Server Operating Systems Technical Comparison (original) (raw)


music

| OSdata.com | | OSdata.com | | ---------------------------------------------------- | | ---------- |

Free Computer Programming Text Book

Programming computers using any programming language

free book on UNIX/Linux System Administration

Teach Yourself UNIX/Linux System Administration and Shell Programming written by Milo

New Project

This website written and maintained by Milo.

This website is about sharing knowledge. The one thing the government can never take away from you is knowledge. The school systems are about training you for utility to big government and big business. This is the real information. Knowledge has no known economic value to business or government. This is information independent of the military-industrial complex. Just information. Know how to program computers. Learn on your own.

To add a detailed real world example for the still unfinished college text book on computer programming (table of contents), I am going to post heavily commented and described open source code for a free music player. A working example (still very new and under construction) is at www.thissideofsanity.com. This source code is free for any legal non-commercial and/or non-profit and/or educational and/or private purpose.

As of 1 July 2013, the United States Federal trade Commission makes individual websites responsible for any data gathering of information from children done by large company’s ads or plug-ins, while relieving those big companies of any responsibility. Therefore, as much as I’d like to share this website with anyone of any age, I must ban everyone under the age of 13 from being allowed to visit this website or read any of the material on this website.

Overview

This web site compares and contrasts operating systems. It originally started out on a small server in the engineering department of Ohio State University to answer a single question: “On technical considerations only, how does Rhapsody (also known as Mac OS X Server) stack up as a server operating system (especially in comparison to Windows NT)?” The web site now compares and contrasts server operating systems and will in the near future expand to compare other kinds of operating systems.

For non-technical persons: A general overview of operating systems for non-technical people is located at: kinds of operating systems. Brief summaries of operating systems are located at: summaries of operating systems. There is an entire section of pages on individual operating systems, all formatted in the same order for easy comparison. The holistic area looks at operating systems from a holistic point of view and particular subjects in that presentation may be useful for comparison. Some of the charts and tables may also be useful for specific comparisons.

For technical persons: The system components area goes into detail about the inner workings of an operating system and the individual operating systems pages provide some technical information.

This site is organized as an unbalanced tree structure, with cyclic graph hyperlinks and a sequential traversal path through the tree.

This website will make use of CP/M (an early microcomputer OS) to illustrate the functions of an operating system. CP/M has the teaching advantage of being very small and simple (and therefore easier to understand) while also having at least rudimentary examples of most operating system functions (excluding graphic user interfaces).

International programmer pay comparison.

Site Outline

Computer Programming

Section 1: Introduction

Section 2: Advanced

Charts and Tables

OSdata.com is used in more than 300 colleges and universities around the world

Read details here.

free downloadable text book on computer programming

work in progress

Site Goals

This site is intended as a neutral technical evaluation, comparing and contrasting Rhapsody with other server operating systems. All humans have biases. I am a fan of Rhapsody, VMS, Macintosh, AmigaOS, NeXT, and BeOS.

I will attempt to be as complete, accurate, and precise as possible. I welcome correction, feedback, and additional information from informed sources.

One of the really cool things about the Internet is that once you achieve a certain critical mass of data, experts in the subject matter will just show up from all over the world and make constructive criticisms and provide all kinds of useful additional information.

All web sites are either in a state of construction or dead, so comments about being “under construction” are generally extraneous. This site is not yet complete enough answer the question as stated. The goal is to have this site sufficiently complete to answer that question by the time Apple releases Rhapsody in fall of 1998.

Most of the work so far has been in catalogueing information about each operating system (see individual OS pages for details). I have started charts on costs, hardware supported, file systems, release dates, and music.

Lots of thanks go out to the many persons who have taken the time to answer questions and provide URL references. A complete list of persons and web sites and books quoted is found in the site footnotes. To contribute additional information or to make constructive criticism of any kind, send a message to Milo.

I will attempt to stick to the facts as much as possible. I will provide only as much editorial commentary as is necessary to make the technical facts clear. All opinions are mine unless otherwise attributed.

It is unlikely that any single individual has all the knowledge necessary to complete an accurate technical survey of all operating systems that can be used as server OSs. So, I need and welcome and appreciate all of volunteer help.

I (Milo) have edited the material into a web site and Michael M is the new artist.

Using This Site

A few quick caveats about a technical evaluation:

This site is organized in an unbalanced tree structure, with cyclic graph hyperlinks and a sequential traversal path through the tree.


1.1 MB QuickTime movie of Bill Gates explaining his criteria for selecting the best operating system.
(transcribed below for those who don’t want to take the download time to see the video clip)

“To create a new standard, it takes something that’s not just a little bit different, it takes something that’s really new and really captures people’s imagination and the Macintosh, of all the machines I’ve ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.” — Bill Gates

“The computer revolution is the most advertised revolution in world history. Yet one of the funny things about it is that we probably still underestimate its impact.” — Herman Kahnm7

OSRing

[Next][Skip Next][Next 5][List Sites]

A web site on dozens of operating systems simply can’t be maintained by one person. This is a cooperative effort. If you spot an error in fact, grammar, syntax, or spelling, or a broken link, or have additional information, commentary, or constructive criticism, please e-mail Milo. If you have any extra copies of docs, manuals, or other materials that can assist in accuracy and completeness, please send them to Milo, PO Box 1361, Tustin, CA, USA, 92781.

Click here for our privacy policy.

Click here to skip over the summaries of individual operating systems.

comments, suggestions, corrections, criticisms

comments

Made with Macintosh

This web site handcrafted on Macintosh computers using Tom Bender’s Tex-Edit Plus and served using FreeBSD .

Viewable With Any Browser

†UNIX used as a generic term unless specifically used as a trademark (such as in the phrase “UNIX certified”). UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd.

Names and logos of various OSs are trademarks of their respective owners.

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Milo

Last Updated: October 27, 2014

Created: May 31, 1998

If you spot an error in fact, grammar, syntax, or spelling, or a broken link, or have additional information, commentary, or constructive criticism, please e-mail Milo.

Click here to skip over the summaries of individual operating systems.

topics