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 representi ...

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 services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

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

History of operating systems Computer operating systems (OSes) provide a set of functions needed and used by most application programs on a computer, and the links needed to control and synchronize computer hardware. On the first computers, with no operating system, every p ...

1950s

* 1951 **

LEO I The LEO I (Lyons Electronic Office I) was the first computer used for commercial business applications. The prototype LEO I was modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC. Its construction was overseen by Oliver Standingford, Raymond Thompson and ...

'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 Universi ...

computing platform, supported by British firm

J. Lyons and Co. J. Lyons & Co. was a British restaurant Chain store, chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons (caterer), Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore Gluckstein, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ ...

* 1955 **

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

's Tape Director operating system made for

UNIVAC 1103 The UNIVAC 1103 or ERA 1103, a successor to the UNIVAC 1101, was a computer system designed by Engineering Research Associates and built by the Remington Rand corporation in October 1953. It was the first computer for which Seymour Cray was cred ...

* 1955 ** General Motors Operating System made for

IBM 701 The IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer and its first series production mainframe computer, which was announced to the public on May ...

* 1956 **

GM-NAA I/O The GM-NAA I/O input/output system of General Motors and North American Aviation was the first operating system for the IBM 704 computer. It was created in 1956 by Robert L. Patrick of General Motors Research and Owen Mock of North Americ ...

for

IBM 704 The IBM 704 is a large digital mainframe computer introduced by IBM in 1954. It was the first mass-produced computer with hardware for floating-point arithmetic. The IBM 704 ''Manual of operation'' states: The type 704 Electronic Data-Pro ...

, based on General Motors Operating System * 1957 **

Atlas Supervisor The Atlas Supervisor was the program which managed the allocation of processing resources of Manchester University's Atlas Computer so that the machine was able to act on many tasks and user programs concurrently. Its various functions includ ...

(

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 Univer ...

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

BESYS BESYS (Bell Operating System) was an early computing environment originally implemented as a batch processing operating system in 1957 at Bell Labs for the IBM 704 computer. Overview The system was developed because Bell recognized a "definite mi ...

(

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

, later

IBM 7090 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 se ...

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 ser ...

* 1958 **

University of Michigan Executive System The University of Michigan Executive System, or UMES, a batch operating system developed at the University of Michigan in 1958, was widely used at many universities. Based on the General Motors Executive System for the IBM 701, UMES was revised ...

(UMES), for IBM 704,

709 __NOTOC__ Year 709 ( DCCIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 709 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

, and 7090 * 1959 **

SHARE Operating System The SHARE Operating System (SOS) is an operating system introduced in 1959 by the SHARE user group. It is an improvement on the General Motors GM-NAA I/O operating system, the first operating system for the IBM 704. The main objective was to im ...

(SOS), based on GM-NAA I/O

1960s

* 1960 **

IBSYS IBSYS is the discontinued tape-based operating system that IBM supplied with its IBM 709, IBM 7090 and IBM 7094 computers. A similar operating system (but with several significant differences), also called IBSYS, was provided with IBM 7040 an ...

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

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

(

) (''Atlas computer commissioned'') **

BBN Time-Sharing System The BBN Time-Sharing System was an early time-sharing system created at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) for the PDP-1 computer. It began operation in September 1962. History J. C. R. Licklider left MIT to become a vice president at Bolt Beranek ...

** GCOS ( GE's General Comprehensive Operating System, originally GECOS, General Electric Comprehensive Operating Supervisor) * 1963 **

AN/FSQ-32 The AN/FSQ-32 SAGE Solid State Computer (AN/FSQ-7A before December 1958, colloq. "Q-32") was a planned military computer central for deployment to Super Combat Centers in nuclear bunkers and to some above-ground military installations. In 1958, ...

, 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 * J ...

, 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 th ...

