Operating Systems

All computers need some sort of Operating System (OS). The majority of modern home computers use some form of Microsoft's operating systems. The original Microsoft operating system was called DOS (Disk Operating System) though most computers use Windows. Windows comes in various versions beginning with version 3.x then 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista and currently version 7. A few computers use IBM's O/S2. Apple's Mac use their own operating system beginning with OS 1 though to OS 10.x. In the past large companies and institutions would have an operating system design exclusively for them but as the commercial operating systems become more sophisticated the benefits of this practice is becoming less apparent. Some computer professionals, Internet Service Providers (ISP) and mainframecomputer users use an operating system such as UNIX (or a variant such as Linux), Windows NT or 2000 (Win2k) or one of the other network or server based operating systems.