Today, there are only two operating systems (OS) left that have any market share: Microsoft’s Windows and the various Unix derivatives (Mac and Linux). In every flourishing device, however, the offspring of Unix reign supreme.
In tomorrow’s high-tech world, it looks like Unix will continue to reign. Windows won’t go away anytime soon, of course, but it won’t grow very big either. This is why.
=== What is an operating system?
If your computer were a car, the operating system would be its drive train. Hardware is the chassis and software (applications) is the engine. The hardware sets the physical limits of the computer, the applications drive it, but the operating system …
The operating system is what determines how fast you go, how fast you stop, whether you can turn left or right, how many gears you have, how smooth the ride will be, and more.
The operating system is the bureaucrat through which applications can communicate with the system hardware. Do you need to print something? The operating system has an I / O manager. Do you need to receive information from a mouse? The operating system has a connection for that. Output to monitor? Yes, there is also an operating system kernel for that. Everything that happens on your computer happens through that operating system that sits between hardware and software applications.
=== Where does Unix compare to Windows?
Windows is on most of the world’s personal computers, but that dominance may not last long. Surveys of computers accessing the Web show that Mac and Linux-based operating systems are rapidly gaining market share, accounting for 30-35% of today’s computer operating systems.
Meanwhile, Windows is slowly losing ground to these Unix-based systems. Why is that?
It is mainly because the number of personal computing devices, especially smartphones, that access the Internet and are used as everyday computing devices are becoming a large segment of the computing market as a whole. Gadgets like the iPhone, Droid, iPad, and inexpensive netbook-type systems running Linux operating systems are becoming the new way for many to connect to the Web.
In Asia, Linux-based “knockoffs” of Windows-based machines are common, while in Europe and North America, handheld devices from Apple and Google dominate the market for handheld devices.
=== Future technology means Unix based
In both US markets and around the world, those future technology devices that use Windows are almost non-existent. Windows, built from scratch, have become too heavy and clunky to accommodate these smaller systems. The Unix-based operating system, however, has proven to be infinitely adaptable.
As the world moves towards cloud-based computing with applications that stay online rather than on the computer, the operating system will mean less and less to the end user. Finally, Windows vs. Mac vs. The Linux debate will become moot as the requirements for a computer’s operating system decrease. In this scenario, the smaller, simpler (and faster) operating system is likely to prevail. It will certainly be a Unix-based operating system.