Operating system is the program that runs a computer or laptop. In this article, I will discuss what is an operating system and its versions. I will also discuss who wrote these operating systems.

All computers including desktops and laptops use special codes of instructions that dictates the device how to work and process information. These instructions are put together in one program called the operating system. Whether it’s from Apple for their Mac computers or Microsoft or Google, they do the same job that is to run the device. There are two operating systems that are popular these days, one is Mac OS X from Apple Company and the other one is Windows from Microsoft. They both mostly use them in desktop computers and laptops.

Microsoft offered a few operating systems in the last two decades. They started with DOS (disk operating system). They offered a few versions in DOS. After DOS, they moved to graphical interface with the introduction of windows. This Windows was very basic. Later on they moved to Windows 95 and then Windows 98. Windows 98 was very successful and kind of smooth version. After Windows 98, they introduced Windows 2000 and Windows ME. Windows 2000 was better version than Windows ME. Windows ME was in the market for a short period of time because of its low popularity. Microsoft then came up with the most reliable version of all previous operating systems known as Windows XP. This operating system was very users and applications friendly. Microsoft introduced some good features in it. The top utility in the list was the system restore utility. With system restore, users could restore a previous good version of the OS in case there was a problem with the operating system. This operating system had one bad feature where it would not load (when moving hard drive from broken computer to a good computer) on another pc in case there was a hardware failure unless an advance repair install could be done successfully. This was a time when Microsoft learned writing better operating systems because the next one they came up was even more reliable. This was Windows 7. This Windows ran for a while until they moved to Windows 10. In Windows 10, they changed the design big time more and made it like a tablet friendly operating system. A lot of users had problems moving from Windows 7 to 10 because due to relocation of the menus and links where users now have to search for features or links. For example, if a user wants to go to Windows update settings, they have to search it instead of looking for the menu. They also removed the start menu which was a convenient way to access many features. Their latest operating system called Windows 11 is based on Windows 10. They added a new launch bar at the bottom of the screen.

Apple also have a few operating systems for their devices including desktops and laptops. Their Mac desktop includes iMac, Mac mini, ipad, Mac Pro and laptops are Macbook, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, Macbook Pro Retina etc. They started with their operating system OS X 10 Kodiak in 2000. They used it in their non-Intel computers. Then they came with up cheetah, puma and Panther and then Tiger. Around 2005, 2006 they had to move from IBM processor to Intel. This era was the beginning of a marathon for them. This was the time when they introduced Leopard and Snow Leopard. In the beginning, users were not accepting to switch to Mac because there were a lot of compatibility issues with most of the applications. All third party applications were fully compatible with windows operating system. With the passage of time, third party developers started to write apps for OS X. By the time Apple introduced Lion and mountain lion apps were slowly getting compatible with OS X. In 2013 Apple came up with Mavericks and then Yosemite in 2014. This was the time, most applications were being written for OS X. This gave a big boost to Mac computers and laptops. Apple continued with a new operating system every year. El Capitan in 2015, Sierra in 2016, High Sierra in 2017, Mojave in 2018, Catalina in 2018, Big Sur in 2020 and then Monterey in 2021. All the new operating systems use encryption by default meaning if someone has a password and their computer dies, there is no way to do data recovery on it if password is not known. Older models did not have this feature turned on by default rather it as an option if user wanted to use it. Over all they got better and better over time.

In this article, I tried to define operating systems used in computers and laptops. I also talked about their versions and who introduced these systems.