This article presents a

timeline A timeline is a display of a list of events in chronological order. It is typically a graphic design showing a long bar labelled with dates paralleling it, and usually contemporaneous events. Timelines can use any suitable scale represen ...

of events in the history of computer

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s from 1951 to the current day. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the History of operating systems.

1950s

* 1951 ** LEO I 'Lyons Electronic Office' was the commercial development of

EDSAC The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. Inspired by John von Neumann's seminal '' First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC'', the machine was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the Univer ...

computing platform, supported by British firm J. Lyons and Co. * 1955 ** MIT's Tape Director operating system made for UNIVAC 1103 * 1955 ** General Motors Operating System made for IBM 701 * 1956 ** GM-NAA I/O for IBM 704, based on General Motors Operating System * 1957 ** Atlas Supervisor (

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Unive ...

) (''Atlas computer project start'') ** BESYS (

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

), for IBM 704, later IBM 7090 and

IBM 7094 The IBM 7090 is a second-generation transistorized version of the earlier IBM 709 vacuum tube mainframe computer that was designed for "large-scale scientific and technological applications". The 7090 is the fourth member of the IBM 700/7000 s ...

* 1958 ** University of Michigan Executive System (UMES), for IBM 704, 709, and 7090 * 1959 ** SHARE Operating System (SOS), based on GM-NAA I/O

1960s

* 1960 ** IBSYS ( IBM for its 7090 and 7094) * 1961 ** CTSS demonstration ( MIT's Compatible Time-Sharing System for the

) ** MCP ( Burroughs Master Control Program) * 1962 ** Atlas Supervisor (

) (''Atlas computer commissioned'') ** BBN Time-Sharing System ** GCOS ( GE's General Comprehensive Operating System, originally GECOS, General Electric Comprehensive Operating Supervisor) * 1963 ** AN/FSQ-32, another early time-sharing system begun ** CTSS becomes operational ( MIT's Compatible Time-Sharing System for the

) **

JOSS Joss may refer to: * Joss (name), including a list of people with the name * JOSS, a time-sharing programming language * Joss (Chinese statue), a religious object * Joss JP1, an Australian-built supercar * Joss paper, a type of burnt offering ...

, an interactive time-shared system that did not distinguish between operating system and language ** Titan Supervisor, early time-sharing system begun * 1964 ** KDF9 Timesharing Director (

English Electric N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail) The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during t ...

) – an early, fully hardware secured, fully pre-emptive process switching, multi-programming operating system for KDF9 (originally announced in 1960) ** Berkeley Timesharing System (for Scientific Data Systems' SDS 940) ** Dartmouth Time Sharing System (

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

's DTSS for GE computers) **

OS/360 OS/360, officially known as IBM System/360 Operating System, is a discontinued batch processing operating system developed by IBM for their then-new System/360 mainframe computer, announced in 1964; it was influenced by the earlier IBSYS/IBJOB ...

(IBM's primary OS for its S/360 series) (''announced'') **

SCOPE Scope or scopes may refer to: People with the surname * Jamie Scope (born 1986), English footballer * John T. Scopes (1900–1970), central figure in the Scopes Trial regarding the teaching of evolution Arts, media, and entertainment * CinemaS ...

(CDC 3000 series) ** PDP-6 Monitor ( DEC) descendant renamed

TOPS-10 TOPS-10 System (''Timesharing / Total Operating System-10'') is a discontinued operating system from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for the PDP-10 (or DECsystem-10) mainframe computer family. Launched in 1967, TOPS-10 evolved from the earlier ...

in 1970 ** EXEC 8 (

UNIVAC UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company and ...

) * 1965 ** THE multiprogramming system (

Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc a ...

) development **

Multics Multics ("Multiplexed Information and Computing Service") is an influential early time-sharing operating system based on the concept of a single-level memory.Dennis M. Ritchie, "The Evolution of the Unix Time-sharing System", Communications of ...

