Comparison of operating systems

Usage share of web client operating systems. (Source: Median values from Usage share of operating systems for August 2011.)

  Windows XP (35.21%)

  Windows 7 (31.21%)

  Windows Vista (11.27%)

  Mac OS X (7.31%)

  iOS (3.38%)

  Android (1.30%)

  Linux (1.11%)

These tables compare general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available operating systems.

Because of the large number and variety of available Linux distributions, they are all grouped under a single entry; see comparison of Linux distributions for a detailed comparison. There are also a variety of BSD operating systems, covered in comparison of BSD operating systems. For information on views of each operating system, see operating system advocacy.

General information

Name	Creator	First public release	Predecessor	Latest stable version	Latest release date	Cost/Availability	Preferred license[g 1]	Target system type
AIX	IBM	1986	UNIX System V Release 3	7.1	2010	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Server, NAS, Workstation
Android	Android, Inc./Google	2008	Linux	Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich	2011	Free	Open source	Consumer, enterprise, military, education
AmigaOS Classic	Commodore International, Haage & Partner, Hyperion Entertainment	1985	TRIPOS (as the disk operating component of AmigaOS)	4.1 Update 2	2011	Bundled with hardware up to version 2.0. Versions 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.5, 3.9, 4.1 Update 2 also available as separate packages.	Proprietary, Open source clone available under AROS Public License	Workstation, Personal computer
AmigaOS 4	Hyperion Entertainment	2004	AmigaOS Classic	4.1 Update 2	2010	4.0 bundled with hardware. 4.0 for classic and 4.1 available as standalone package at € 99.	Proprietary	Workstation, Personal computer
eComStation	Serenity Systems, Mensys BV	2001	OS/2	2.1	2011	Home & Student Edition (max. 5 per site) - $149.00 Business Edition - $259.00	Proprietary	Server, Workstation, Personal computer
EPOC32	Psion PLC	1996		ER5	1999	Commercial	Proprietary	PDA
FreeBSD	The FreeBSD Project	1993	386BSD	8.2	2011	Free	BSD	Server, Workstation, NAS, Embedded system
DragonFly BSD	Matthew Dillon	2003	FreeBSD	2.10	2011	Free	BSD	Server, Workstation, NAS, Embedded system
Haiku	Haiku Inc.	2009	BeOS R5	R1/Alpha3	2011	Free	MIT License	Personal computer
HP-UX	Hewlett-Packard	1983	UNIX System V	11.31 "11i v3"	2007	$400	Proprietary	Server, Workstation
IBM i	IBM	1988	OS/400	7.1	2010	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Server
IRIX	SGI	1988	UNIX System V	6.5.30	2006	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Server, Workstation
Inferno	Bell Labs	1997	Plan 9	Fourth Edition	2007	Free	MIT/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL/LPL	NAS, Server, Embedded system
GNU/Linux	Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, et al.	GNU: 1983, Linux: 1992	Unix,[g 2] MINIX[g 3]	Linux kernel 3.0; GNU C Library 2.13	2011	Free	GNU GPL, GNU LGPL and other licenses	See: Comparison of Linux distributions
Mac OS	Apple Inc.	1984	None[g 4][g 5]	9.2.2	2002	Bundled with 68K and PowerPC Macs; versions 7-9 sold as retail upgrades[g 6]	Proprietary	Workstation, Personal computer
Mac OS X	Apple Inc.	2001	NeXTStep	10.7.2	2011	Bundled with hardware; upgrades sold separately: Desktop $169 (Single User Mac Box Set), $29 (Single User Mac OS X v10.6 Upgrade) Family Pack $229 (5 User Mac Box Set), $49 (5 User Mac OS X v10.6 Upgrade)	Proprietary higher level API layers with Open source core system (Both Intel and PowerPC versions) (APSL, GNU GPL, others)	Workstation, Personal computer, Embedded system
Mac OS X Server	Apple Inc.	2001	BSD	10.7	2011	Bundled with hardware; also sold separately: $499 (unlimited clients)	Proprietary higher level API layers with Open source core system (Both Intel and PowerPC versions) (APSL, GNU GPL, others)	Server
