server, workstation

! scope="row" | OpenVMS

| DEC (now VSI)

| 1977

| RSX-11M

| V9.2-3

| Server, workstation

! scope="row" | OS/2

| IBM and Microsoft

| 1987

| MS-DOS

| 4.52

| Personal computer, server

! scope="row" | OS/360

| IBM

| 1966

| None

| Operating System/360 R21.8

| S/360 S/370

! scope="row" | OS/390

| IBM

| 1995

| MVS/ESA

| OS/390 version 2 R10

| S/390

! scope="row" | OS 2200

| Unisys

| 1967 as Exec 8e

| Exec 8, OS 1100

| CP OS 18 (Exec 49.2)

| Server

! scope="row" | OS/VS1

| IBM

| OS/360 MFT II

| Release 7.0?

| IBM System/370

! scope="row" | OS/VS2 SVS

| IBM

| OS/360 MVT

| Release 1.7

| IBM System/370

! scope="row" | Plan 9

| Bell Labs

| 1992

| Unix

| Fourth Edition

| (except for minor later updates)

| Workstation, server, embedded system, HPC

! scope="row" | QNX

| QNX Software Systems

| 1982

| Unix, POSIX

| 7.1.0

| Automotive, medical, smartphone, consumer, industrial, embedded system, safety

! scope="row" | ReactOS

| ReactOS development team

| 1998

| Windows NT (clone of)

| 0.4.14

| Workstation, personal computer

! scope="row" | Redox

| Jeremy Soller

| 2015

| -

| 0.7.0

| Desktop, workstation, server

! scope="row" | RISC iX

| Acorn Computers

| 1988

| BSD 4.3

| 1.21c

| Workstation

! scope="row" | RISC OS

| Acorn Computers

| 1987

| Arthur

| 3.71

| Education, personal computer

! scope="row" | RISC OS 4

| RISCOS Ltd, Pace plc

| 1999

| RISC OS

| 4.39

| Education, personal computer

! scope="row" | RISC OS 5

| Castle Technology, RISC OS Open

| 2002

| RISC OS 4

| 5.28

| Education, personal computer

! scope="row" | RISC OS 6

| RISCOS Ltd

| 2006

| RISC OS 4

| 6.20

|

| Education, personal computer

! scope="row" | Sailfish OS

| Jolla Ltd.

| 2013

| Symbian

| 5.0

| Smartphone

! scope="row" | SerenityOS

| Andreas Kling

| 2018

| None

| Continuous integration

| Workstation, personal computer

! scope="row" | Solaris

| Sun (now Oracle Corporation)

| 1992

| SunOS

| 11.4

| Server, workstation

! scope="row" | STOP 6, XTS-400

| BAE Systems

| 2003

| STOP 5, XTS-300

| 8.2

| Server, workstation

! scope="row" | Symbian

| Symbian Ltd.

| 1998

| EPOC32

| 9.5

| Phone

! scope="row" | Symbian platform

| Symbian Foundation

| 2010 (initially 1998 as Symbian)

| Symbian

| 3.0.4

| Embedded system

! scope="row" | TempleOS

| Terry Davis

| 2005 (as J Operating System)

| None

| 5.03

| Personal computer

! scope="row" | Tru64

| Digital Equipment Corporation

| 1992 (January)

| OSF/1

| 5.1B-6

| Server, workstation, HPC

! scope="row" | VME

| ICL

| 1974

| None

| SV294

| ICL mainframe

! scope="row" | VSEn

| 21st Century Software

| 1979 (as DOS/VSE)

| DOS/360 DOS/VS

| 6.4

| IBM Z

! scope="row" | VxWorks

| Wind River Systems

| 1987

| VRTX

| 7

| Embedded real-time system

! scope="row" | Windows

| Microsoft

| 1985

| None

| Windows 11 (version 26H1)

| ; Source-available

| Workstation, personal computer, media center, , embedded system

! scope="row" | Windows (classic 9x family)

| Microsoft

| 1995

| MS-DOS

| Windows Me (Win 4.90.3000)

| Personal computer, media center

! scope="row" | Windows (NT family)

| Microsoft

| 1993

| OS/2 and Windows 3.1x

| Windows 11 (version 24H2)