(MIT, GE,

for the GE-645) (''announced'') **

BOS/360 Basic Operating System/360 (BOS/360) was an early IBM System/360 operating system. Origin BOS was one of four System/360 Operating System versions developed by the IBM General Products Division (GPD) in Endicott, New York to fill a gap at t ...

(IBM's Basic Operating System) **

TOS/360 Disk Operating System/360, also DOS/360, or simply DOS, is the discontinued first member of a sequence of operating systems for IBM System/360, System/370 and later mainframes. It was announced by IBM on the last day of 1964, and it was first ...

(IBM's Tape Operating System) ** TSOS (later VMOS) (

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westin ...

) ** Pick operating system * 1966 **

(IBM's primary OS for its S/360 series) PCP and MFT (''shipped'') **

DOS/360 Disk Operating System/360, also DOS/360, or simply DOS, is the discontinued first member of a sequence of operating systems for IBM System/360, System/370 and later mainframes. It was announced by IBM on the last day of 1964, and it was first d ...

(IBM's Disk Operating System) **

MS/8 MS/8 or The RL Monitor System is a discontinued computer operating system developed for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-8 in 1966 by Richard F. Lary. History RL Monitor System, as it was initially called, was developed on a 4K (12-bit) PD ...

(

Richard F. Lary Richard F. "Richie" Lary (born 1948, Brooklyn, New York) is the ''RL'' of the PDP-8 '' RL Monitor System'', which subsequently became ''MS/8''. Years later, while working for Digital Equipment Corporation, he was also involved with other ''DEC' ...

's DEC PDP-8 system) ** GEORGE 1 & 2 for

ICT ICT may refer to: Sciences and technology * Information and communications technology * Image Constraint Token, in video processing * Immunochromatographic test, a rapid immunoassay used to detect diseases such as anthrax * In-circuit test, in ...

1900 series ** Remote Users of Shared Hardware (RUSH), a time-sharing system developed by Allen-Babcock for the 360/50 ** SODA for Elwro's

Odra 1204 Odra may refer to: Rivers * Odra (Poland), also known as Oder, a river in Czech Republic, Poland and Germany * Odra (Kupa), a river in Croatia * Odra (Spain), a river in Spain Populated places * Odra, Silesian Voivodeship, a village in south ...

* 1967 ** CP-40, predecessor to CP-67 on modified IBM System/360 Model 40 **

CP-67 CP-67 was the ''control program'' portion of CP/CMS, a virtual machine operating system developed for the IBM System/360-67 by IBM's Cambridge Scientific Center. It was a reimplementation of their earlier research system CP-40, which ran on ...

(IBM, also known as

CP/CMS CP/CMS (Control Program/Cambridge Monitor System) is a discontinued time-sharing operating system of the late 1960s and early 1970s, known for its excellent performance and advanced features. It had three distinct versions: * CP-40/CMS, an im ...

) ** Conversational Programming System (CPS), an IBM time-sharing system under

** Michigan Terminal System (MTS) (time-sharing system for the IBM S/360-67 and successors) ** ITS (MIT's Incompatible Timesharing System for the DEC PDP-6 and PDP-10) ** ORVYL (Stanford University's time-sharing system for the IBM S/360-67) ** TSS/360 (IBM's Time-sharing System for the S/360-67, never officially released, canceled in 1969 and again in 1971) ** OS/360 MVT ** WAITS (

SAIL A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails ma ...

, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, time-sharing system for DEC PDP-6 and PDP-10, later TOPS-10) * 1968 ** Airline Control Program (ACP) (IBM) ** CALL/360, an IBM time-sharing system for System/360 ** THE multiprogramming system (

Eindhoven University of Technology The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc ...

) publication **

TSS/8 TSS/8 is a discontinued time-sharing operating system co-written by Don Witcraft and John Everett at Digital Equipment Corporation in 1967. DEC also referred to it as Timeshared-8 and EduSystem 50. The operating system runs on the 12-bit PDP- ...