Minix3	Andrew S. Tanenbaum	2005	Minix2	3.1.8	2010	Free	BSD	Workstation
NetBSD	The NetBSD Project	1993	386BSD	5.1	2010	Free	BSD	NAS, Server, Workstation, Embedded system
NeXTStep	NeXT	1989	Unix	3.3	1995	Bundled with hardware, then sold separately	Proprietary	Workstation
NetWare	Novell	1985	S-Net	6.5 SP8	2008	$184 (single-user)	Proprietary	Server
OpenBSD	The OpenBSD Project	1995	NetBSD 1.0	4.9	2011, May 1	Free	ISC	Server, NAS, Workstation, Embedded system
OpenIndiana	Various, based on software developed by Sun Microsystems and many others	2010	OpenSolaris		2010, December 17	Free	Mostly CDDL, with other licenses	Server, Workstation
OpenVMS	DEC (now HP)	1977	RSX-11M	8.4	2010	only free for non-commercial use	Proprietary	Server, Workstation
OS/2	IBM and Microsoft	1987	UNIX, Windows 3.x	4.52	2001	$300	Proprietary	Personal computer, Server
PC-BSD	PC-BSD Software	2006	FreeBSD[g 7]	8.2	2011	Free	BSD	Personal computer, Workstation, Server
Plan 9	Bell Labs	1993	Unix	Fourth Edition	(Daily snapshots)	Free	LPL	Workstation, Server, Embedded system, HPC
QNX	QNX Software Systems	1982	DOS, Unix	6.5.0	2010	Commercial; a free testing version exists that requires authorization code prior to installation.	Proprietary	Workstation, Server, Embedded system
Solaris	Sun	1992	SunOS	11 11/11	2011	Commercial; a free 90 days evaluation version exists.	CDDL	Server, Workstation
Symbian OS	Symbian Ltd	1998	EPOC32	9.5	2009	Commercial	Proprietary	Phones
Symbian platform	Symbian Foundation	2010	Symbian OS	3.0.4	2010	Free	EPL	Embedded system
Windows Server (NT family)	Microsoft	1993	MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x	Windows Server 2008 R2 (NT 6.1.7600)	2009	$469 Web Server; other editions dependent on number of CALs purchased	Proprietary	Server, NAS, Embedded system, HPC
Microsoft Windows (NT family)	Microsoft	1993	MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x	Windows 7 (NT 6.1.7600)	2009[g 8]	Home Basic (Retail) $99.95, Home Premium (Retail) $119.95, Business (Retail) $299.95, Ultimate (Retail) $300.95[1]	Proprietary	Workstation, Personal computer, Media center, Tablet PC, Embedded system
Microsoft Windows (Classic family)	Microsoft	1985	MS-DOS, Windows 1 and later	Windows ME (Win 4.90.3000)	2000[g 8]	Outdated product. No longer for sale.	Proprietary	Personal computer, Media center
RISC iX	Acorn Computers	1988	BSD 4.3	1.21c	1993	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Workstation
RISC OS	Acorn Computers	1987	Arthur, also the BBC Master OS	3.71	1997	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Educational software, Personal computer
RISC OS	RISCOS Ltd, Pace plc	1999	RISC OS 3	4.39	2004	Bundled with hardware, then sold separately at $127 (£70)	Proprietary	Educational software, Personal computer
RISC OS	Castle Technology, RISC OS Open	2002	RISC OS 4	5.17	2010	Free for non-commercial use (recent releases); Previously bundled with hardware	Shared Source	Educational software, Personal computer
RISC OS	RISCOS Ltd	2006	RISC OS 4	6.20	2010	Bundled with hardware, then sold separately at $127 (£70)	Proprietary	Educational software, Personal computer
ZETA	yellowTAB	2005	BeOS R5	1.2	2006	Discontinued	Proprietary	Personal computer, Media center, Workstation
STOP 6 / XTS-400	BAE Systems	2003	STOP 5 / XTS-300	6.4.U1	2007	Unknown; supplied to customers on-demand by BAE Systems	Proprietary	Server, Workstation
ReactOS	ReactOS development team	1996	Windows NT	0.3.13	2011	Free	GNU GPL, GNU LGPL	Workstation, Personal computer
z/OS	IBM	2000	OS/390	1.12	2010	Monthly License Charge (about $130 and up)	Proprietary	IBM mainframe
z/VSE	IBM	2007	VSE/ESA	4.3	2010, July	Monthly License Charge	Proprietary	IBM mainframe
z/VM	IBM	2000	VM (operating system)	6.1	2010	Monthly License Charge	Proprietary	IBM mainframe
Name	Creator	First public release	Predecessor	Latest stable version	Latest release date	Cost/Availability	Preferred license[g 1]	Target system type

