A lot of people hear the term “operating system” and draw the conclusion that there are only two types of OS’s in the world: Windows and Mac OS. While these are two of the world’s most popular operating systems, they are certainly not the only ones. There are several operating systems that don’t often get labeled as such, but they fit the technical description.
An operating system isn’t just what your computer powers up with. It might the most important, or the most used, but it’s not the only one. An operating system is just software made up of data that is on the computer and manages the hardware of the computer to execute functions. What that means is anything that uses the computer’s resources to do something specific, like operate the computer, or surf the web.
Google Chrome, the web browser, is an operating system. It operates at the same time that a computer might be operating Microsoft Windows XP. The two work to achieve separate functions. With that in mind Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera are all part of the OS family.
Of course this doesn’t change the popularity of the two big operating systems Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. They make up the vast majority of the OS market, but they are not the only mainframe operating systems around. Unix in Linux make up two of the other operating systems.
Unix is used mostly in a business setting. It’s the mainframe server for many architecture companies. They are also used for workstations in engineering and academic environments. Linux has a variety of systems that it works on. It ranges from the very common operating systems on a computer, just like the Unix, and it is also used on other systems like wristwatches.
These operating systems fill out the diverse OS’s on the market. The need for these systems depends on the specific need of the company.