(DEC for the PDP-8) * 1969 ** TENEX ( Bolt, Beranek and Newman for DEC systems, later

TOPS-20 The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is a proprietary OS used on some of DEC's 36-bit mainframe computers. The Hardware Reference Manual was described as for "DECsystem-10/DECSYSTEM-20 Processor" (meaning the DEC PD ...

) ** Unics (later Unix) (

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

, initially on DEC computers) ** RC 4000 Multiprogramming System ( RC) **

(MIT, GE, Bell Labs for the GE-645 and later the

Honeywell 6180 The Honeywell 6000 series computers were rebadged versions of General Electric's 600-series mainframes manufactured by Honeywell International, Inc. from 1970 to 1989. Honeywell acquired the line when it purchased GE's computer division in 1970 ...

) (''opened for paying customers in October'') ** GEORGE 3 For

ICL ICL may refer to: Companies and organizations * Idaho Conservation League * Imperial College London, a UK university * Indian Confederation of Labour * Indian Cricket League * Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Oxford * Israel Ch ...

1900 series

1970s

* 1970 ** DOS-11 (PDP-11) * 1971 **

RSTS-11 RSTS () is a multi-user time-sharing operating system developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC, now part of Hewlett-Packard) for the PDP-11 series of 16-bit minicomputers. The first version of RSTS (RSTS-11, #Versions, Version 1) was implem ...

2A-19 (''First released version; PDP-11'') ** OS/8 * 1972 ** Data General RDOS ** Edos ** MUSIC/SP ** Operating System/Virtual Storage 1 (OS/VS1) ** Operating System/Virtual Storage 2 R1 (OS/VS2 SVS) **

PRIMOS PRIMOS is a discontinued operating system developed during the 1970s by Prime Computer for its minicomputer systems. It rapidly gained popularity and by the mid-1980s was a serious contender as a mainline minicomputer operating system. With ...

(written in FORTRAN IV, that didn't have pointers, while later versions, around version 18, written in a version of

PL/I PL/I (Programming Language One, pronounced and sometimes written PL/1) is a procedural, imperative computer programming language developed and published by IBM. It is designed for scientific, engineering, business and system programming. It ...

, called PL/P) ** Virtual Machine/Basic System Extensions Program Product (BSEPP or VM/SE) ** Virtual Machine/System Extensions Program Product (SEPP or VM/BSE) ** Virtual Machine Facility/370 (VM/370), sometimes known as VM/CMS * 1973 ** Эльбрус-1 ( Elbrus-1) – Soviet computer – created using high-level language uЭль-76 ( AL-76/ALGOL 68) ** Alto OS ** RSX-11D ** RT-11 ** VME – implementation language S3 (

ALGOL 68 ALGOL 68 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1968'') is an imperative programming language that was conceived as a successor to the ALGOL 60 programming language, designed with the goal of a much wider scope of application and more rigorously ...

) * 1974 ** CP/M ** DOS-11 V09-20C (''Last stable release, June 1974'') ** MONECS **

Multi-Programming Executive MPE (Multi-Programming Executive) is a discontinued business-oriented mainframe computer real-time operating system made by Hewlett-Packard. While initially a mini-mainframe, the final high-end systems supported 12 CPUs and over 2000 simultane ...

(MPE) – Hewlett-Packard ** Hydra – capability-based, multiprocessing OS kernel ** Operating System/Virtual Storage 2 R2 (MVS) ** Sintran III * 1975 ** BS2000 V2.0 (''First released version'') **

Version 6 Unix Sixth Edition Unix, also called Version 6 Unix or just V6, was the first version of the Unix operating system to see wide release outside Bell Labs. It was released in May 1975 and, like its direct predecessor, targeted the DEC PDP-11 family of m ...

* 1976 **

Cambridge CAP computer The Cambridge CAP computer was the first successful experimental computer that demonstrated the use of security capabilities, both in hardware and software.Levy, p.96 It was developed at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory in the 19 ...

– all operating system procedures written in ALGOL 68C, with some closely associated protected procedures in

BCPL BCPL ("Basic Combined Programming Language") is a procedural, imperative, and structured programming language. Originally intended for writing compilers for other languages, BCPL is no longer in common use. However, its influence is still ...

