Comparison of operating systems

These tables provide a comparison of operating systems, listing general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available PC and for some handheld (including smartphone and tablet computer) operating systems. The article, usage share of operating systems provides a broader, and more general, comparison of operating systems that includes servers, mainframes and supercomputers.

Because of the large number and variety of available Linux distributions, they are all grouped under a single entry; see comparison of Linux distributions for a detailed comparison. There are also a variety of BSD operating systems and DOS operating systems, covered in comparison of BSD operating systems and comparison of DOS operating systems. For information on views of each operating system, see operating system advocacy.

General information

Name	Creator	Initial public release	Predecessor	Current stable version	Release date	Cost, availability	Preferred license[g 1]	Target system type
AIX	IBM	1986	UNIX System V Release 3	7.2	2015, October 5	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Server, NAS, workstation
Android	Android, Inc., Google	2008	Linux	6.0.1 Marshmallow	2015, December 7	Free	Apache 2.0, GNU GPLv2	Consumer, enterprise, military, education
AmigaOS classic	Commodore International, Haage & Partner, Hyperion Entertainment	1985	TRIPOS (as the disk operating component of AmigaOS)	3.9 BB2	2002, March 20	Discontinued; Bundled with hardware up to version 3.0 (Amiga International hardware came with 3.1); versions 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.5, 3.9 also available as separate packages	Proprietary, open source clone available under AROS Public License	Workstation, personal computer
AmigaOS 4	Hyperion Entertainment	2004	AmigaOS classic	4.1 Final Edition	2014	4.0 bundled with hardware; 4.0 for classic and 4.1 available as standalone package at €29	Proprietary	Workstation, personal computer
Chrome OS	Google	2009	Gentoo[1]	48.0.2564.116	2016, February 18	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary: Google OS Terms of Service	Chromebook
Desktop Professional	Soft Computers/Normanton Telecom Ltd.	2016	Desktop Standard	1.0.2	2016, April 20	£35.00	Proprietary:Soft Computers Terms of Service	Consumer, enterprise, personal computer
DragonFly BSD	Matthew Dillon	2003	FreeBSD	4.0.3[2]	2015, January 21	Free	BSD	Server, workstation, NAS, embedded
FreeBSD	The FreeBSD Project	1993	386BSD	10.3	2016, April 4	Free	BSD	Server, workstation, NAS, embedded
GhostBSD	Eric Turgeon	2009	FreeBSD	10.1	2015, September 13	Free	BSD	Desktop, workstation
eComStation	Serenity Systems, Mensys BV	2001	OS/2	2.1	2011	Home-student edition (max. three per site) US$145.00 (equivalent to $152.53 in 2015) business edition $290.00	Proprietary	Server, workstation, personal computer
EPOC32	Psion PLC	1996		ER5	1999	Discontinued; Commercial	Proprietary	PDA
GNU+Linux	Notable contributors include: Richard Stallman GNU Project and Linus Torvalds Linux and the unices they emulated, Red Hat, Debian Project See: Comparison of Linux distributions and Linux Kernel#Development	1991 (kernel), See: Comparison of Linux distributions and History of Linux	None	4.5 (kernel)	2016, March 14 (kernel)	Free	GNU GPLv2 (kernel)	See: Comparison of Linux distributions
Haiku	Haiku Inc.	2009	BeOS R5	R1/Alpha4	2012	Free	MIT	Personal computer
HP-UX	Hewlett-Packard	1983	UNIX System V	11.31, 11i v3 Update 14	2015, March	US$400	Proprietary	Server
IBM i	IBM	1988	OS/400	7.2	2014, May 2	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Server
Inferno	Bell Labs	1997	Plan 9	Fourth Edition	2009, June 30	Free	MIT, GNU GPL, GNU LGPL, LPL	NAS, server, embedded
iOS	Apple Inc.	2007	OS X	9.2	2015, October 29	Bundled with hardware and free updates given to most existing users, subject to hardware requirements	Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (ARM versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others	Smartphone, music player, tablet computer
IRIX	SGI	1988	UNIX System V	6.5.30	2006	Discontinued; Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Server, workstation
Mac OS	Apple Inc.	1984	None[g 2][g 3]	9.2.2	2000	Discontinued; Was bundled with 68k and PowerPC Macs; versions 7-9 sold as retail upgrades[g 4]	Proprietary	Workstation, personal computer
MVS	IBM	1972	OS/360	MVS/ESA SP - JES3 Version 5 R2.2	1995, September 29	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	IBM mainframe
(Mac) OS X	Apple Inc.	2001	NeXTSTEP, BSD	10.11.4 (Build 15E65) El Capitan[3]	2016, March 21	Bundled with hardware; No-cost update via Mac App Store for users of OS X 10.6 or later, assuming hardware requirements are met	Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others	Workstation, personal computer, embedded
(Mac) OS X Server	Apple Inc.	2001	NeXTSTEP, BSD	10.10.3 / April 8, 2015	2015, April 8	Previously bundled with hardware; No longer a separate operating system, but a group of services installed atop any current version of Mac OS X; US$19.99 on the Mac App Store	Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others	Server
MPE	HP	1974	None	MPE-V	1988	Discontinued; Was bundled with HP-3000 CISC hardware "Classic"	Proprietary	Server
MCP	Unisys	1961	None	CP OS 17.0	2015, April	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Server
MPE/XL	HP	1987	MPE	7.5	2002	Discontinued; Was bundled with HP-3000 PA-RISC hardware	Proprietary	Server
MINIX 3	Andrew S. Tanenbaum	2005	Minix2	3.3.0	2014	Free	BSD	Workstation
NetBSD	The NetBSD Project	1993	386BSD	6.1.5[4]	2014, September 22[4]	Free	BSD	NAS, server, workstation, embedded
NetWare	Novell	1985	S-Net	6.5 SP8	2009, May 6	Superseded by Novell Open Enterprise Server; Was US$184 (equivalent to $202.95 in 2015) (one-user)	Proprietary	Server
NeXTSTEP	NeXT	1989	Unix	3.3	1995	Discontinued; Was bundled with hardware, then sold separately	Proprietary	Workstation
OpenBSD	The OpenBSD Project	1995	NetBSD 1.0	5.7	2015, May 1	Free	ISC	Server, NAS, workstation, embedded
OpenIndiana	Many, based on software developed by Sun Microsystems and many others	2010	OpenSolaris		2010, December 17[5]	Free	CDDL	Server, workstation
OpenVMS	DEC (now HP)	1977	RSX-11M	8.4-1H1	2015, June 1	Commercial, free non-commercial use	Proprietary	Server, workstation
OS/360	IBM	1966	None	Operating System/360 R21.8	1972, August	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	IBM mainframe
OS/390	IBM	1995	MVS	OS/390 Version 2 R10	2000, September 29	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	IBM mainframe
OS 2200	Unisys	1967 as Exec 8e	Exec 8, OS 1100	CP OS 16 (Exec 49.2)	2015, February 27	Bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Server
OS/2	IBM and Microsoft	1987	Windows 3.x	4.52	2001	Discontinued (see eComStation successor); Was US$300 (equivalent to $400.92 in 2015)	Proprietary	Personal computer, server
PC-BSD	PC-BSD Software	2006	FreeBSD[g 5]	10.1[6]	2014, November 16	Free	BSD	Personal computer, workstation, server
Plan 9	Bell Labs	1993	Unix	Fourth Edition	2003 (except for minor later updates)	Free	LPL	Workstation, server, embedded, HPC
QNX	QNX Software Systems	1982	Unix, POSIX	6.6.0	2014	Bundled with BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook devices. Commercial; an academic version exists that needs authorization code before installing	Proprietary	Automotive, medical, smartphones, consumer, industrial, embedded, safety
Solaris	Sun, Oracle Corporation	1992	SunOS	11.3	2015, October 26	Commercial; (but free/no-cost perpetual license when used "for the purpose of developing, testing, prototyping and demonstrating your applications"[7])	CDDL	Server, workstation
Symbian	Symbian Ltd.	1998	EPOC32	9.5	2009	Discontinued; Commercial	Proprietary	Phones
Symbian platform	Symbian Foundation	2010	Symbian	3.0.4	2010	Free	EPL	embedded
Windows Server (NT family)	Microsoft	1993	OS/2, Windows 3.x and MS-DOS	Windows Server 2012 R2 (NT 6.3.9600)	2014, April	US$469 Web Server; other editions dependent on number of CALs purchased	Proprietary; Shared source	Server, NAS, embedded, HPC
Windows (NT family)	Microsoft	1993	OS/2, Windows 9x and MS-DOS	Windows 10 (Version 1511 (OS build 10.0.10586.104))	2016, February 9	Windows 10 Home US$119, Windows 10 Pro US$199[8]	Proprietary; Shared source	Workstation, personal computer, media center, Tablet PC, embedded
Windows (classic 9x family)	Microsoft	1995	MS-DOS, Windows NT 3.5	Windows Me (Win 4.90.3000)	2000	Discontinued	Proprietary	Personal computer, media center
RISC iX	Acorn Computers	1988	BSD 4.3	1.21c	1993	Discontinued; Was bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Workstation
RISC OS	Acorn Computers	1987	Arthur, also the BBC Master OS	3.71	1997	Discontinued; Was bundled with hardware	Proprietary	Education, personal computer
RISC OS 4	RISCOS Ltd, Pace plc	1999	RISC OS	4.39	2004	Bundled with hardware, then sold separately at £70 (US$127)	Proprietary	Education, personal computer
RISC OS 5	Castle Technology, RISC OS Open	2002	RISC OS 4	5.20	2013	Free for non-commercial use (recent releases); formerly bundled with hardware	Shared source	Education, personal computer
RISC OS 6	RISCOS Ltd	2006	RISC OS 4	6.20	2009	Bundled with hardware, then sold separately at £70 (US$127)	Proprietary	Education, personal computer
ZETA	yellowTAB	2005	BeOS R5	1.5	2007	Discontinued	Proprietary	Personal computer, media center, workstation
STOP 6, XTS-400	BAE Systems	2003	STOP 5, XTS-300	6.5	2008, August	US$60,000 (equivalent to $65,944 in 2015)+; bundled with XTS hardware and OEM licensed	Proprietary	Server, workstation
ReactOS	ReactOS development team	1996	Windows NT	0.4.0	2016, February 16	Free	GNU GPL, GNU LGPL	Workstation, personal computer
VxWorks	Wind River Systems	1987	VRTX	7	2014 March	Paid	Proprietary	Embedded Real-time systems
z/OS	IBM	2000	OS/390	Version 2.2 (V2R2)	2015, June 28	Monthly license fee, about US$130 and up	Proprietary	IBM mainframe
z/VSE	IBM	2007	VSE/ESA	6.1	2015, October 5	Monthly license fee	Proprietary	IBM mainframe
z/VM	IBM	2000	VM	6.3	2013, July 23	Monthly license fee	Proprietary	IBM mainframe
HP NonStop	HP	1974	Guardian	H06.24/J06.13	2012	Non-free	Proprietary	HP Nonstop Servers
Name	Creator	Initial public release	Predecessor	Current stable version	Release date	Cost, availability	Preferred license[g 1]	Target system type

1. Most OS distributions include bundled software with various other licenses.
2. The Original Macintosh Anecdotes. Although Lisa OS ran on the same, but a slower variant, microprocessor and was developed by Apple Inc. at the same time as Mac OS, they were developed as different projects, only sharing a similar GUI between them.
3. Mac OS 7.6 was the first Macintosh system software to be labeled Mac OS. Operating systems before this were named System Software 0.1 (available only to developers) through System Software 7.5, and known as System #.# for short.
4. "Official Apple Support". apple.com.
5. PC-BSD uses FreeBSD as a base system with custom configuration and several desktop-oriented tools to make an easy to use FreeBSD system for desktops and workstations.

Technical information

Name	Computer architectures supported	File systems supported	Kernel type	Source lines of code	GUI default is on[t 1]	Package management	Update management	Native APIs[t 2]	Non-native APIs supported through subsystems
AIX	POWER, PowerPC-AS, PowerPC, Power Architecture	JFS, JFS2, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, GPFS	Monolithic with modules		No	installp, RPM	Service Update Management Assistant (SUMA)	SysV/POSIX
AmigaOS Classic	68k, PowerPC	Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc.	Microkernel		Yes	Installer[t 3] (almost not needed)[t 4]		Proprietary	BSD subset (available through 3rd party ixemul.library)
AmigaOS 4	PowerPC	Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), JXFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc.	Microkernel		Yes	Installer[t 3] (almost not needed)[t 4]	AmiUpdate (almost not needed)[t 5]	Proprietary	BSD subset (available through 3rd party ixemul.library)
Chrome OS	ARM, x86	eCryptfs, NTFS, FAT, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, ext2, ext3, ext4, HFS+, MTP (read and write), ISO9660 (read-only), UDF (read-only)	Monolithic with modules	~ 17 million[9]	Yes	Portage		Linux/POSIX
eComStation	x86	HPFS (default), FAT, JFS, UDF, FAT32, NTFS (read only)	Hybrid		Yes	WarpIN, Feature Install, others	Maintenance Tool	Proprietary, DOS API, Win16	POSIX, Java, others
FreeBSD	x86, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, others	UFS2, ZFS, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, others	Monolithic with modules	6.25 million[10]	No	Ports collection, packages	by source, network binary update (freebsdupdate)	BSD/POSIX	Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Linux
GhostBSD	x86, x86-64	UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental), ZFS, others	Monolithic with modules		Yes	Ports collection, packages	by source, network binary update (freebsdupdate)	BSD/POSIX	Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Linux
Linux	x86, x86-64, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC, others	ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, ReiserFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, and others	Monolithic with modules	~15 million (kernel)[11] lines of code for userland libraries and applications vary depending on the distribution	See: Comparison of Linux distributions			Linux/POSIX	Mono, Java, Win16,[t 6] Win32[t 6]
Haiku	x86, PowerPC	BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, ext3, NTFS	Hybrid	~5.2 million	Yes	Ports collection (haikuport)	pkgman, HaikuDepot	POSIX, BeOS API	Java, Qt
HP-UX	PA-RISC, IA-64	VxFS, HFS, CDFS, EVFS, NFS, CIFS	Monolithic with modules		No	SD, swinstall	swa (HP-UX Software Assistant)	SysV/POSIX
Inferno	x86, PowerPC, SPARC, Alpha, MIPS, others	Styx/9P2000, kfs, FAT, ISO 9660	Monolithic with modules, user space file systems		Yes	?	?	Proprietary
iOS	ARM	HFS+, FTP	Hybrid	~80 million	Yes	?	Software Update	Cocoa, BSD-POSIX	?
Mac OS Classic	68k, PowerPC	HFS+, HFS, MFS (Mac OS 8.0 and before), AFP, ISO 9660, FAT(System 7 and later), UDF	Monolithic with modules		Yes	None	Software Update (only in Mac OS 9)	Toolbox, Carbon (from version 8.1)
OS X	PowerPC, x86, x86-64, (see also iOS for ARM)	HFS+ (default), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV, ZFS (experimental)	Hybrid with modules	~86 million[12]	Yes	OS X Installer	Software Update	Carbon, Cocoa, Java, BSD-POSIX	Toolbox (only in versions up to Mac OS X 10.4, not supported on x86 architecture), Win16,[t 6] Win32[t 6]
MINIX 3	x86		Microkernel	~12,000 (C) + ~1,400 (Assembly)[13]	No			POSIX
NetBSD	x86, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC64, others	UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, LFS, and others	Monolithic with modules		No[t 7]	pkgsrc	by source or binary (using sysinst)	BSD-POSIX	Linux, others
NetWare	x86	NSS, NWFS, FAT, NFS, AFP, UDF, CIFS, ISO 9660	Hybrid		Yes	NWCONFIG.NLM, RPM, X11-based GUI installer	binary updates, ZENWorks for Servers, Red Carpet	Proprietary
OpenBSD	x86, x86-64, SPARC, 68k, Alpha, VAX, others	ffs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, some others	Monolithic		No[t 7]	Ports collection, packages	by source or binary (packages via pkg_add)	BSD-POSIX
OpenVMS	VAX, Alpha, IA-64	Files-11 (ODS), ISO 9660, NFS, CIFS	Monolithic with modules		No	PCSI, VMSINSTAL	?	Proprietary	POSIX
OS/2	x86	HPFS, JFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS	Monolithic with modules		Yes	Feature Install and others	?	Proprietary, DOS API, Win16	Win32
PC-BSD	x86[t 8]	UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental) and others	Monolithic with modules		Yes	Ports collection, packages, PBI Graphical Installers	by PBI updates, source, network binary update (freebsdupdate)	BSD-POSIX	Win16,[t 6] Win32[t 6]
Plan 9	x86, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, others	fossil/venti, 9P2000, kfs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660	Hybrid, user space file systems	~ 2.5 Million /sys/src (complete source of all supported architectures, kernels, commands and libraries)	Yes	None	replica	Proprietary (Unix-like)	POSIX compatibility layer
QNX	x86, SH-4, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS	QNX4FS, QNX6, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, Joliet, NFS, CIFS, ETFS, UDF, HFS, HFS+, NTFS, others	Microkernel					POSIX, Java
ReactOS	x86, PowerPC, ARM	FAT, NTFS (read only)	Hybrid	nearly 8 million[14]	Yes	None	None	Win32, NT API
RISC OS	ARM (both 26 and 32-bit addressing modes)	Acorn ADFS, Econet ANFS, FAT, ISO 9660, many others as loadable filesystems	Monolithic with modules. Cooperative multitasking with limited memory protection.[15]		Yes	Applications self-contained; hardware drivers often in ROM	!IyoUpWtch	Huge number of SWI calls; extensive C libraries
Solaris	x86, x86-64, SPARC	UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others	Monolithic with modules		Yes	SysV packages (pkgadd) Image Packaging System (pkg) (Solaris 11 and later)	Image Packaging System (Solaris 11 and later)	SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java	Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Mono, Linux[t 9]
OpenSolaris	x86, x86-64, SPARC(AI)	UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others	Monolithic with modules	~18.8 million[16]	Yes	Image Packaging System (pkg), SysV packages (pkgadd)	Image Packaging System	SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java	Win16,[t 6] Win32,[t 6] Mono, Linux[t 9]
STOP 6, XTS-400	x86	Proprietary	Monolithic		No	RPM for some untrusted applications	Binary updates via postal mail and proprietary tools	Some: SysV, POSIX, Linux, proprietary
Symbian	ARM	FAT	Microkernel		Yes	SIS files	FOTA	Proprietary	POSIX compatibility layer
Windows Server (NT family)	x86, x86-64, IA-64	NTFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, ReiserFS,[t 10] and HFS	Hybrid with modules	~45 million[17]	Yes	MSI, custom installers	Windows Update	Win32, NT API	DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET
Windows (NT family)	x86, x86-64, ARM	NTFS, FAT exFAT ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, ReiserFS,[t 10] HFS+, FATX, and HFS (with third party driver)	Hybrid with modules	~40 (XP)/64 (Vista and later) million	Yes	MSI, custom installers	Windows Update	Win32, NT API	DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET
ZETA	x86	BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, HFS, AFP, ext2, CIFS, NTFS (read only), ReiserFS (read only, up to v3.6)	Hybrid		Yes	SoftwareValet, script-based installers	None	POSIX, BeOS API
z/OS	z/Architecture	VSAM, BDAM, QSAM, BPAM, HFS, zFS, etc.	Protected, multithreading, multitasking nucleus with programmable/user replaceable extensions. Not kernel-based.		No	None, SMP/E	SMP/E	Filesystem access methods, Systems Services, etc.	POSIX, many others.
Name	Computer architectures supported	File systems supported	Kernel type	Source lines of code	GUI default is on[t 1]	Package management	Update management	Native APIs[t 2]	Non-native APIs supported through subsystems

1. Operating systems where the GUI is not installed and turned on by default are often bundled with an implementation of the X Window System, installation of which is usually optional.
2. Most operating systems use proprietary APIs in addition to any supported standards.
3. Amiga OS features since OS 2.0 version a standard centralized Install utility called Installer, which could be used by any software house to install programs. It works as a Lisp language interpreter, and install procedures could be listed as simple text. AmigaOS can also benefit of a 3rd party copyrighted library called XAD that is available for all POSIX (Unix, Linux, BSD, and for AmigaOS, MorphOS, etc.). This library is freely distributable and publicly available on Aminet Amiga centralized repository of all Open Source or Free programs and utilities. XAD.Library, complete with GUI Voodoo-X, is based on modules and capable to manage over 300 compression methods and package systems (Voodoo-X GUI supports 80 package systems), including those widely accepted as standards such as .ZIP, .CAB, .LHA, .LZX, .RPM, etc.
4. A standard AmigaOS installation requires usually only few files (typically 3 to 10 files) to be copied in their appropriate directory, and libraries and language files for national localization to be put in their standard OS directories. Any Amiga user with some minimal experience knows where these files should be copied and could perform programs installations by hand.
5. AmiUpdate is capable to update AmigaOS files and also all Amiga programs which are registered to use the same update program that is standard for Amiga. Updating AmigaOS requires only few libraries to be put in standard OS location (for example all libraries are stored in "Libs:" standard virtual device and absolute path finder for "Libs" directory, Fonts are all in "Fonts:" absolute locator, the files for language localization are all stored in "Locale:" and so on). This leaves Amiga users with a minimal knowledge of the system almost free to perform by hand the update of the system files.
6. using Wine
7. NetBSD and OpenBSD include the X Window System as base install sets, managed in their respective main source repository, including local modifications. Packages are also provided for more up-to-date versions which may be less tested.
8. only i686 CPU
9. "BrandZ (Community Group brandz.WebHome) - XWiki". Opensolaris.org. 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
10. Windows can read and write with Ext2 and Ext3 file systems only when a driver from FS-driver or Ext2Fsd is installed. However, using Explore2fs, Windows can read from, but not write to, Ext2 and Ext3 file systems. Windows can also access ReiserFS through rfstool and related programs.

Security

Name	Resource access control	Subsystem isolation mechanisms	Integrated firewall	Encrypted file systems	No execute (NX) page flag		Manufacturer acknowledged unpatched vulnerabilities (severity is accounted for)[s 1]
							Secunia					SecurityFocus
					Hardware	Emulation	Extremely critical (number / oldest)	Highly critical (number / oldest)	Moderately critical (number / oldest)	Less critical (number / oldest)	Not critical (number / oldest)	Total (number / oldest)
AIX 7.1	POSIX, ACLs, MAC, Trusted AIX - MLS, RBAC	chroot	IPFilter, IPsec VPNs, basic IDS	Yes	Yes[s 2]	N/A	Unknown					0
FreeBSD 10.1	POSIX, ACLs, MAC	chroot, Jails, MAC partitions, multilevel security, Biba Model, BSD file flags set using chflags, Capsicum Capability-based security	IPFW2, IPFilter, PF, IPsec	Yes	Yes	Yes[s 3]	0	0	0	0	0	>0
GhostBSD 3.1	POSIX, ACLs, MAC	chroot, jail, MAC partitions, BSD file flags set using chflags	IPFW2, IPFilter, PF	Yes	Yes	Yes	0	0	0	0	0	>0
HP-UX 11.31	POSIX, ACLs	chroot	IPFilter	Yes	?	?	0	0	3 June 30, 2004	2 December 12, 2002	0	>0
Inferno	POSIX	Namespaces,[18] capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit	?	?	No	No	Unknown					>0
Linux-based 2.6.39	POSIX, ACLs,[s 4] MAC	chroot,[s 5] seccomp, SELinux, AppArmor	Netfilter, varied by distribution	Yes	Yes	Yes	0	0	0	6 June 24, 2004	11 April 4, 2005	>0
Mac OS 9.2.2	No	No	No	No	No	No	0	0	0	0	0	>0
OS X 10.10.5	POSIX, ACLs[19]	chroot, BSD file flags set using chflags	ipfw	Yes	Yes (as of 10.5, X64 only)	Yes (Intel only)	0	0	1 April 14, 2009	2 January 8, 2007	5 November 22, 2006	>0
NetBSD 6.1.2	POSIX, Veriexec, PaX, kauth	chroot, kauth, BSD file flags set using chflags	IPFilter, NPF, PF	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown					>0
NetWare 6.5 SP8	Directory-enabled ACLs	Protected address spaces	IPFLT.NLM	Yes	Yes	No	0	0	1 August 31, 2010	2 October 30, 2003	0	0
OES-Linux	Directory-enabled ACLs	chroot	IPFilter	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown					>0
OpenBSD 4.8	POSIX	chroot, systrace, BSD file flags set using chflags	PF	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown					>0
OpenVMS 8.4	ACLs, privileges	logical name tables	?	?	Yes	?	0	0	0	0	0	Unknown
OS/2, eComStation	ACLs[s 6]	No	IPFilter	No	?	?	0	0	0	0	0	0
PC-BSD 8.1	POSIX, ACLs, MAC	chroot, jail, MAC partitions	IPFW2, IPFilter, PF	Yes[s 7]	?	?	0	0	0	0	0	>0
Plan 9	POSIX ?	Namespaces,[18] capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit	ipmux	Yes	No	No	Unknown					>0
QNX 6.5.0	POSIX	?	PF, from NetBSD	?	?	?	0	0	0	5 November 20, 2002	1 November 7, 2002	Unknown
RISC OS	No	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown
Solaris 10	POSIX, RBAC, ACLs, least privilege, Trusted Extensions	chroot, Containers,[s 8] Logical Domains	IPFilter	Yes[s 9]	Yes	No	0	2 October 31, 2007	5 October 23, 2007	3 September 10, 2009	2 November 6, 2006	>0
OpenSolaris 2009.06	POSIX, RBAC, ACLs, least privilege, Trusted Extensions	chroot, Containers,[s 8] Logical Domains	IPFilter	Yes[s 9]	Yes	No	0	0	0	0	0	>0
Windows Server 2012	ACLs, privileges, RBAC	Win32 WindowStation, desktop, job objects	Windows Firewall	Yes	Yes	Yes	0	0	0	0	0	[Unknown]
Windows 8.1	ACLs, privileges, RBAC	Win32 WindowStation, desktop, job objects	Windows Firewall	Yes	Yes	Yes	0	0	0	0	1 May 30, 2014	[Unknown]
ZETA	POSIX[s 10]	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown
STOP 6, XTS-400[s 11]	POSIX, multilevel security, Biba Model mandatory integrity, ACLs, privileges, subtype mechanism	Multilevel security, Biba Model, subtype mechanism	No	No	No	No	Unknown
z/OS 1.11	RACF	RACF, low storage protection, page protection, storage protect key, execution key, subspace group facility, APF, ACR (alternate CPU recovery), more	z/OS IPSecurity	Optional	Yes (storage protect key, execution key, APF, more)	Yes	0	0	0	0	0	Unknown
	Resource access control	Subsystem isolation mechanisms	Integrated firewall	Encrypted file systems	Hardware	Emulation	Extremely critical (number / oldest)	Highly critical (number / oldest)	Moderately critical (number / oldest)	Less critical (number / oldest)	Not critical (number / oldest)	Total (number / oldest)
					No execute (NX) page flag		Secunia					SecurityFocus
							Known unpatched vulnerabilities (severity is accounted for)[s 1]

1. Comparison of known unpatched vulnerabilities based on Secunia & SecurityFocus reports with severity of Not critical & above. Update lists manually with oldest published date(s).
2. AIX use the PowerPC architecture which offer page-level protection mechanism. Since AIX version 5300-03 (5.3), this feature can be activated using the sedmgr command.
3. The GCC stack protection (a.k.a. ProPolice stack-smashing protector) has been enabled in base system since FreeBSD 8.0-release.
4. Support for the in 1997 withdrawn POSIX ACL draft is included in Linux 2.6, but requires a file system able to store them (such as ext3, XFS or ReiserFS).
5. A jail mechanism is available separately in the Linux-VServer project, but is not integrated into any mainline Linux kernel.
6. ACLs are available only in OS/2 Server versions with HPFS386 filesystem.
7. Additionally swap space may be encrypted during installation, uses memory based tmp file storage by default.
8. "Solaris Containers" (including "Zones") are a jail-type mechanism introduced with Solaris 10.
9. Through ZFS
10. Zeta has full Unix file permissions, but the OS is single user, and users always run as superuser.
11. STOP 6 is certified under Common Criteria at EAL5+.

Commands

For POSIX compliant (or partly compliant) systems like FreeBSD, Linux, OS X or Solaris, the basic commands are the same because they are standardized.

description	AROS	FreeBSD	Linux-based	HP-UX	OpenVMS	OS X	Solaris	Windows (cmd)	Windows (powershell)	Windows (cygwin, SFU or MKS)
list directory	list, dir	ls	ls	ls	dir	ls	ls	dir	dir & ls & Get-ChildItem	ls
clear console		clear	clear	clear		clear	clear	cls	clear	clear
copy file(s)	copy	cp	cp	cp	copy	cp	cp	copy	cp & Copy-Item	cp
move file(s)	move	mv	mv	mv		mv	mv	move	mv & Move-Item	mv
rename file(s)	rename	mv	mv, rename	mv	ren	mv	mv	ren, rename	ren, mv	mv
delete file(s)	delete	rm	rm	rm	del	rm	rm	del (erase)	rm & Remove-Item	rm
delete directory	delete	rmdir	rmdir	rmdir	del	rmdir	rmdir	rd (rmdir)	rmdir	rmdir
create directory	makedir	mkdir	mkdir	mkdir	create/dir	mkdir	mkdir	md (mkdir)	mkdir	mkdir
change current directory	cd	cd	cd	cd	set def	cd	cd	cd (chdir)	cd & Set-Location	cd
run shell script with new shell	shell file.shell	sh file.sh	sh file.sh	sh file.sh	@ file.com	sh file.sh	sh file.sh	cmd /c file.cmd	?	sh file.sh
kill processes		kill, killall	killall, pkill, kill, skill	kill	stop	kill, killall	kill, pkill	taskkill	taskkill	kill
change process priority		nice	nice, chrt	nice	set proc/prio	nice	nice	start /low, start /normal, start /high, start /realtime	?	nice
change I/O priority		[c 1]	ionice		set proc/prio	nice[c 2]	?	?	?	?
create file system		newfs	mkfs	newfs	init	mkfs	newfs,zpool / zfs create	format	?	?
file system check and recovery		fsck	fsck	fsck	analyze/disk	fsck	fsck,n/a	chkdsk	?	?
create software raid		atacontrol, gmirror, zfs create	(mdadm—create)			diskutil appleRAID	metainit, zpool create	diskpart (mirror only)	diskpart (mirror only)	?
mount device	mount	mount	mount	mount	mount	mount, diskutil mount	mount	mountvol	mount & New-PSDrive	?
unmount device		umount	umount	umount	dismount	umount, diskutil unmount(disk)	umount	mountvol /d	Remove-PSDrive	?
mount file as block device		mdconfig + mount	mount -o loop			hdid	lofiadm + mount	?	?	?
show network configuration		ifconfig	ip addr, ifconfig	ifconfig, lanadmin	tcpip sh net (sh net)	ifconfig	ifconfig	ipconfig	ipconfig	?
show network route		netstat -r, route get, route monitor	ip route, route	netstat -r	tcpip sh route	netstat -r, route get, route monitor	netstat -r	route	?	?
trace network route		traceroute	traceroute	traceroute	tcptrace	traceroute	traceroute	tracert	tracert	?
trace network route with pings		traceroute -I	traceroute -I & mtr		tcptrace	traceroute -I	traceroute -I	pathping	pathping	?
description	AROS	FreeBSD	Linux-based	HP-UX	OpenVMS	OS X	Solaris	Windows (cmd)	Windows (powershell)	Windows (cygwin, SFU or MKS)

NOTE: Linux systems may vary by distribution which specific program, or even 'command' is called, via the POSIX alias function. For example, if you wanted to use the DOS dir to give you a directory listing with one detailed file listing per line you could use alias dir='ls -lahF' (e.g. in a session configuration file).

1. This feature is still in development, see .
2. The nice command utilizes the setpriority() system call, which affects I/O priority, see OS X man page .

See also

• Comparison of BSD operating systems
• Comparison of command shells
• Comparison of file systems
• Comparison of Linux distributions
• Comparison of open source operating systems
• Comparison of operating system kernels
• Comparison of Microsoft Windows versions
• Comparison of DOS operating systems
• List of operating systems
• Lightweight Linux distribution
• MacvsWindows
• Operating system advocacy
• Security-focused operating system
• Timeline of operating systems
• Usage share of operating systems

References

1. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (March 6, 2013). "The secret origins of Google's Chrome OS". ZDNet.
2. "DragonFly BSD: release40".
3. "Download OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 Update". Apple Support. Apple Inc. March 21, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
4. "Announcing NetBSD 6.1.5".
5. http://www.openindiana.org/relases/
6. "Official PC-BSD Blog » PC-BSD 10.1-RELEASE Now Available". Official PC-BSD Blog.
7. "Oracle Solaris OTN License". Oracle.com. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
8. "Windows 10 release date, price, news and features". Techradar.com. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
9. "The Chromium (Google Chrome) Open Source Project on Open Hub". openhub.net.
10. ethz.ch - (S)LOC Count Evolution for Selected OSS Projects data for 2009, fig 1
11. Ryan Paul (2012-04-04). "Linux kernel in 2011: 15 million total lines of code and Microsoft is a top contributor". arstechnica.com. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
12. Jobs, Steve (7 August 2006). "Live from WWDC 2006: Steve Jobs Keynote". Retrieved 2007-02-16. 86 million lines of source code that was ported to run on an entirely new architecture with zero hiccups.
13. Tanenbaum, Andrew S. (2015). Modern Operating Systems: Global Edition. Pearson Education Limited. ISBN 9781292061955.
14. "ReactOS Change Log".
15. "RISC OS Memory Protection - Drobe.co.uk archives". drobe.co.uk.
16. find usr/src -type f -exec wc -l {} + | grep total | awk '{ sum += $1 } END {print sum }' on results in 18793105
17. Ben Liblit, Andrew Begel, and Eve Sweetser. "Cognitive Perspectives on the Role of Naming in Computer Programs" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-12-26.
18. "The Use of Name Spaces in Plan 9". bell-labs.com.
19. ACLs were added to OS X starting with version 10.4.

External links

• "Operating System Technological Comparison". Retrieved May 9, 2005.