An operating system (OS) is a collection of software that manages computer hardware

resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is an
essential component of the system software in a computer system. Application programs
usually require an operating system to function.
Examples of popular modern operating systems include Android, BSD, iOS, Linux, OS X, QNX,
Microsoft Windows,[3] Windows Phone, and IBM z/OS. All these, except Windows, Windows
Phone and z/OS, share roots in UNIX.
Linux
Linux (or GNU/Linux) is a Unix-like operating system that was developed without any actual
UNIX code, unlike BSD and its variants. Linux can be used on a wide range of devices from
supercomputers to wristwatches. The Linux kernel is released under an open source license, so
anyone can read and modify its code. It has been modified to run on a large variety of
electronics. Although estimates suggest that Linux is used on 1.82% of all personal
computers,[9][10] it has been widely adopted for use in servers[11] and embedded
systems[12] (such as cell phones). Linux has superseded Unix in most places,[which?] and is
used on the 10 most powerful supercomputers in the world.[13] The Linux kernel is used in
some popular distributions, such as Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Google's
Android.
OS X
OS X, previously Mac OS X, is a series of Unix-based graphical interface operating systems
developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is designed to run exclusively on Mac computers,
having been pre-installed on all Macs since 2002. It was the successor to Mac OS 9, released in
1999; the final release of the "classic" Mac OS, which had been Apple's primary operating
system since 1984. The first version released was Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999, and a desktop
version, Mac OS X v10.0 "Cheetah" followed on March 24, 2001. Previous releases of OS X
were named after big cats; for example, OS X v10.8 was referred to as "Mountain Lion".
However, with the announcement of OS X Mavericks in June 2013, this was dropped in favor of
Californian landmarks.
Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of graphical interface operating systems developed, marketed,
and sold by Microsoft.
Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as a
graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical
user interfaces (GUIs). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer
market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984.
As of October 2013, the most recent versions of Windows for personal computers,
smartphones, server computers and embedded devices are respectively Windows 8.1,
Windows Phone 8, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Embedded 8.
Android
Android is an operating system based on the Linux kernel, and designed primarily for
touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Initially developed by
Android, Inc., which Google backed financially and later bought in 2005,[12] Android was
unveiled in 2007 along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliancea consortium of
hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards
for mobile devices.[13] The first publicly available smartphone running Android, the HTC
Dream, was released on October 22, 2008.[14]
Despite being primarily designed for phones and tablets, it also has been used in televisions,
games consoles, digital cameras, and other electronics.

iOS
iOS (previously iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. and
distributed exclusively for Apple hardware.
Originally unveiled in 2007 for the iPhone, it has been extended to support other Apple devices
such as the iPod Touch (September 2007), iPad (January 2010), iPad Mini (November 2012)
and second-generation Apple TV onward (September 2010). As of October 2013, Apple's App
Store contained more than 1 million iOS applications, 500,000 of which were optimized for
iPad. These apps have collectively been downloaded more than 60 billion times. It had a 21%
share of the smartphone mobile operating system units shipped in the fourth quarter of 2012,
behind Google's Android. By the middle of 2012, there were 410 million devices activated.
According to the special media event held by Apple on September 12, 2012, 400 million
devices had been sold by June 2012.
Major versions of iOS are released annually. The current release, iOS 7, was released on
September 18, 2013. In iOS, there are four abstraction layers: the Core OS layer, the Core
Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer. The current version of the
operating system (iOS 7.1), dedicates 11.5 GB of the device's flash memory for the system
partition, using roughly 800 MB of that partition (varying by model) for iOS itself. It runs on the
iPhone 4 and later, 2nd-generation iPad and later, all models of the iPad Mini, and the 5th-
generation iPod Touch.




Chromium OS / Chrome OS
Chromium is an operating system based on the Linux kernel and designed by Google. Since
Chromium OS targets computer users who spend most of their time on the Internet, it is
mainly a web browser with limited ability to run local applications, though it has a built-in file
manager and media player. Instead, it relies on Internet applications (or Web apps) used in the
web browser to accomplish tasks such as word processing. Chromium OS differs from Chrome
OS in that Chromium is open-source and used primarily by developers whereas Chrome OS is
the operating system shipped out in Chromebooks.