The History of Operating System Since D.O.S/Windows, MacOs and Linux

 Operating System (Windows/MacOS/GNULinux) and MS-DOS Basic Commands

(this class will be available in the future "someday ??/??/??" in video format on our video channel, produced as a documentary series about IT).

Due to the exclusivity of Apple's operating systems, we will only make references without going into much technical detail, since we do not know them in depth.We will focus on Windows and GNU/LINUX.

Hardware X Software

    Hardware and Software are technical terms that we must understand, as they are very different. Hardware is everything that is physical in the machine such as (printed circuit boards, electronic components, peripherals, hard drives, fans, processor, memories, motherboard, wires and cables) in short, it is everything that you touch with your hands.

     Hardware is all the physical components that make up a machine or computerized product. The problem is that hardware alone cannot make calculations, make decisions, or interact with the user. For this, a connection link, an intelligence is necessary.

     Software is this intelligence that works in partnership with hardware. It is something like an abstraction. We cannot touch it, but we know it exists. Software operates directly inside the machine. It is written using the famous "programming languages" and is therefore popularly known as "programs/applications". No hardware can work alone without specific software (even a keyboard or mouse), as it needs a driver/controller, which is software at its core.

     Just like our human body, it needs DNA and cell codes to function, any computerized machine needs an instruction code to give it assignments and functions that is known as software. 

    Software is code, in machine language, that can be programmed by several specific programming languages ​​(C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, Java, Perl, etc.), forming the well-known programs or even entire operating systems.

    Software is what makes computers functional in everyday life and what we can literally interact with. The professionals who create software are known as programmers, who master a specific programming language. But to create software with this language, other special software is needed. Computers only understand the language of 0 and 1, so programs written in these languages ​​must be "converted" to the computer's language! This is done in special software called a "compiler" (translator for low-level digital language).

The chicken and egg paradigm, because without software it is not possible to create other software, because the machine's hardware cannot create software.. To do so, it is necessary to have a main software that enables the machine to be functional.

Also known as Machine Operating Software or simply OS, it represents a set of other programs that will enable the computer itself, so that it is ready to be used by other programs and by its user. Inside it is the Kernel is the main code of the operating system, which will automatically load the other programs. The OS controls the interfaces between the computer and its users, in addition to managing the tasks or jobs that will be executed by the processor, automatically managing the system memory and executing functions so that the equipment is ready for use.

The operating system exists because the machine's hardware, its electronic boards, chips and components cannot load programs by themselves. To load a program, an operating system is necessary, the myth of the chicken and the egg. That's why it's necessary to define a routine to load it as soon as the machine is turned on. This is done in a routine known as Boot(already studied in the Hardware course).

How the First Operating Systems Began

    Let's remember a part of the History of Computing, and go back to 1945, when the first modern computers began to be manufactured (using electronics, transistors, valves, etc.). Yes, because what advantage could a computer that weighed tons, cost millions and was operated with a hand crank have? (first mechanical analog computers) watch the future video to learn about this part

    The first operating system was CTSS and later Multics which served as a basis for the study and development of other systems. UNICS from 1969, a direct derivative of Multics, was the first operating system written in B machine code.

    Later, programmers at AT&T Bell Labs (Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas Mcllroy) rewrote a new operating system project based on the concepts existing in UNICS and Multics. The code was improved and rewritten in C language and was called UNIX.

    UNIX is considered the first modern computing operating system because it was multi-user, multi-tasking and portable. UNIX would be the basis for many other operating systems, including LINUX and Apple's MAC OS/ X and the Android for mobiles.

Summary of the History of the World's Largest Operating Systems

    After UNIX, several operating systems emerged, the vast majority loaded via a flexible disk drive and named D.O.S (Disk Operating System).

MS-DOS/Windows

    In 1975, 2 young entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded a software company that would later be called Microsoft. When IBM, already a giant in large corporate computers, decided to enter the domestic market by producing the famous IBM-PC PCs (personal computers), the golden opportunity began. 

     IBM was a giant (still is) computer manufacturer and did not have an operating system. Gates then closed a "commercial contract" with IBM, so that it would incorporate the operating system, which would be produced by Microsoft, into its PCs, and would still maintain the proprietary license of the operating system. This means that for each computer sold, a portion of the money$$ would be credited to Microsoft (for the system license).

    But Microsoft did not yet have a ready-made operating system that could meet the demands of the giant IBM. But Gates heard something about a system from another programmer that was in development and became very interested.

   In 1980 Bill Gates buys from Tim Paterson, a brilliant computer programmer (who worked at Seattle Computer Systems), his operating system QDOS (which was still in the development phase).