) – an early, fully hardware secured, fully pre-emptive process switching, multi-programming operating system for KDF9 (originally announced in 1960) **

Berkeley Timesharing System The Berkeley Timesharing System was a pioneering time-sharing operating system implemented between 1964 and 1967 at the University of California, Berkeley. It was designed as part of Project Genie and marketed by Scientific Data Systems for the S ...

(for

Scientific Data Systems Scientific Data Systems (SDS), was an American computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky and Robert Beck, veterans of Packard Bell Corporation and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists. SDS was an early adopter of ...

' SDS 940) **

Dartmouth Time Sharing System The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) is a discontinued operating system first developed at Dartmouth College between 1963 and 1964. It was the first successful large-scale time-sharing system to be implemented, and was also the system for wh ...

(

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 A ...

'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 * Cinem ...

(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 Exec or EXEC may refer to: * Executive officer, a person responsible for running an organization * Executive producer, provides finance and guidance for the making of a commercial entertainment product * A family of kit helicopters produced by Rot ...

(

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 an ...

) * 1965 **

THE multiprogramming system The THE multiprogramming system or THE OS was a computer operating system designed by a team led by Edsger W. Dijkstra, described in monographs in 1965-66 (Jun 14, 1965) and published in 1968. Dijkstra never named the system; "THE" is simply ...

( Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven) 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 t ...

(MIT, GE,

for the

GE-645 The GE 645 mainframe computer was a development of the GE 635 for use in the Multics project. This was the first computer that implemented a configurable hardware protected memory system. The original CTSS was implemented on a modified IBM 7094 wi ...

) (''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 th ...

(IBM's Basic Operating System) ** TOS/360 (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 trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

) **

Pick operating system The Pick Operating System (Pick System or Pick) is a demand-paged, multi-user, virtual memory, time-sharing computer operating system based around a MultiValue database. Pick is used primarily for business data processing. It is named after one o ...

* 1966 **

(IBM's primary OS for its S/360 series) PCP and MFT (''shipped'') ** DOS/360 (IBM's Disk Operating System) ** MS/8 ( Richard F. Lary's DEC PDP-8 system) ** GEORGE 1 & 2 for ICT 1900 series ** Remote Users of Shared Hardware (RUSH), a time-sharing system developed by Allen-Babcock for the 360/50 **

SODA Soda or SODA may refer to: Chemistry * Some chemical compounds containing sodium ** Sodium carbonate, washing soda or soda ash ** Sodium bicarbonate, baking soda ** Sodium hydroxide, caustic soda ** Sodium oxide, an alkali metal oxide * Sod ...

for

Elwro Elwro was a Polish company that manufactured mainframe and microcomputers from 1959 until 1989. Its plant was in Wroclaw. Computer models included Odra mainframe systems, and the Elwro 800 Junior microcomputer for education. Overview The W ...

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 southe ...

* 1967 **

CP-40 CP-40 was a research precursor to CP-67, which in turn was part of IBM's then-revolutionary CP/CMS, CP 67CMS – a virtual machine/virtual memory time-sharing operating system for the IBM System/360 Model 67, and the parent of IBM's VM (operati ...

, predecessor to CP-67 on modified

IBM System/360 Model 40 The IBM System/360 Model 40 was a mid-range member of the IBM System/360 family. It was announced on April 7, 1964, shipped in 1965, and withdrawn on October 7, 1977. History On April 7, 1964, IBM announced the IBM System/360, to be availa ...

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 a 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 imp ...

) **

Conversational Programming System Conversational Programming System or CPS was an early Time-sharing system offered by IBM which ran on System/360 mainframes ''circa'' 1967 through 1972 in a partition of OS/360 Release 17 MFT II or MVT or above. CPS was implemented as an int ...

(CPS), an IBM time-sharing system under

Michigan Terminal System The Michigan Terminal System (MTS) is one of the first time-sharing computer operating systems.. Developed in 1967 at the University of Michigan for use on IBM S/360-67, S/370 and compatible mainframe computers, it was developed and used by a con ...

