Operating Systems for Mobile and Desktop

Commonly Used Operating Systems for Desktop are

1. Windows: Microsoft launched Windows 1.0 operating system in 1985 and since then Windows has ruled the world’s software market. It is a GUI (Graphic User Interface) and various versions of Windows have been launched like Windows 95, Windows 98, Win NT, Windows XP, Windows 7 and the latest being Windows 8.

2. Linux: Linux is a free and open software which means it is freely available for use and since its source code is also available so anybody can use it, modify it and redistribute it. It can be downloaded from www.linux.org. It is a very popular operating system used and supported by many companies. The defining component of this operating system is the Linux kernel.

3. BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions): This is an Indian distribution of GNU/Linux. It consists of Linux operating system kernel, office application suite, Bharateeya OO, Internet browser (Firefox), multimedia applications and file sharing.

4. UNIX: It is a multitasking, multiuser operating system originally developed in 1969 at Bell Labs. It was one of the first operating systems developed in a high level language, namely C. Due to its portability, flexibility and power, UNIX is widely being used in a networked environment. Today, ”UNIX” and "Single UNIX Specification" interface are owned and trademarked by The Open Group. There are many different varieties of UNIX, although they share common similarities, the most popular being GNU/Linux and Mac OS X.

5. Solaris: It is a free Unix based operating system introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1992. It is now also known as Oracle Solaris. Solaris is registered as compliant with Single UNIX Specification. It is quite scalable and is used on virtual machines.

Mobile Operating Systems (Mobile OS)

It is the operating system that operates on digital mobile devices like smart phones and tablets. It extends the features of a normal operating system for personal computers so as to include touch screen, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS mobile navigation, camera, music player and many more. The most commonly used mobile operating systems are – Android and Symbian

Android: It is a Linux derived Mobile OS released on 5th November 2007 and by 2011 it had more than 50% of the global Smartphone market share. It is Google’s open and free software that includes an operating system, middleware and some key applications for use on mobile devices. Android applications are quiet user friendly and even one can easily customize the Smartphone with Android OS. Various versions of Android OS have been released like 1.0, 1.5, 1.6, 2. x, 3.0 etc. Most Android phones use the 2.x release while Android 3.0 is available only for tablets. The latest Android version released is 4.2.2. The Android releases have dessert inspired codenames like Cupcake, Honeycomb, Ice Cream sandwich and Jelly Bean.

Symbian: This Mobile OS by Nokia (currently being maintained by Accenture) designed for smartphones. It offers high level of functional integration between communication and personal information management. It has an integrated mail box and it completely facilitates the usage of all Google applications in your smartphone easily. Symbian applications are easy to shut down as compared to Android applications. Various versions like S60 series, S80 series, S90 series, Symbian Anna etc have been released. The latest Symbian releases (Symbian Belle) can support 48 languages.