** Cray Operating System ** FLEX **

** Tandem Nonstop OS v1 * 1977 ** 1BSD **

KERNAL KERNAL is Commodore's name for the ROM-resident operating system core in its 8-bit home computers; from the original PET of 1977, followed by the extended but strongly related versions used in its successors: the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Plus/ ...

** OASIS operating system ** OS68 ** OS4000 ** System Support Program (IBM System/34 and System/36) ** TRSDOS ** Virtual Memory System (VMS) V1.0 (''Initial commercial release, October 25'') * 1978 **

2BSD The History of the Berkeley Software Distribution begins in the 1970s. 1BSD (PDP-11) The earliest distributions of Unix from Bell Labs in the 1970s included the source code to the operating system, allowing researchers at universities to modify an ...

Apple DOS Apple DOS is the family of disk operating systems for the Apple II series of microcomputers from late 1978 through early 1983. It was superseded by ProDOS in 1983. Apple DOS has three major releases: DOS 3.1, DOS 3.2, and DOS 3.3; each one of ...

** Control Program Facility (IBM System/38) ** HDOS ** KSOS – secure OS design from Ford Aerospace ** KVM/370 – security retro-fit of IBM VM/370 ** Lisp machine (CADR) ** MVS/System Extensions (MVS/SE) ** PTDOS **

TRIPOS At the University of Cambridge, a Tripos (, plural 'Triposes') is any of the examinations that qualify an undergraduate for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. For example, an undergraduate studying mathe ...

** UCSD p-System (''First released version'') * 1979 **

Atari DOS Atari DOS is the disk operating system used with the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Operating system extensions loaded into memory were required in order for an Atari computer to manage files stored on a disk drive. These extensions to ...

3BSD The History of the Berkeley Software Distribution begins in the 1970s. 1BSD (PDP-11) The earliest distributions of Unix from Bell Labs in the 1970s included the source code to the operating system, allowing researchers at universities to modify an ...

Idris Idris may refer to: People * Idris (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Idris (prophet), Islamic prophet in the Qur'an, traditionally identified with Enoch, an ancestor of Noah in the Bible * Idris G ...

** MP/M ** MVS/System Extensions R2 (MVS/SE2) **

NLTSS The Network Livermore Timesharing System (NLTSS, also sometimes the New Livermore Time Sharing System) is an operating system that was actively developed at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) from 1979 until ...

POS POS, Pos or PoS may refer to: Linguistics * Part of speech, the role that a word or phrase plays in a sentence * Poverty of the stimulus, a linguistic term used in language acquisition and development * Sayula Popoluca (ISO 639-3), an indigenous l ...

Sinclair BASIC Sinclair BASIC is a dialect of the programming language BASIC used in the 8-bit home computers from Sinclair Research and Timex Sinclair. The Sinclair BASIC interpreter was made by Nine Tiles Networks Ltd. History Sinclair BASIC was or ...

** UCLA Secure UNIX – an early secure UNIX OS based on security kernel **

UNIX/32V UNIX/32V is an early version of the Unix operating system from Bell Laboratories, released in June 1979. 32V was a direct port of the Seventh Edition Unix to the DEC VAX architecture. Overview Before 32V, Unix had primarily run on DEC P ...

Version 7 Unix Seventh Edition Unix, also called Version 7 Unix, Version 7 or just V7, was an important early release of the Unix operating system. V7, released in 1979, was the last Bell Laboratories release to see widespread distribution before the commercia ...

1980s

* 1980 ** 86-DOS ** AOS/VS (Data General) **

CTOS The Convergent Technologies Operating System, also known variously as CTOS, BTOS and STARSYS, is a discontinued modular, message-passing, multiprocess-based operating system. Overview CTOS had many innovative features for its time. System access ...

** MVS/System Product (MVS/SP) V1 ** NewDos/80 ** OS-9 **

SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, that was originally established for maritime use. In formal notation is written with an overscore line, to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" ...