1. ^ ^{a b} Most OS distributions include bundled software with various other licenses.
2. ^ GNU is a recursive acronym for GNU's Not Unix, which was chosen because its design is Unix-like, but differs from Unix by being Free software and by not containing any Unix code.
3. ^ Minix inspired the Linux kernel. No code from Minix was used to create the Linux kernel.
4. ^ Although Lisa OS ran on the same (albeit a slower version) microprocessor and was developed by Apple Computer at the same time as Mac OS, they were developed as different projects, sharing only a similar GUI between them. http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Hungarian.txt
5. ^ Mac OS 7.6 was the first Mac OS operating system to be labeled Mac OS. Operating systems prior to this were named System Software 0.1 (available only to developers) through System Software 7.5, and known as System #.# for short.
6. ^ Mac OS versions up to 7.5.5 are available free of charge at http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html
7. ^ PC-BSD uses FreeBSD as a base system with custom configuration and several desktop oriented tools to create an easy to use FreeBSD system for Desktops and Workstations.
8. ^ ^{a b} Windows Vista was released to manufacturing on November 8, 2006, and was subsequently made available to software developers and businesses in November 2006, with retail availability following on January 30, 2007

Technical information

Name	Computer architectures supported	File systems supported	Kernel type	Source lines of code	GUI default is on[t 1]	Package management	Update management	Native APIs[t 2]	Non-native APIs supported through subsystems
AIX	POWER	JFS, JFS2, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, GPFS	Monolithic		No	installp, RPM	Service Update Management Assistant (SUMA)	SysV/POSIX
AmigaOS Classic	68k, PowerPC	Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc.	Microkernel		Yes	Installer[t 3] (almost not needed)[t 4]		Proprietary	BSD subset (available through 3rd party ixemul.library)
AmigaOS 4	PowerPC	Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), JXFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc.	Microkernel		Yes	Installer[t 3] (almost not needed)[t 4]	AmiUpdate (almost not needed)[t 5]	Proprietary	BSD subset (available through 3rd party ixemul.library)
eComStation	x86	HPFS (default), FAT, JFS, UDF, FAT32, NTFS (read only)	Hybrid		Yes	WarpIN, Feature Install, others	Maintenance Tool	Proprietary, DOS API, Win16	POSIX, Java, others
FreeBSD	x86, x86-64, PC98, SPARC, others	UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental), ZFS, others	Monolithic with modules	6.25 million[10]	No	Ports collection, packages	by source, network binary update (freebsdupdate)	BSD/POSIX	Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Linux
Haiku	x86, 68k	BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, ext3, NTFS	Hybrid		Yes	Ports collection (haikuport)	None	POSIX, BeOS API
HP-UX	PA-RISC, IA-64	VxFS, HFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS	Monolithic with modules		No	swinstall	swa (HP-UX Software Assistant)	SysV/POSIX
Inferno	x86, PowerPC, SPARC, Alpha, MIPS, others	Styx/9P2000, kfs, FAT, ISO 9660	Monolithic with modules, user space file systems		Yes	?	?	Proprietary
Linux	x86, x86-64, PowerPC, SPARC, Alpha, others	ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, and others	Monolithic with modules	~ 9 million (kernel)[11] lines of code for userland applications vary depending on the distribution	See: Comparison of Linux distributions			Linux/POSIX	Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6] Win32[t 6]
Mac OS Classic	68k, PowerPC	HFS+, HFS, MFS (Mac OS 8.0 and before), AFP, ISO 9660, FAT(System 7 and later), UDF	Monolithic with modules		Yes	None	Software Update (only in Mac OS 9)	Toolbox, Carbon (from version 8.1)
Mac OS X	PowerPC, x86, x86-64, ARM	HFS+ (default), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV, ZFS (experimental)	Hybrid	~86 million[12]	Yes	Mac OS X Installer	Software Update	Carbon, Cocoa, Java, BSD/POSIX	Toolbox (only in versions up to Mac OS X 10.4, not supported on x86 architecture), Win16,[t 6] Win32[t 6]
MINIX 3	x86		Microkernel	4000	No			POSIX