| ; Source-available

| Workstation, personal computer, media center, , embedded system

! scope="row" | Windows Server (NT family)

| Microsoft

| 1993

| OS/2

| Windows Server 2025 (version 10.0.26100.32860)

| ; Source-available

| Server, NAS, embedded system

! scope="row" | z/OS

| IBM

| 2000

| OS/390

| Version 3.2 (V3R2)

| IBM Z

! scope="row" | z/VM

| IBM

| 2000

| VM/ESA

| 7.4

| IBM Z

! scope="row" | ZETA

| yellowTAB

| 2005

| BeOS R5

| 1.5

| Personal computer, media center, workstation

|- class="sortbottom"

! Name

! Creator

! abbr="Initial release" | Initial public release

! Predecessor

! Current stable version

! Release date

! Cost, availability

! Preferred license

Technical information

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under sticky-header" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto;"

! Name

! scope="col" | Computer architectures supported

! scope="col" | File systems supported

! scope="col" | Kernel type

! scope="col" | Source lines of code

! scope="col" |GUI default is on

| Portage

| Linux/POSIX

! scope="row" | DragonFly BSD

| x86-64

| UFS1, MFS, ext2, FAT (16/32), HAMMER, ISO 9660

| Hybrid

| dports, pkg

| git, cvsup, rsync, pkg

| BSD/POSIX

| Mono, Java, Win16,

| Ports collection, packages

| by source, network binary update (freebsdupdate)

| BSD/POSIX

| Mono, Java, Win16,

! scope="row" | GhostBSD

| IA-32, x86-64

| UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental), ZFS, others

| Monolithic with modules

| Ports collection, packages

| by source, network binary update (freebsdupdate)

| BSD/POSIX

| Mono, Java, Win16,

lines of code for userland libraries and applications vary depending on the distribution

| Depends on the distribution

| Linux/POSIX

| Mono, Java, Win16, (100 Deterministic Latency Engine)

| .app with HAP files

| Software Update

| Proprietary

| Java until 3.0.0

! scope="row" | Inferno

| IA-32, PowerPC, SPARC, Alpha, MIPS, others

| Styx/9P2000, kfs, FAT, ISO 9660

| Monolithic with modules, user space file systems

| Proprietary

! scope="row" | iOS

| ARMv8-A (iOS 7–present), ARMv7-A (iPhone OS 3–iOS 10), ARMv6 (iPhone OS 1–iOS 4.2.1)

| HFS+ (prior to version 10.3), APFS (since version 10.3)

| Hybrid

| ≈80 million

| ?

| Software Update

| Cocoa, BSD-POSIX

| ?

! scope="row" | Classic Mac OS

| 68k, PowerPC

| HFS+, HFS, MFS (Mac OS 8.0 and before), AFP, ISO 9660, FAT(System 7 and later), UDF

| Monolithic with modules

| None

| Software Update (only in Mac OS 9)

| Toolbox, Carbon (from version 8.1)

! scope="row" | macOS

| Apple silicon (11-present), x86-64 (10.4.7–present), IA-32 (10.4.4–10.6.8), PowerPC (10.0–10.5.8)

| HFS+ (default on hard drives, and on flash drives up to Sierra), APFS (default on flash drives in High Sierra), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV, ZFS (experimental)

| Hybrid with modules

| ≈86 million

| macOS Installer

| Software Update

| Carbon, Cocoa, Java, BSD-POSIX

| Toolbox (only in versions up to Mac OS X 10.4, not supported on x86 architecture), Win16,

| POSIX

! scope="row" | NetBSD

| IA-32, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, sparc64, others

| UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, LFS, and others

| Monolithic with modules

| .app with HAP files

| Software Update

| Open-source, ArkUI, OpenHarmony API Kits

| Java until 3.0.0, React Native, Qt, Flutter, Electron, CEF

! scope="row" | Oniro

| 64-bit ARM, RISC-V, x86, x64

| HMDFS, EROFS, NFS, RAMFS, FAT, JFFS2, exFAT

| Multi-kernel

| .app with HAP files

| Software Update

| Open-source, ArkUI, OpenHarmony and Oniro API Kits, React Native for ArkUI

| React Native, Qt, Flutter, Electron, CEF

! scope="row" | Plan 9

| IA-32, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, others

| fossil/venti, 9P2000, kfs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660