** Virtual Machine/System Product (VM/SP) ** Xenix * 1981 ** Acorn MOS **

Aegis The aegis ( ; grc, αἰγίς ''aigís''), as stated in the ''Iliad'', is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a d ...

SR1 (''First Apollo/DOMAIN systems shipped on March 27'') ** Business Operating System **

CP/M-86 CP/M-86 was a version of the CP/M operating system that Digital Research (DR) made for the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. The system commands are the same as in CP/M-80. Executable files used the relocatable .CMD file format. Digital Research al ...

iMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graem ...

– OS for Intel's iAPX 432 capability machine **

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few oper ...

** PC DOS ** Pilot ('' Xerox Star operating system'') **

UNOS The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is a non-profit, scientific and educational organization that administers the only Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) in the United States, established () by the U.S. Congress in 1984 b ...

** UTS ** Xinu first release * 1982 ** Commodore DOS ** LDOS (By Logical Systems, Inc. – for the Radio Shack TRS-80 Models I, II & III) ** pSOS ** QNX ** Stratus VOS ** Sun UNIX (later

SunOS SunOS is a Unix-branded operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The ''SunOS'' name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4, which were based on BSD, while versions 5.0 ...

) 0.7 ** Ultrix ** Unix System III * 1983 ** Coherent ** DNIX ** EOS ** GNU (''project start'') ** Lisa Office System 7/7 ** LOCUS – UNIX compatible, high reliability, distributed OS ** MVS/System Product V2 (MVS/Extended Architecture, MVS/XA) ** Novell NetWare (

S-Net S-Net is a worldwide inter-satellite communications network consisting of four satellites and being operated by the Technical University of Berlin. Description The project has the goal to investigate and demonstrate inter-satellite communication t ...

) ** ProDOS ** STOP –

TCSEC Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC) is a United States Government Department of Defense (DoD) standard that sets basic requirements for assessing the effectiveness of computer security controls built into a computer system. The TC ...

A1-class, secure OS for SCOMP hardware **

1.0 * 1984 ** AMSDOS **

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded " ...

(''System 1.0'') ** MSX-DOS ** PC/IX ** Sinclair QDOS ** QNX **

UNICOS UNICOS is a range of Unix and after it Linux operating system (OS) variants developed by Cray for its supercomputers. UNICOS is the successor of the Cray Operating System (COS). It provides network clustering and source code compatibility la ...

** Venix 2.0 ** Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture Migration Assistance (VM/XA MA) * 1985 ** AmigaOS ** Atari TOS ** DG/UX ** DOS Plus ** Graphics Environment Manager ** MIPS RISC/os **

Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fair ...

– written in

2.0 ** Version 8 Unix ** Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture System Facility (VM/XA SF) ** Windows 1.0 ** Windows 1.01 ** Xenix 2.0 * 1986 ** AIX 1.0 ** Cronus distributed OS ** GEMSOS –

A1-class, secure kernel for BLACKER VPN & GTNP **

GEOS #REDIRECT GEOS {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...

** GS-OS **

Genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial ...

7.0 **

HP-UX HP-UX (from "Hewlett Packard Unix") is Hewlett Packard Enterprise's proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system, based on Unix System V (initially System III) and first released in 1984. Current versions support HPE Integrit ...

3.0 ** Version 9 Unix * 1987 **

Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more w ...

(much improved version came in 1989 under the name

RISC OS RISC OS is a computer operating system originally designed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England. First released in 1987, it was designed to run on the ARM chipset, which Acorn had designed concurrently for use in its new line of Archi ...

) ** BS2000 V9.0 **

IRIX IRIX ( ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. In IRIX, SGI originated the XFS file system ...

(''3.0 is first SGI version'') ** MDOS ** MINIX 1.0 **

OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 ...

(1.0) **

PC-MOS/386 PC-MOS/386 is a multi-user, multitasking computer operating system produced by The Software Link (TSL), announced at COMDEX in November 1986 for February 1987 release. PC-MOS/386, a successor to PC-MOS, can run many MS-DOS programs on the ho ...