NetBSD	x86, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC64, others	UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, LFS, and others	Monolithic with modules		No[t 7]	pkgsrc	by source or binary (using sysinst)	BSD/POSIX	Linux, others
NetWare	x86	NSS, NWFS, FAT, NFS, AFP, UDF, CIFS, ISO 9660	Hybrid		Yes	NWCONFIG.NLM, RPM, X11-based GUI installer	binary updates, ZENWorks for Servers, Red Carpet	Proprietary
OpenBSD	x86, x86-64, SPARC, 68k, Alpha, VAX, others	ffs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, some others	Monolithic with modules		No[t 7]	Ports collection, packages	by source or binary (packages via pkg_add)	BSD/POSIX
OpenVMS	VAX, Alpha, IA-64	Files-11 (ODS), ISO 9660, NFS, CIFS	Monolithic with modules		No	PCSI, VMSINSTAL	?	Proprietary	POSIX
OS/2	x86	HPFS, JFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS	Monolithic with modules		Yes	Feature Install and others	?	Proprietary, DOS API, Win16	Win32
PC-BSD	x86[t 8]	UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental) and others	Monolithic with modules		Yes	Ports collection, packages, PBI Graphical Installers	by PBI updates, source, network binary update (freebsdupdate)	BSD/POSIX	Win16,[t 6] Win32[t 6]
Plan 9	x86, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, others	fossil/venti, 9P2000, kfs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660	Monolithic, user space file systems		Yes	None	replica	Proprietary (Unix-like)	POSIX compatibility layer
QNX	x86, SH-4, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS	QNX4FS, QNX6, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, Joliet, NFS, CIFS, ETFS, UDF, HFS, HFS+, NTFS, others	Microkernel					POSIX, Java
ReactOS	x86, PowerPC, ARM	FAT	Hybrid	1-2 million	Yes	None	None	Win32, NT API
RISC OS	ARM (both 26 and 32-bit addressing modes)	Acorn ADFS, Econet ANFS, FAT, ISO 9660, many others as loadable filesystems	Monolithic with modules. Unprotected monotasking.		Yes	Applications self-contained; hardware drivers often in ROM	!IyoUpWtch	Huge number of SWI calls; extensive C libraries
Solaris	x86, x86-64, SPARC	UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others	Monolithic with modules		Yes	SysV packages (pkgadd)	Sun Connection	SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java	Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Mono, Linux[t 9]
OpenSolaris	x86, x86-64, SPARC(AI)	UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others	Monolithic with modules	~10 million	Yes	Image Packaging System (pkg), SysV packages (pkgadd)	Image Packaging System	SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java	Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Mono, Linux[t 9]
STOP 6, XTS-400	x86	Proprietary	Monolithic		No	RPM for some untrusted applications	Binary updates via postal mail and proprietary tools	Some: SysV, POSIX, Linux, proprietary
Symbian	ARM	FAT	Microkernel		Yes	SIS files	FOTA	Proprietary	POSIX compatibility layer
Windows Server (NT family)	x86, x86-64, IA-64	NTFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, ReiserFS,[t 10] and HFS	Hybrid	~45 million[13]	Yes	MSI, custom installers	Windows Update	Win32, NT API	DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET
Windows (NT family)	x86, x86-64	NTFS, FAT exFAT ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, ReiserFS,[t 10] HFS+, FATX, and HFS	Hybrid	~ 40(XP)/64(Vista) million[citation needed]	Yes	MSI, custom installers	Windows Update	Win32, NT API	DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET
ZETA	x86	BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, HFS, AFP, ext2, CIFS, NTFS (read only), ReiserFS (read only, up to v3.6)	Hybrid		Yes	SoftwareValet, script-based installers	None	POSIX, BeOS API
z/OS	z/Architecture	VSAM, BDAM, QSAM, BPAM, HFS, zFS, etc.	Protected, multithreading, multitasking nucleus with programmable/user replaceable extensions. Not kernel-based.		No	None, SMP/E	SMP/E	Filesystem access methods, Systems Services, etc.	POSIX, many others.
Name	Computer architectures supported	File systems supported	Kernel type	Source lines of code	GUI default is on[t 1]	Package management	Update management	Native APIs[t 2]	Non-native APIs supported through subsystems