    By hiring Tim to improve the QDOS code, Gates' company finally launched its operating system known as MS-DOS (MS is the initials of MicroSoft) for IBM PCs.

    It is worth remembering that the word "DOS" (Disk Operating System) is not a patent of Bill Gates' company. Many other operating systems contained the word DOS in their descriptions. Only "MS-DOS" was a patented term for Microsoft.

     Amiga DOS, PC-DOS,MSX-DOS and many others. To this day there are many other operating systems based on DOS that are also free. FreeDOS, available to this day for use, is an example of free software with the same original characteristics.

    Windows started out as an MS-DOS system with a graphical interface! Until its 98/ME version, MS-DOS was literally running underneath Windows, but after its XP version onwards, Windows effectively became an operating system, abolishing MS-DOS as part of the system (today just a command terminal).

Apple (MAC OS X, and similar)

    April 1976, 3 young people brilliant among them the genius Steve Jobs created a  trademark, Apple Computers:

 The Apple Computers INC  began to work with a spirit of innovation and technology (which continues to this day, by the way). But it still did not have an operating system and, in order not to be at a loss, it began to manufacture personal computers without its own systems. This company quickly launched its first computer, the Apple I, in July 1976.

But Apple's plans were to manufacture something so desired, a computer with its own operating system and sell it all at once! Steve Jobs heard that XEROX (the same company that made copiers) had already tested a Graphic operating system (yes, with a mouse, button and everything). The problem is that it was only for corporate use and no one dreamed of making computers for personal use like they do today.

    Steve Jobs buys this system from Xerox and brings it to Apple. However, since they had no experience with it yet, they hire Bill Gates so that he could help him adapt this system for a computer that Apple was going to launch on the market.

    That's right! Bill Gates and Steve Jobs working together!

    With Gates' experience in operating systems (MS-DOS) and Apple's genius in manufacturing hardware (better computers) the result could not be different. The worldwide concept computer appears, totally revolutionary Apple LISA!

 Apple LISA was the world's first personal computer (PC) to have a graphical operating system, with mouse links, icons and buttons, until then considered a very futuristic dream (only in 1990 would there be cheap graphical operating systems).

    Equipped with a built-in monitor, mouse, keyboard and a motorized disk drive (which was rare at the time, all of them were mechanical), the only problem with the Apple LISA was its price, which at the time was around US$10,000, today it would be almost as expensive as an apartment/low-cost house. Despite its weak processor for the wonderful system (at the time it didn't have the famous Dual Cores of today, it was 10Mhz clock) the computer is a concept, an almost futuristic product, conceived by the union of the greatest computer geniuses and the two largest companies in the sector.

    After the launch of LISA, Gates had all the knowledge about graphical operating systems, and was thus able to bring an incredible improvement to his MS-DOS (text). Then Windows appeared! Nothing more than a GUI for MS-DOS.

    After the launch of Windows 1.0, the partnership between Apple and Microsoft was undone, and Jobs even sued Gates for breach of confidentiality and other offenses, since the Windows system was created with Apple technology (LISA).

👉💫LINUX (Kernell) 

    In the mid-1990s, far from the AppleXMicrosoft fight, a Finnish programming student Linus B. Torvalds developed his thesis by creating an alternative operating system to MINIX (another UNIX-based system).

    A computer genius, Linus had previously written much software for the Sinclair line of computers.

    The curious thing is that many other students were interested in the idea of ​​this new mysterious system (X), and asked Linus for permission to share it publicly so that it could be improved/developed. The folder that hosted the file was named LINUX (Linus+ X).

    Then another powerful operating system emerged, widely used in corporate/high security environments.

But Linux was just a Kernell (core), it lacked many tools. And that was when Richard Stallman, another programmer who developed tools for an open operating system, joined Linux to form GNU/LINUX (the operating system we know today Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Mageia, etc, etc)

    Many people don't know, but Linux is the standard used in large servers/mainframes/supercomputers because of its excellent security and stability.  In the Arm also!

    It is not yet widely used on desktop computers, because Windows has been commercially adopted (bundled sale) with new PCs. But this reality is changing little by little.

    Throughout the course we will also discuss GNU/LINUX, its advantages and improvements.

    Currently many other operating systems are derived from Linux such as (Android, ChromeOS, FirefoxOS).

    Microsoft itself has a Linux distribution for networks! (almost nobody knows about this one).... Just like it, many giant companies invest in LINUX (IBM, HP, Novell, Google, Oracle, etc.)

    Apple's MAC OS system also uses UNIX technology, some features were even inspired by GNU/LINUX, such as the X graphical server and others.

See you in the next article!
JMJG
(Electronic Engineer)