** Topaz – semi-distributed OS for DEC Firefly workstation written in Modula-2+ and garbage collected **

Windows 2.0 Windows 2.0 is a major release of Microsoft Windows, a family of graphical operating systems for personal computers developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on December 9, 1987, as a successor to Windows 1.0. The product includ ...

* 1988 ** A/UX (Apple Computer) **

AOS/VS II AOS/VS II is a discontinued operating system for the Data General 32-bit MV/Eclipse computers. Overview The AOS/VS II operating system was released in 1988 and was originally to be simply rev 8.00 of the AOS/VS operating system. However, it int ...

(Data General) ** CP/M rebranded as

DR-DOS DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-DO ...

** Flex machine – tagged, capability machine with OS and other software written in ALGOL 68RS **

HeliOS In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; grc, , , Sun; Homeric Greek: ) is the deity, god and personification of the Sun (Solar deity). His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyper ...

1.0 ** KeyKOS – capability-based microkernel for IBM mainframes with automated persistence of app data ** LynxOS **

('' System 6'') ** MVS/System Product V3 (MVS/Enterprise Systems Architecture, MVS/ESA) **

(1.1) ** OS/400 ** RISC iX **

SpartaDOS X SpartaDOS X (or SpartaDOS 4.0) is a disk operating system for the Atari 8-bit family of computers that closely resembles MS-DOS. It was developed and sold by ICD, Inc. in 1987-1993, and many years later picked up by the third-party community S ...

4.0 **

7.04 (''Last stable release, July 1988'') ** Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture System Product (VM/XA SP) ** VAX VMM –

A1-class, VMM for VAX computers (limited use before cancellation) * 1989 ** Army Secure Operating System (ASOS) –

A1-class secure, real-time OS for Ada applications ** TSX-32 **

Version 10 Unix The term "Research Unix" refers to early versions of the Unix operating system for DEC PDP-7, PDP-11, VAX and Interdata 7/32 and 8/32 computers, developed in the Bell Labs Computing Sciences Research Center (CSRC). History The term ''Researc ...

** Xenix 2.3.4 (''Last stable release'')

1990s

* 1990 ** AIX 3.0 ** AmigaOS 2.0 **

BeOS BeOS is an operating system for personal computers first developed by Be Inc. in 1990. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was positioned as a multimedia platform that could be used by a substantial population of desktop users a ...

(v1) ** DOS/V **

8.0 ** LOCK –

A1-class secure system with kernel & hardware support for type enforcement ** MVS/ESA SP Version 4 ** Novell NetWare 3 **

1.3 ** OSF/1 ** PC/GEOS ** Windows 3.0 ** Virtual Machine/Enterprise Systems Architecture (VM/XA ESA) * 1991 **

Amoeba An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; plural ''am(o)ebas'' or ''am(o)ebae'' ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudo ...

– microkernel-based, POSIX-compliant, distributed OS **

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

0.01-0.1 **

('' System 7'') ** MINIX 1.5 ** PenPoint OS **

3 ** Trusted Xenix – rewritten & security enhanced Xenix evaluated at

B2-class * 1992 ** 386BSD 0.1 **

Amiga Unix Amiga Unix (informally known as Amix) is a discontinued full port of AT&T Unix System V Release 4 operating system developed by Commodore-Amiga, Inc. in 1990 for the Amiga computer family as an alternative to AmigaOS, which shipped by default. O ...

2.01 (''Latest stable release'') ** AmigaOS 3.0 ** BSD/386, by BSDi and later known as BSD/OS. ** LGX **

OpenVMS OpenVMS, often referred to as just VMS, is a multi-user, multiprocessing and virtual memory-based operating system. It is designed to support time-sharing, batch processing, transaction processing and workstation applications. Customers using Ope ...

