Operating Systems > Not Quite Mainstream OSes
History questions
cahult:
Which was the first operating system and what was it used for?
Which is the oldest OS in use today?
How old is Be OS?
Master of Reality:
I'm pretty sure the oldest OS in use today would be one of the UNIX variants. Linux only came out in 1991(2?). void main probably knows.
.....hey void i'm sure you'll read this so, according to my C++ book for linux it says "void main();" isnt used and more and is not legal C++. Is this still used in C or somethin'?
[ January 23, 2003: Message edited by: The Master of Reality / Bob ]
[ January 23, 2003: Message edited by: The Master of Reality / Bob ]
Kintaro:
Linux 0.01 was out in 1991 Linux 1.0 was out in 1994 Linux 2.6 was out in June 2003
Pantso:
I think that the first attempt to create an OS, came from IBM in the '60s with System/360. As far as I know it was the first OS that included innovations such as multiprogramming (multitasking) and time-sharing. IBM finally delivered System/360 but only after encountering massive cost overruns and lengthy delays.
At the same time AT&T's labs in collaboration with General electric and MIT also initiated an effort to produce an equally massive OS called Multics which turned into a fiasco.
As a matter of fact UNIX, which was created by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (two Multics veterans) was a pun on Multics, because their reduced version of Multics could support only one user at a time.
I don't know however which OS is the oldest in use today. It should be the original Berkley Software Distribution of UNIX derivatives. I believe that void main could shed some light on this, since he has a much deeper knowledge on a lot of platforms and OSs.
Now, as far as BeOS is concerned, I really don't know. I haven't used BeOS myself but I hear that it was a really nice OS. Too bad they were also one of M$'s victims. :(
choasforages:
beos is pretty new. and for the oldelst system in use. im guessing some government office might have a pdp-11 running somewhere.
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