The most popular operating systems

Overview

The most popular operating systems (OS) identification is not that difficult task to undertake for anyone who has been in IT for quiet sometime. And we can list out many of them merely using simple observation methods. But, there cloud be a familiarity bias when critically evaluating popularity of those operating systems. And people will choose OSs that they are familiar with and have been utilizing for years. However, knowing and practicing many of the popular platforms may help you work comfortably in organizations with hybrid flavors of operating systems.

In this piece, I will share with you and briefly discuss some of the most common OSs. Furthermore, the main purpose of this post is to inform readers about OSs that they should be familiar with. Because, you may encounter them in datacenters, workstations, mobile phones, PDAs and related environments.

Some of the most popular OSs that are visibly deployed in different environments nowadays may include the following:

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows has been in the industry for more years than we can even remember. And Microsoft owns and maintain and upgrade it. It has been going through many phases of versioning and upgrading.  And the most prominent and historic MS Windows versions in chronological order include MS DOS, Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ XP/Vista, Windows 7/8/10/11.

It is one of the most popular OSs and many users prefer Windows primarily for its usable, intuitive and user-friendly graphical interfaces. Others prefer it for its compatibility with so many software stacks in the market. Besides, Microsoft offers desktop, enterprise and standard editions to its broad based customers globally. Microsoft partners with hardware vendors to deliver products with preloaded operating system as well.

Apple’s MacOS

Apple’s macOS is one of the most popular proprietary operating systems in the industry. Besides to Microsoft, macOS is also one of the most formidable platforms with fair share in the market. Even though Microsoft and Apple contest with each other on this point, macOS is one of the first graphical based OSs in the industry. It is installed on all Macintosh computers or Mac for short.

Linux Operating System

Linux operating system, unlike Windows and macOS, is a family of Open Source platforms. That means, anyone with the capability can modify and distribute the source code of Linux as its suites them. Community of volunteer experts maintain it from all over the world and resides on the kernel level of the OS . You can deploy it both on desktops and servers.

Android OS

Android OS is a platform deployed and available in smartphones and other PDAs. It is Open Source OS initially developed by Google. However, it is now freely available and maintained by group of volunteer experts from different walks of life. Nowadays, it is one of the popular OSs. You can deploy it in mobile devices.

Apple’s iOS

Apple’s iOS is one of the most commonly deployed OSs in mobile devices and PDAs. You install it only on iPhone devices from Apple.