V1.0 (''First OpenVMS AXP (Alpha) specific version, November 1992'') **

2.0 (First i386 32-bit based version) **

Plan 9 Plan 9 or Plan Nine may refer to: Music * Plan 9 (band), a psychedelic rock band from Rhode Island * ''Plan 9'', an album by Big Guitars From Memphis with Rick Lindy * "Plan 9", a song on the 1993 album ''Gorgeous'' by electronica band 808 Stat ...

First Edition (''First public release was made available to universities'') ** RSTS/E 10.1 (''Last stable release, September 1992'') **

SLS SLS may refer to the Space Launch System, a launch vehicle developed by NASA. It may also refer to: Education * Stanford Law School, California, U.S. * Sydney Law School, Australia * Symbiosis Law School, India * Same language subtitling, of TV ...

** Solaris 2.0 (''Successor to SunOS 4.x; based on SVR4 instead of BSD'') ** Windows 3.1 * 1993 ** IBM 4690 Operating System **

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...

NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was forked. It continues to be actively developed and is a ...

** Novell NetWare 4 ** Newton OS ** Open Genera 1.0 **

2.1 ** Slackware 1.0 ** Spring ** Windows NT 3.1 (''First Windows NT kernel public release'') * 1994 ** AIX 4.0, 4.1 ** IBM MVS/ESA SP Version 5 **

1.0 (''First multi-platform release, October 1994'') **

3.0 ** Red Hat **

3.5 ** SPIN – extensible OS written in Modula-3 * 1995 ** Digital UNIX (''aka'' Tru64 UNIX) **

OpenBSD OpenBSD is a security-focused operating system, security-focused, free and open-source, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by fork (software development), forking N ...

** OS/390 **

Second Edition (''Commercial second release version was made available to the general public.'') ** Ultrix 4.5 (''Last major release'') **

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufactu ...

* 1996 ** AIX 4.2 **

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...

1.1 ** JN – microkernel OS for embedded, Java apps ** Mac OS 7.6 (''First officially-named Mac OS'') **

4.0 **

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) was a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It is provi ...

3.6 ** Windows NT 4.0 **

Windows CE 1.0 Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...

* 1997 ** AIX 4.3 ** DR-WebSpyder 1.0 ** Inferno ** Mac OS 8 ** MINIX 2.0 **

Nemesis In ancient Greek religion, Nemesis, also called Rhamnousia or Rhamnusia ( grc, Ῥαμνουσία, Rhamnousía, the goddess of Rhamnous), was the goddess who personifies retribution, a central concept in the Greek world view. Etymology The n ...

3.7 ** SkyOS **

Windows CE 2.0 Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...

* 1998 ** DR-WebSpyder 2.0 **

Junos Junos OS (also known as Juniper Junos, Junos and JUNOS) is a FreeBSD-based network operating system used in Juniper Networks routing, switching and security devices. Versioning Junos OS was first made available on 7 July 1998, with new feature ...

** Novell NetWare 5 ** RT-11 5.7 (''Last stable release, October 1998'') ** Solaris 7 (''first

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A comp ...

Solaris release – names from this point drop "2.", otherwise would've been Solaris 2.7'') **

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released ...

* 1999 ** AROS (''Boot for the first time in Stand Alone version'') ** Inferno Second Edition (''Last distribution (Release 2.3, ) from Lucent's Inferno Business Unit'') **

Mac OS 9 Mac OS 9 is the ninth major release of Apple's classic Mac OS operating system which was succeeded by Mac OS X (renamed to OS X in 2011 and macOS in 2016) in 2001. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "The Best Internet ...

4.5 **

4 ** Windows 98 (2nd edition)

2000s

2010s

2020s

References

External links

UNIX History
– a timeline of

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

1969 and its descendants at present
Concise Microsoft O.S. Timeline
– a color-coded concise timeline for various Microsoft operating systems (1981–present)

- Full Form and Working of Computers.
Bitsavers
– an effort to capture, salvage, and archive historical computer software and manuals from minicomputers and mainframes of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s
A brief history of operating systems

Microsoft operating system time-line
{{Timelines of computing *Timeline of operating systems Operating systems Operating systems Real-time operating systems Embedded operating systems