| Hybrid, user space file systems

| ≈2.5 Million /sys/src (complete source of all supported architectures, kernels, commands and libraries)

| None

| replica

| Proprietary (Unix-like)

| POSIX compatibility layer

! scope="row" | QNX

| x86, SH-4, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS

| QNX4FS, QNX6, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, Joliet, NFS, CIFS, ETFS, UDF, HFS, HFS+, NTFS, others

| Microkernel

| POSIX, Java

! scope="row" | ReactOS

| IA-32, PowerPC, ARM

| FAT, BTRFS, and NTFS (read only)

| Hybrid

| nearly 8 million

| ReactOS Applications Manager, MSI, custom installers

| None

| Win32, NT API

| DOS API

! scope="row" | Redox

| x86-64

| RedoxFS, TFS

| Microkernel

| pkgutils

| POSIX

! scope="row" | RISC OS

| ARM (both 26 and 32-bit addressing modes)

| Acorn ADFS, Econet ANFS, FAT, ISO 9660, many others as loadable filesystems

| Monolithic with modules. Cooperative multitasking with limited memory protection.

| Applications self-contained; hardware drivers often in ROM

| !IyoUpWtch

| Huge number of SWI calls; extensive C libraries

! scope="row" | SerenityOS

| x86, x86-64

| ext2

| Microkernel

| ≈750,000

| None

| POSIX, propertiary

! scope="row" | Solaris

| IA-32, x86-64, SPARC

| UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others

| Monolithic with modules

| SysV packages (pkgadd) Image Packaging System (pkg) (Solaris 11 and later)

| Image Packaging System (Solaris 11 and later)

| SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java

| Win16,

| Image Packaging System (pkg), SysV packages (pkgadd)

| Image Packaging System

| SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java

| Win16,

| MSI, custom installers

| Windows Update

| Win32, NT API

| DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET

! scope="row" | Windows (NT family)

| IA-32, x86-64, ARM, IA-64, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC

| NTFS, FAT exFAT ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support btrfs, ext2, ext3, ReiserFS,

Security

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under sticky-header-multi" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto"

! scope="col" rowspan="3" | Name

! scope="col" rowspan="3" | Resource access control

! scope="col" rowspan="3" | Subsystem isolation mechanisms

! scope="col" rowspan="3" | Integrated firewall

! scope="col" rowspan="3" | Encrypted file systems

! scope="col" colspan="2" rowspan="2" | No execute (NX) page flag

! scope="col" colspan="6" | Manufacturer acknowledged unpatched vulnerabilities (by severity) least privilege

| capability-based security

| Virtual switch and NAPT controls in user-space

| colspan="6"

! scope="row" | HP-UX 11.31

| POSIX, ACLs

| chroot

| IPFilter

| 0

| 3 [https://secunia.com/advisories/11969/ ]

| 2 [https://secunia.com/advisories/7702/ ]

| 0

| >0

! scope="row" | Inferno

| POSIX

| Namespaces, capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit

| ||

| colspan="5"

| >0

! scope="row" | Linux-based 2.6.39

| POSIX, ACLs,

Commands

For POSIX compliant (or partly compliant) systems like FreeBSD, Linux, macOS or Solaris, the basic commands are the same because they are standardized.

{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto;"

! scope="col" | Feature

! scope="col" | AROS

! scope="col" | FreeBSD

! scope="col" | Linux-based

! scope="col" | HP-UX

! scope="col" | OpenVMS

! scope="col" | macOS

! scope="col" | Solaris

! scope="col" | Windows (cmd)

! scope="col" | Windows (PowerShell)

! scope="row" | List directory

! scope="row" | Clear console

| :

! scope="row" | Copy file(s)

! scope="row" | Move file(s)

! scope="row" | Rename file(s)

| )

! scope="row" | Delete file(s)

| )

! scope="row" | Delete directory

| )

! scope="row" | Create directory

| )

! scope="row" | Change current directory

Comparison of operating systems

Nomenclature

General information

Technical information

Security

Commands

See also

Operating system comparisons

References

External links