1. ^ ^{a b} Operating systems where the GUI is not installed and turned on by default are often bundled with an implementation of the X Window System, installation of which is usually optional.
2. ^ ^{a b} Most operating systems use proprietary APIs in addition to any supported standards.
3. ^ ^{a b} Amiga OS features since OS 2.0 version a standard centralized Install utility called Installer, which could be used by any software house to install programs. It works as a Lisp language interpreter, and install procedures could be listed as simple text. AmigaOS can also benefit of a 3rd party copyrighted library called XAD that is available for all POSIX (Unix, Linux, BSD, and for AmigaOS, MorphOS, etc.). This library is freely distributable and publicly available on Aminet Amiga centralized repository of all Open Source or Free programs and utilities. XAD.Library, complete with GUI Voodoo-X, is based on modules and capable to manage over 300 compression methods and package systems (Voodoo-X GUI supports 80 package systems), including those widely accepted as standards such as .ZIP, .CAB, .LHA, .LZX, .RPM, etc.
4. ^ ^{a b} A standard AmigaOS installation requires usually only few files (typically 3 to 10 files) to be copied in their appropriate directory, and libraries and language files for national localization to be put in their standard OS directories. Any Amiga user with some minimal experience knows where these files should be copied and could perform programs installations by hand.
5. ^ AmiUpdate is capable to update AmigaOS files and also all Amiga programs which are registered to use the same update program that is standard for Amiga. Updating AmigaOS requires only few libraries to be put in standard OS location (for example all libraries are stored in "Libs:" standard virtual device and absolute path finder for "Libs" directory, Fonts are all in "Fonts:" absolute locator, the files for language localization are all stored in "Locale:" and so on). This leaves Amiga users with a minimal knowledge of the system almost free to perform by hand the update of the system files.
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} using Wine
7. ^ ^{a b} NetBSD and OpenBSD include the X Window System as base install sets, managed in their respective main source repository, including local modifications. Packages are also provided for more up-to-date versions which may be less tested.
8. ^ only i686 CPU
9. ^ ^{a b} http://opensolaris.org/os/community/brandz/
10. ^ ^{a b} Windows can read and write with Ext2 and Ext3 file systems only when a driver from FS-driver or ext2fsd is installed. However, using Explore2fs, Windows can read from, but not write to, Ext2 and Ext3 file systems. Windows can also access ReiserFS through rfstool and related programs.

