Windows Is a General Applications Os

Windows is a general applications OS, targeted largely at businesses. Windows has a very wide range of applications, many of which can be downloaded and run for free. Windows OS is notorious for the number of security holes it has, and has amazingly bad tech support.

Mac OS is the operating system for Apple computers. Mac has a highly polished user interface, takes very little effort to use, and has decent tech support. Unfortunately, it is not as popular as Windows. Therefore, we will not find the applications available. Mac OS only runs on Apple computers, and the whole package tends to be more expensive than the Windows equivalent for the same power.

UNIX is a family of operating systems designed to run in a mainframe environment. There have been some efforts to make UNIX work on PC's, but for the most part it remains the domain of large business systems. UNIX has numerous user interfaces. Which tend to range from user hostile badly to outdate, and it works effectively for server applications.

Linux is the most popular attempt to create a Unix-like operating system for personal computers. Until recently, Linux also had the limitations of UNIX; with the sole benefit. I could run it on an Intel based PC. There is an amazing plethora of applications available for Linux. Unfortunately, they have traditionally been difficult to install, and not written by someone who had the user interface in mind. On the good side, both the operating system and most of the application are entirely free.

The primary unique characteristic of mainframes is that they are multi-component systems and each component tended to have its own processor. This differs from a desktop system because in that environment a single processor does all the thinking for most of the rest of the parts. This differentiation had been blurred recently, as desktop peripherals as video cards and storage devices have increased their intelligence in an effort to expedite their functionality and take load off the main processor.