Alternative Operating Systems

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Sforeign
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Alternative Operating Systems

Post by Sforeign »

It occured to me today that I am actually unaware of many alternative operating systems. All I've really heard of is Windows and Linux. I find it hard to believe that only one company can possibly know what they are doing. So what other reputable operating systems are there and can Windows really be claimed as the best?
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battye
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by battye »

Well, Mac OS X is a pretty big operating system that you missed. I'm sure OS X has a larger market share than Linux?
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by ToonArmy »

The BSD's would be another major group you haven't mentioned, although the list of 'alternatives' is huge! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operating_systems
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Sforeign
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by Sforeign »

Heh, thanks to all of you, especially Toon Army for that wikipedia link.
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by god0fgod »

battye wrote:Well, Mac OS X is a pretty big operating system that you missed. I'm sure OS X has a larger market share than Linux?
Think I've seen from some sources, 8%.

Since OS X and the return of Steve Jobs, Macs have become a lot more popular. Perhaps Linux and Macs can overcome Windows within the next couple of decades? Windows still has about 90% though at the moment.

I got the statistics at a place which were relating to web statistics. Perhaps people with OS X and Linux use the internet more so it could be biased.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by battye »

I think the iPod factor, and probably to a lesser extent (as it hasn't been around as long) the iPhone, has also played a big part in the rise of Mac as an operating system.

I probably wouldn't have bought a Mac if I didn't have an iPod.
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by god0fgod »

Yes the iPod would of had a huge influence on Mac sales. The iPhone not so much I would think. Many people would probably never heard of Apple before the iPod.
Sforeign wrote:can Windows really be claimed as the best?
Well it is opinionated but Windows is definitely a lot slower and more insecure than Linux operating systems and OS X. I personally hate it a lot. Very annoying.

You should try some alternatives to see what suits you. You may begin to realize what a piece of junk Windows really is.
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by stickerboy »

An OS I never really hear many people speak of is RISCOS - I have an old Acorn 3000/3010 running RISCOS3. Fantastic little machine. I've kept tabs on the later releases (think it's at 5 or 6 now), but never had a chance to see it in action. It wold be nice to hear if anyone actually uses OS4 or above :P
From what I hear Firefox and Thunderbird were ported to work on the latest release :)
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by Techie-Micheal »

battye wrote:Well, Mac OS X is a pretty big operating system that you missed. I'm sure OS X has a larger market share than Linux?
Not sure about that. MacOSX does have a larger market share than Microsoft would like to admit, but think of the freakin huge server farms that Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and so on have. Content delivery networks like Akamai run Linux as well.
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by drathbun »

Are we talking desktop operating systems or server?

As a desktop, I would imagine Windows is first, OS/X second, and various linux variations third. It would be interesting to see numbers on that though.

Agreed that on the server side of things Linux far outnumbers Apple.
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by AdamR »

drathbun wrote:Are we talking desktop operating systems or server?

As a desktop, I would imagine Windows is first, OS/X second, and various linux variations third. It would be interesting to see numbers on that though.

Agreed that on the server side of things Linux far outnumbers Apple.
That's correct. Server side, *nix variations (including Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc) have the dominant marketshare, Windows is second, and Apple is last. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but servers running Windows are actually increasing markeshare, at least in the x86/64 realm.

When dealing with IBM PPC or SPARC based systems of the RISC family, *nix (such as Solaris) and Linux variations are about as close to 100% marketshare as you can get. However, such servers are usually reserved for highly technical and specific tasks (such as supercomputers predicting weather models) of which extreme customization is needed, whereas Windows targets a much wider and general audience, such as web servers and mainframe systems within companies.

Apple targets another specialized market with OS X server. To be perfectly honest, unless things have changed in the last release of OS X Server, performance when dealing with web serving and databases has been ridiculously poor in comparison to Linux and Windows. While OS X server can serve that purpose, I wouldn't ever use it.

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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by Caedmon »

The sad but true fact on the server side of things, is that even for a Linux zealot (like myself) IT Professionals more and more are having to realize and understand that it's a Microsoft world.

More often than not companys will pay for the software and support because they don't want it to be their problem if it breaks, and Microsoft techs are way easier to find and cheaper to employ than a *nix tech is. MSCE's are a dime a dozen, and everyone knows the majority of the ins-and-outs of Windows.

As much as I love Linux, the only Linux based box I have in my entire organization is a Spam Scanning appliance from McAfee, built on RHEL4. Theres too much reliance on Microsoft technologies for me to do anything else without great difficulty. AD, Exchange, Sharepoint, ISA, WSUS all require Windows boxen. Tis sad.
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by god0fgod »

There are more Linux servers than any other, so I've heard, hence there must be plenty of support available, no?
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by Dog Cow »

AdamR wrote: Apple targets another specialized market with OS X server. To be perfectly honest, unless things have changed in the last release of OS X Server, performance when dealing with web serving and databases has been ridiculously poor in comparison to Linux and Windows. While OS X server can serve that purpose, I wouldn't ever use it.

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You don't buy OS X Server merely to serve web sites or as a file server, because you can do that with the basic version of OS X. No, you get Server for the graphical tools plus the pre-installed software. You pay money for conveniences, really.

And speaking of Apple's operating systems, let's not forget A/UX, GS/OS, ProDOS, and DOS 3.3! :ugeek:
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Re: Alternative Operating Systems

Post by ragheb.khaseeb »

take this link http://g.ho.st

Ghost (global hosted operating system) still in BETA version
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