PC operating systems (single user)
Microsoft dominance.
Been that way for a long time.
Not what it used to be though.
Desktop Operating System Market Share 2010 to 2026.
From
StatCounter.
Lot of "unknown".
If you remove "unknown", it is Windows 80 percent.
Apple 15 percent.
PC operating systems
IBM and Microsoft:
- CP/M.
1974 to 1983.
Its decisions are the origin of various things on Windows today.
-
DOS.
Command-line only PC for consumers.
Microsoft version
MS-DOS.
from 1981.
Fully merged into Microsoft Windows in 1990s.
- Microsoft Windows.
Launched 1985 as a GUI for MS-DOS.
Exploded with Windows 3 in 1990.
MS-DOS soon became just the command-line for Windows.
- OS/2.
Launched 1987.
Briefly seen as the GUI for MS-DOS machines.
By 1996 it had lost to Windows.
Apple:
- Classic Mac OS.
The original OS for Apple PCs.
1984 to 2001.
- Mac OS X (now called macOS).
The new UNIX-based OS for Apple PCs.
Versions from 2001 to date.
Unix:
- Unix. An incredibly complex family tree.
- Linux. An incredibly complex family tree.
Comparisons:
