These tables provide a comparison of operating systems, of computer devices, as listing general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available PC or 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 is also a variety of BSD and DOS operating systems, covered in comparison of BSD operating systems and comparison of DOS operating systems.
Nomenclature The nomenclature for operating systems varies among providers and sometimes within providers. For purposes of this article the terms used are; kernel In some operating systems, the OS is split into a low level region called the kernel and higher level code that relies on the kernel. Typically the kernel implements processes but its code does not run as part of a process. hybrid kernel monolithic kernel Nucleus In some operating systems there is OS code permanently present in a contiguous region of memory addressable by unprivileged code; in IBM systems this is typically referred to as the nucleus. The nucleus typically contains both code that requires special privileges and code that can run in an unprivileged state. Typically some code in the nucleus runs in the context of a dispatching unit, e.g., address space, process, task, thread, while other code runs independent of any dispatching unit. In contemporary operating systems unprivileged applications cannot alter the nucleus.
License and pricing policies vary widely among different systems. Among others, the tables below use the following terms:
BSD BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses, imposing minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software.
bundled The fee is included in the price of the hardware
General information
Name Creator Initial public release Predecessor Current stable version Latest release date Cost Preferred license Target system type Availability AIX IBM 1986 UNIX System V Release 3 7.3 TL4 (7.3.4) Server, NAS, workstation Image, Bundled AIX/370 IBM 1989 IX/370 Release 2.1? IBM System/370 AIX/ESA V1 & V2 Image, Bundled AIX/ESA IBM 1992 AIX/370, OSF/1 Version 2 Release 2 ESA/370IBM System/390 Image, Bundled AmigaOS classic Commodore International, Haage & Partner, Hyperion Entertainment 1985 TRIPOS (as the disk operating component of AmigaOS) 3.2.2.1 , open source clone available under AROS Public License Workstation, personal computer Bundled AmigaOS 4 Hyperion Entertainment 2004 AmigaOS classic 4.1 Final Edition Update 3 Workstation, personal computer Image, Bundled Android Android, Inc., Google 2008 None 17 Smartphone, tablet computer Image, Bundled ArcaOS Arca Noae, LLC 2017 OS/2 5.1.2 Server, workstation, personal computer Image, Bundled Classic Mac OS (retronym; had no name originally, later Macintosh System Software, discontinued in 2000) Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.) 1984 None 9.2.2 Workstation, personal computer Bundled ChromeOS Google 2011 none 150.0.7871.150 : Google OS Terms of Service. Open-source core system Chromebook, Chromebox, Chromebase and tablet Image, Bundled ChromiumOS Google 2009 none Rolling release Personal computer Image, Bundled DragonFly BSD Matthew Dillon 2003 FreeBSD 6.4.2 Server, workstation, NAS, embedded system Image eComStation Serenity Systems, Mensys BV 2001 OS/2 2.1 Server, workstation, personal computer Image EPOC32 Psion PLC 1996 ER5 PDA Image EulerOS/openEuler Huawei 2021 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 25.09 Server, workstation Image FreeBSD The FreeBSD Project 1993 386BSD 15.1 Server, workstation, Desktop, NAS, embedded system Image Genode Genode Labs 2008 None Desktop, embedded system, server Image GhostBSD Eric Turgeon 2009 FreeBSD 26.1-R15.0p2 Desktop, workstation Image, Bundled Haiku Haiku Inc. 2002 BeOS R5 R1/Beta 5 Personal computer Image, Bundled HP NonStop Tandem Computers, HP (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise) 1976 None L25.09 HP Nonstop Servers Image, Bundled HP-UX HP (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise) 1983 UNIX System V 2505.11iv3 Server Image, Bundled HarmonyOS Huawei 2019 OpenHarmony, LiteOS 6.0.0 (7.0.0 (Developer Beta) / June 12, 2026) software except for open-source components Internet of things, Smartphone, tablet computer, education, embedded system, smart watches Image, Bundled IBM i IBM 1988 CPF, SSP 7.6 Server Image, Bundled Inferno Bell Labs 1996 Plan 9 Fourth Edition NAS, server, embedded Image, Bundled iOS (originally iPhone OS) Apple Inc. 2007 macOS 26.6.1 higher level API layers; open source core system (ARM versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others Smartphone, music player, tablet Bundled IRIX SGI 1988 UNIX System V 6.5.30 Server, workstation Image, Bundled IX/370 IBM 1985 UNIX System V Release 1.4? IBM System/370 Image, Bundled Linux Notable contributors include: Linus Torvalds for the Linux kernel; 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 (kernel) (kernel) (kernel) See: Comparison of Linux distributions Image, Bundled macOS (originally Mac OS X) Apple Inc. 2001 NeXTSTEP, BSD 26.5.2 higher level API layers; open source core system (Apple Silicon-Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others Workstation, personal computer, embedded Bundled macOS Server (originally Mac OS X Server) Apple Inc. 2001 NeXTSTEP, BSD 5.12 higher level API layers; open source core system (Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others Server Bundled MCP Unisys 1961 None CP OS 21.0 Server Bundled MenuetOS Ville Turjanmaa and others 2000 None 1.61.00 OS written in assembly language 64-bit (free for personal and educational use); 32-bit (September 2, 2019) GPL Workstation Image, Bundled MINIX 3 Andrew S. Tanenbaum 2005 Minix2 3.3.0 Workstation Image, Bundled MPE HP 1974 None MPE-V Server Image, Bundled MPE/XL HP 1987 MPE 7.5 Server Image, Bundled MVS(OS/VS2 R2 through R3.8) IBM 1972 OS/360 MVT, SVS Release 3.8 IBM System/370 Bundled MVS(MVS/SE through MVS/ESA) IBM 1978 (March) OS/VS2 R3.7 for MVS/SE R1OS/VS2 R3.8 for MVS/SE R2 through MVS/ESA MVS/ESA System Product Version 5.2.2 (V5R2.2) S/370 S/370-XA S/370-ESA ESA/390 Image, Bundled NetBSD The NetBSD Project 1993 386BSD 10.1 NAS, server, workstation, embedded Image, Bundled NetWare Novell 1983 S-Net 6.5 SP8 Server Image, Bundled NeXTSTEP NeXT 1989 Unix 3.3 Workstation Image, Bundled Oniro Various (Eclipse Foundation, Huawei and others) 2021 None 6.0 Internet of things, embedded system, smart watches, mobile devices, personal computers Image, BundledOpenBSD OpenBSD Project 1996 NetBSD 1.0 7.7 Server, NAS, workstation, embedded Image, Bundled OpenHarmony Various (OpenAtom Foundation, Huawei and others) 2020 HarmonyOS, LiteOS 6.1 Internet of things, embedded system, smart watches, mobile devices, personal computers Image, Bundled OpenIndiana Many, based on software developed by Sun Microsystems and many others 2010 OpenSolaris Hipster 2026.04 Server, workstation Image, Bundled OpenVMS DEC (now VSI) 1977 RSX-11M V9.2-3 Server, workstation Image, Bundled OS/2 IBM and Microsoft 1987 MS-DOS 4.52 Personal computer, server Image, Bundled OS/360 IBM 1966 None Operating System/360 R21.8 S/360S/370 Bundled OS/390 IBM 1995 MVS/ESA OS/390 version 2 R10 S/390 Image, Bundled OS 2200 Unisys 1967 as Exec 8e Exec 8, OS 1100 CP OS 20.0 (EXEC 50R1) Server Bundled OS/VS1 IBM OS/360 MFT II Release 7.0? IBM System/370 Image, Bundled OS/VS2 SVS IBM OS/360 MVT Release 1.7 IBM System/370 Image, Bundled Plan 9 Bell Labs 1992 Unix Fourth Edition (except for minor later updates) Workstation, server, embedded system, HPC Image, Bundled QNX QNX Software Systems 1982 Unix, POSIX 7.1.0 Automotive, medical, smartphone, consumer, industrial, embedded system, safety Bundled ReactOS ReactOS development team 1998 Windows NT (clone of) 0.4.15 Workstation, personal computer Image, Bundled Redox Jeremy Soller 2015 - 0.9.0 Desktop, workstation, server Image, Bundled RISC iX Acorn Computers 1988 BSD 4.3 1.21c Workstation Image, Bundled RISC OS Acorn Computers 1987 Arthur 3.71 Education, personal computer Image, Bundled RISC OS 4 RISCOS Ltd, Pace plc 1999 RISC OS 4.39 Education, personal computer Image, Bundled RISC OS 5 Castle Technology, RISC OS Open 2002 RISC OS 4 5.30 Education, personal computer Image, Bundled RISC OS 6 RISCOS Ltd 2006 RISC OS 4 6.20 Education, personal computer Image, Bundled Sailfish OS Jolla Ltd. 2013 5.1 Smartphone Image, Bundled SerenityOS Andreas Kling 2018 None Continuous integration Workstation, personal computer Image, Bundled Solaris Sun (now Oracle Corporation) 1992 SunOS 11.4 SRU92 Server, workstation Image, Bundled STOP 6, XTS-400 BAE Systems 2003 STOP 5, XTS-300 8.2 Server, workstation Image, Bundled Symbian Symbian Ltd. 1998 EPOC32 9.5 Phone Image, Bundled Symbian platform Symbian Foundation 2010 (initially 1998 as Symbian) Symbian 3.0.4 Embedded system Image, Bundled TempleOS Terry Davis 2005 (as J Operating System) None 5.03 Personal computer Image, Bundled Tru64 Digital Equipment Corporation 1992 (January) OSF/1 5.1B-6 Server, workstation, HPC Image, Bundled VME ICL 1974 None SV294 ICL mainframe Bundled VSEⁿ 21st Century Software 1979 (as DOS/VSE) DOS/360DOS/VS 6.4 IBM Z Image, Bundled VxWorks Wind River Systems 1987 VRTX 7 Embedded real-time system Image, Bundled Windows Microsoft 1985 None Windows 11 (version 26H1 10.0.28000.2525) ; Source-available Workstation, personal computer, media center, Tablet PC, embedded system Image, Bundled Windows (classic 9x family) Microsoft 1995 MS-DOS Windows Me (Win 4.90.3000) Personal computer, media center Image, Bundled Windows (NT family) Microsoft 1993 OS/2 and Windows 3.1x Windows 11 (version 26H1 10.0.28000.2525) ; Source-available Workstation, personal computer, media center, , embedded system Image, Bundled Windows Server (NT family) Microsoft 1993 OS/2 Windows Server 2025 (version 10.0.26100.33158) ; Source-available Server, NAS, embedded system Image, Bundled z/OS IBM 2000 OS/390 Version 3.2 (V3R2) IBM Z Image, Bundled z/VM IBM 2000 VM/ESA 7.4 IBM Z Image, Bundled ZETA yellowTAB 2005 BeOS R5 1.5 Personal computer, media center, workstation Image, Bundled Name Creator Initial public release Predecessor Current stable version Release date Cost, availability Preferred license Target system type Availability
Technical information