Welcome to VintageOS ver. 2010/01/04
What is an operating system (OS)?
In the simplest definition, an operating system
(OS)
is a set of instructions (software)
that controls some hardware.
These instructions are layered over the kernel
accessing the hardware
directly and the user interface
(command line interface
or graphic user interface)
for the user (normally a human being) to interact with it. These instructions
are written (coded) using in different languages from
low level
languages (like machine language and assembler)
to high level
languages (like C++).
Operating systems have evolved from their early days and surprisingly most
modern operating systems are made a good time ago like
MVS in 1964,
Unix in 1969,
BSD in 1977,
DOS in 1980,
Macintosh
(or Mac) in
1984, Windows in 1985 and
Linux in 1991.
In the past couple of years, a different approach to operating systems and
management of resources is using terminals accessing all resources from a server
through a web browser. Also this is similar to devices like the
Nintendo Wii
game console that uses Opera for Devices
to allow users access the internet.
At the same time, computers have shrunk from huge systems that would normally
fit in a loft (like an IBM 360
mainframe)
to machines that fit in your pocket like any of today's mobile phones. Computers
are used worldwide for various purposes from web browsing to going to
outer space.
This site takes a high level look of the different operating systems used
worldwide.
Use this site as a source of information on different operating systems at your
own discretion. I offer no warranties that the information in this site is fully
accurate and you are welcome to correct
any errors that you find. You can copy and/or steal the contents for your school
reports. Do not publish it on other websites or other media and
say that you wrote this information. The latter would not be nice and is
considered plagiarism. You can credit VintageOS
and give this site a link (thanks in advance).
Technology is great and gives us access to a lot of nice toys that must be
used carefully especially with children, like the
internet.
I am trying to write white papers that you can share with friends and family on
technology. Of course, I have not had enough time to do so. For the time being,
you can read the white paper on how to protect children on-line
and my experiences with PC-BSD
(though a bit outdated).

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