Mumbai University > Information Technology > Sem 4 > CN

Marks: 5M

Year: Dec 2016

WINDOWS

Windows is a licensed operating system and its source code is inaccessible. It is designed for business owners, other commercial users, and even individuals with no computer programming knowledge. It is simple and straightforward to use.

Windows offers features like,

1. Multiple operating environments
2. Symmetric multiprocessing
3. Client-server computing
4. Integrated caching
5. Virtual memory
6. Portability
7. Extensibility
8. Preemptive scheduling

The first version of Windows, known as Windows 1.0, was revealed in 1985 following the formation of Microsoft. It was based upon the MS-DOS core. Following that initial launch, new versions of Windows were quickly rolled out. This included the first major update in 1987 and Windows 3.0 in the same year.

In 1995, perhaps the most widely used version yet, Windows 95 was born. At this point, it ran on a 16-bit DOS-based kernel and 32-bit userspace to enhance the user experience.

Windows hasn’t changed a whole lot in terms of core architecture since this version despite vast amounts of features that have been added to address modern computing.

LINUX

Linux is a free and open-source operating system based on Unix standards which provides a programming interface as well as user interface compatibility. It also contains many separately developed elements, free from proprietary code.

The traditional monolithic kernel is employed in the Linux kernel for performance purposes. Its modular feature allows most drivers to dynamically load and unload at run time.

Linux was created by Finnish student Linus Torvalds, who wanted to create a free operating system kernel that anyone could use. It was launched much later than Windows, in 1991. Although it still was regarded as a very bare-bones operating system, without a graphical interface like Windows. From just a few lines of source code in its original release to where it stands today, containing more than 23.3 million lines of the source code, Linux has surely grown considerably.

Linux was first distributed under GNU General Public License in 1992.