Security

	Resource access control	Subsystem isolation mechanisms	Integrated firewall	Encrypted file systems	No execute (NX) page flag		Known unpatched vulnerabilities (severity is accounted for)[s 1]
							Secunia					SecurityFocus
					Hardware	Emulation	Extremely critical (number / oldest)	Highly critical (number / oldest)	Moderately critical (number / oldest)	Less critical (number / oldest)	Not critical (number / oldest)	Total (number / oldest)
AIX 7.1	Unix, ACLs, MAC, Trusted AIX - MLS, RBAC	chroot	IP Filter, IPsec VPNs, basic IDS	Yes	Yes[s 2]	N/A	Unknown					0
FreeBSD 8.1	Unix, ACLs, MAC	chroot, jail, MAC Partitions, BSD file "flags" set using chflags	IPFW2, IPFilter, PF	Yes	Yes	Yes[s 3]	0	0	0	0	0	>0
HP-UX 11.31	Unix, ACLs	chroot	IPFilter	No	?		0	0	3 June 30, 2004; 7 years ago (2004-06-30)	2 December 12, 2002; 8 years ago (2002-12-12)	0	>0
Inferno	Unix	Namespaces, Capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit	?	?	No	No	Unknown					>0
Linux 2.6.39	Unix, ACLs,[s 4] MAC	chroot, Capability-based security,[s 5] seccomp, SELinux	Netfilter / Varied by distribution	Yes	Yes	Yes	0	0	0	6 June 24, 2004; 7 years ago (2004-06-24)	11 April 4, 2005; 6 years ago (2005-04-04)	>0
Mac OS 9.2.2	No	No	No	No	No	No	0	0	0	0	0	>0
Mac OS X 10.6.4	Unix, ACLs[s 6]	chroot, BSD file "flags" set using chflags	ipfw	Yes	Yes (as of 10.5, X64 Only)	Yes (Intel Only)	0	0	1 April 14, 2009; 2 years ago (2009-04-14)	2 January 8, 2007; 4 years ago (2007-01-08)	5 November 22, 2006; 4 years ago (2006-11-22)	>0
NetBSD 5.0.2	Unix, Veriexec, PaX, kauth	chroot, systrace, kauth, BSD file "flags" set using chflags	IPFilter, PF	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown					>0
NetWare 6.5 SP8	Directory-enabled ACLs	Protected Address Spaces	IPFLT.NLM	Yes	Yes	No	0	0	1 August 31, 2010; 14 months ago (2010-08-31)	2 October 30, 2003; 8 years ago (2003-10-30)	0	0
OES-Linux	Directory-enabled ACLs	chroot	IPFilter	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown					>0
OpenBSD 4.8	Unix	chroot, systrace, BSD file "flags" set using chflags	PF	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown					>0
OpenVMS 8.4	ACLs, Privileges	logical name tables	?	?	Yes	?	0	0	0	0	0	Unknown
OS/2 / eComStation	ACLs[s 7]	No	IP Filter	No	?		0	0	0	0	0	0
PC-BSD 8.1	Unix, ACLs, MAC	chroot, jail, MAC Partitions	IPFW2, IPFilter, PF	Yes[s 8]	?		0	0	0	0	0	>0
Plan 9	Unix (?)	Namespaces, Capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit	ipmux	Yes	No	No	Unknown					>0
QNX 6.5.0	Unix	?	PF, imported from NetBSD.	?	?		0	0	0	5 November 20, 2002; 9 years ago (2002-11-20)	1 November 7, 2002; 9 years ago (2002-11-07)	Unknown
RISC OS	No	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown
Solaris 10	Unix, RBAC, ACLs, Least privilege, Trusted Extensions	chroot, Containers,[s 9] Logical Domains	IPFilter	Yes[s 10]	Yes	No	0	2 October 31, 2007; 4 years ago (2007-10-31)	5 October 23, 2007; 4 years ago (2007-10-23)	3 September 10, 2009; 2 years ago (2009-09-10)	2 November 6, 2006; 5 years ago (2006-11-06)	>0
OpenSolaris 2009.06	Unix, RBAC, ACLs, Least privilege, Trusted Extensions	chroot, Containers,[s 9] Logical Domains	IPFilter	Yes[s 10]	Yes	No	0	0	0	0	0	>0
Windows Server 2008 R2	ACLs, Privileges, RBAC	Win32 WindowStation, Desktop, Job objects	Windows Firewall	Yes	Yes	Yes	0	1 October 18, 2010; 12 months ago (2010-10-18)	1 October 28, 2010; 12 months ago (2010-10-28)	1 August 11, 2010; 15 months ago (2010-08-11)	1 August 23, 2010; 14 months ago (2010-08-23)	>0
Windows 7 SP1	ACLs, Privileges, RBAC	Win32 WindowStation, Desktop, Job objects	Windows Firewall	Yes	Yes[s 11]	Yes[s 12]	0	1 October 29, 2010; 12 months ago (2010-10-29)	1 October 28, 2010; 12 months ago (2010-10-28)	1 August 11, 2010; 15 months ago (2010-08-11)	2 August 18, 2010; 14 months ago (2010-08-18)	>0
Windows Vista SP2	ACLs, Privileges, RBAC	Win32 WindowStation, Desktop, Job objects	Windows Firewall	Yes	Yes[s 11]	Yes[s 12]	0	1 October 29, 2010; 12 months ago (2010-10-29)	1 October 28, 2010; 12 months ago (2010-10-28)	2 September 10, 2008; 3 years ago (2008-09-10)	4 February 23, 2007; 4 years ago (2007-02-23)	>0
Windows XP Pro SP3	ACLs	Win32 WindowStation, Desktop, Job objects	Windows Firewall	Yes (With NTFS)	Yes[s 11]	Yes[s 12]	0	5 December 8, 2009; 23 months ago (2009-12-08)	6 December 30, 2002; 8 years ago (2002-12-30)	17 January 7, 2003; 8 years ago (2003-01-07)	14 September 18, 2002; 9 years ago (2002-09-18)	>0
ZETA	Unix[s 13]	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown
STOP 6 / XTS-400[s 14]	Unix, Multilevel security, Biba mandatory integrity, ACLs, Privileges, subtype mechanism	Multilevel security, Biba Integrity Model, subtype mechanism	No	No	No	No	Unknown
z/OS 1.11	RACF	RACF, low storage protection, page protection, storage protect key, execution key, subspace group facility, APF, ACR (alternate CPU recovery), more	z/OS IPSecurity	Optional	Yes (storage protect key, execution key, APF, more)	Yes	0	0	0	0	0	Unknown
	Resource access control	Subsystem isolation mechanisms	Integrated firewall	Encrypted file systems	Hardware	Emulation	Extremely critical (number / oldest)	Highly critical (number / oldest)	Moderately critical (number / oldest)	Less critical (number / oldest)	Not critical (number / oldest)	Total (number / oldest)
					No execute (NX) page flag		Secunia					SecurityFocus
							Known unpatched vulnerabilities (severity is accounted for)[s 1]

