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History and evolution of operating systems

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History and evolution of operating
systems
The earliest computers (large, expensive mainframes) had
primitive operating systems and were difficult to communicate
width. Input to the machines consisted of strange devices such
as punched cards and paper tape, primitive consoles and
switches etc. Output was similar.
There are still large mainframes used today (by banks, airlines
etc) – they use systems such as MVS, VME which are very
complicated and costly (more than the computer!)
Because computers were then much too expensive to be used by
just one person, the problem was to produce multi-user, multi-
access systems so that many users could share the system.
This resulted in the MULTICS system in the 1960’s.
However, this system proved to be too unreliable and complex,
so a ‘sawn-off version of MULTICS called UNIX was
produced in the early 1970’s
UNIX could support several users, had good utilities and fairly
good security, and was ideal for the new ‘minicomputers’ then
being produced. It was very successful and continues in use to
this day. Its other advantage was that it was an academically
produced non-commercial product that was essentially free and
available for users to modify, as they wanted. It was written in,
and is closely associated with, the C programming language.
However it is largely a text/command-based system without any
graphical component and with its strange-sounding commands,
is quite difficult to learn.
In the 1990’s, a simpler version of UNIX called LINUX was
produced. It emulates the ‘user-friendly’ graphical interface of
Windows and is today a popular (and basically only) alternative
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History and evolution of operating systems The earliest computers (large, expensive mainframes) had primitive operating systems and were difficult to communicate width. Input to the machines consisted of strange devices such as punched cards and paper tape, primitive consoles and switches etc. Output was similar. There are still large mainframes used today (by banks, airlines etc) - they use systems such as MVS, VME which are very complicated and costly (more than the computer!) Because computers were then much too expensive to be used by just one person, the problem was to produce multi- ...
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