1. ^ ^{a b} Comparison of known unpatched vulnerabilities based on Secunia & SecurityFocus reports with severity of Not critical & above. Update lists manually with oldest published date(s).
2. ^ AIX use the PowerPC architecture which offer page-level protection mechanism. Since AIX version 5300-03 (5.3), this feature can be activated using the sedmgr command.
3. ^ The GCC stack protection (a.k.a. ProPolice Stack-Smashing Protector) has been enabled in base system since FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE.
4. ^ POSIX ACL support is included in Linux 2.6, but requires a file system capable of storing them (such as ext3, XFS or ReiserFS).
5. ^ A jail mechanism is available separately in the Linux-VServer project, but is not integrated into any mainline Linux kernel.
6. ^ ACLs were added to Mac OS X beginning with version 10.4.
7. ^ ACLs are available only in OS/2 Server versions with HPFS386 filesystem.
8. ^ Additionally swap space may be encrypted during installation, uses memory based tmp file storage by default.
9. ^ ^{a b} "Solaris Containers" (including "Zones") are a jail-type mechanism introduced with Solaris 10.
10. ^ ^{a b} Through ZFS
11. ^ ^{a b c} Available on XP sp2, 2003 sp1 and newer.
12. ^ ^{a b c} By default, software-enforced DEP helps protect only limited system binaries.
13. ^ Zeta has full Unix file permissions, but the OS is single user, and users always run as superuser.
14. ^ STOP 6 is certified under Common Criteria at EAL5+.

Commands

For POSIX compliant (or partly compliant) systems like FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X or Solaris, the basic commands are the same because they are standardized.

description	FreeBSD	Linux	Mac OS X	Solaris	Windows (cmd)	Windows (powershell)	Windows (cygwin, SFU or MKS)
list directory	ls	ls	ls	ls	dir	dir & ls & Get-ChildItem	ls
clear console	clear	clear	clear	clear	cls	clear	clear
copy file(s)	cp	cp	cp	cp	copy	cp & Copy-Item	cp
move file(s)	mv	mv	mv	mv	move	mv & Move-Item	mv
rename file(s)	mv	mv, rename	mv	mv	ren, rename	ren, mv	mv
delete file(s)	rm	rm	rm	rm	del (erase)	rm & Remove-Item	rm
delete directory	rmdir	rmdir	rmdir	rmdir	rd (rmdir)	rmdir	rmdir
create directory	mkdir	mkdir	mkdir	mkdir	md (mkdir)	mkdir	mkdir
change current directory	cd	cd	cd	cd	cd (chdir)	cd & Set-Location	cd
run shell script with new shell	sh file.sh	sh file.sh	sh file.sh	sh file.sh	cmd /c file.cmd	?	sh file.sh
kill processes	kill, killall	killall, pkill, kill, skill	kill, killall	kill, pkill	taskkill	taskkill	kill
change process priority	nice	nice, chrt	nice	nice	start /low, start /normal, start /high, start /realtime	?	nice
change io priority	?	ionice	nice[c 1]	?	?	?	?
create file system	newfs	mkfs	mkfs	newfs	format	?	?
file system check and recovery	fsck	fsck	fsck	fsck	chkdsk	?	?
create software raid	atacontrol, gmirror, zfs create	(mdadm—create)	diskutil appleRAID	metainit, zfs create	diskpart (mirror only)	diskpart (mirror only)	?
mount device	mount	mount	mount, diskutil mount	mount	mountvol	mount & New-PSDrive	?
unmount device	umount	umount	umount, diskutil unmount(disk)	umount	mountvol /d	Remove-PSDrive	?
mount file as block device	mdconfig + mount	mount -o loop	hdid	lofiadm + mount	?	?	?
show network configuration	ifconfig	ip addr, ifconfig	ifconfig	ifconfig	ipconfig	ipconfig	?
show network route	route	ip route	route	route	route	?	?
trace network route	traceroute	traceroute	traceroute	traceroute	tracert	tracert	?
trace network route with pings	traceroute -I	traceroute -I & mtr	traceroute -I	traceroute -I	pathping	pathping	?
description	FreeBSD	Linux	Mac OS X	Solaris	Windows (cmd)	Windows (powershell)	Windows (cygwin, SFU or MKS)

NOTE: Linux systems may vary by distribution which specific program, or even 'command' is called, via the POSIX alias function. For example, if you wanted to use the DOS dir to give you a directory listing with one detailed file listing per line you could use alias dir='ls -lahF' (e.g. in a session configuration file).

1. ^ The nice command utilizes the setpriority() system call, which affects I/O priority, see OS X man page .

See also

• Comparison of BSD operating systems
• Comparison of command shells
• Comparison of file systems
• Comparison of operating system kernels
• Comparison of Linux distributions
• Comparison of open source operating systems
• Comparison of Windows versions
• Comparison of x86 DOS operating systems
• List of operating systems
• MacvsWindows
• Operating system advocacy
• Timeline of operating systems
• Usage share of operating systems

References

1. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/compare-editions/default.aspx
2. ^ ethz.ch - (S)LOC Count Evolution for Selected OSS Projects data for 2009, fig 1
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ Jobs, Steve (7 August 2006). "Live from WWDC 2006: Steve Jobs Keynote". http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/07/live-from-wwdc-2006-steve-jobs-keynote/. Retrieved 2007-02-16. "86 million lines of source code that was ported to run on an entirely new architecture with zero hiccups." 
5. ^ Ben Liblit, Andrew Begel, and Eve Sweetser. "Cognitive Perspectives on the Role of Naming in Computer Programs". http://research.microsoft.com/~abegel/papers/ppig-naming.pdf. Retrieved 2007-12-26. 

External links

• "Operating System Technological Comparison". http://www.osdata.com/. Retrieved May 9, 2005.