(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 ORVYL is a time-sharing monitor developed by Stanford University for IBM System/360 and System/370 computers in 1967–68.TSS/360 The IBM Time Sharing System TSS/360 is a discontinued early time-sharing operating system designed exclusively for a special model of the System/360 line of mainframes, the Model 67. Made available on a trial basis to a limited set of custom ...

(IBM's Time-sharing System for the S/360-67, never officially released, canceled in 1969 and again in 1971) ** OS/360 MVT **

WAITS WAITS was a heavily modified variant of Digital Equipment Corporation's Monitor operating system (later renamed to, and better known as, "TOPS-10") for the PDP-6 and PDP-10 mainframe computers, used at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laborat ...

(

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 may ...

, 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 **

(

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 a ...

) 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-8 co ...

(DEC for the PDP-8) * 1969 ** TENEX (

Bolt, Beranek and Newman Raytheon BBN (originally Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.) is an American research and development company, based next to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. In 1966, the Franklin Institute awarded the firm the Frank P. Brown ...

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 PDP- ...

) ** 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 The RC 4000 Multiprogramming System (also termed Monitor or RC 4000 depending on reference) is a discontinued operating system developed for the RC 4000 minicomputer in 1969. For clarity, this article mostly uses the term Monitor. Over ...

( RC) **

(MIT, GE, Bell Labs for the

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 197 ...

) (''opened for paying customers in October'') ** GEORGE 3 For ICL 1900 series

1970s

* 1970 **

DOS-11 BATCH-11/DOS-11, also known simply as DOS-11, is a discontinued operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) of Maynard, Massachusetts. The first version of DOS-11 (V08-02) was released in 1970 and was the first operating system to run ...

(PDP-11) * 1971 ** RSTS-11 2A-19 (''First released version; PDP-11'') **

OS/8 OS/8 is the primary operating system used on the Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-8 minicomputer. PDP-8 operating systems which precede OS/8 include: * R-L Monitor, also referred to as MS/8. * P?S/8, requiring only 4K of memory. * PDP-8 4K ...

* 1972 **

Data General RDOS The Data General RDOS (''Real-time Disk Operating System'') is a real-time operating system released in 1970. The software was bundled with the company's popular Nova and Eclipse minicomputers. Overview RDOS is capable of multitasking, with the ...

Edos Edos is a discontinued operating system based upon IBM's original mainframe DOS (not to be confused with the unrelated and better known MS-DOS for the IBM PC). The name stood for extended (or enhanced) disk operating system. It was later purchase ...

MUSIC/SP ''MUSIC/SP (Multi-User System for Interactive Computing/System Product''; originally "McGill University System for Interactive Computing") was developed at McGill University in the 1970s from an early IBM time-sharing system called RAX ( Remo ...

** 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 Pointer may refer to: Places * Pointer, Kentucky * Pointers, New Jersey * Pointers Airport, Wasco County, Oregon, United States * The Pointers, a pair of rocks off Antarctica People with the name * Pointer (surname), a surname (including a l ...

, 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. I ...

, called

PL/P The PL/P programming language (an acronym of ''Programming Language for Prime (computers)'') is a mid-level programming language developed by Prime Computer to serve as their second primary system programming language after Fortran IV. PL/P was a ...

) ** 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-11 RSX-11 is a discontinued family of multi-user real-time operating systems for PDP-11 computers created by Digital Equipment Corporation. In widespread use through the late 1970s and early 1980s, RSX-11 was influential in the development of later ...

D **

RT-11 RT-11 (Real-time 11) is a discontinued small, low-end, single-user real-time operating system for the full line of Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11 16-bit computers. RT-11 was first implemented in 1970. It was widely used for real-time computin ...

** 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 d ...

) * 1974 **

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initial ...

V09-20C (''Last stable release, June 1974'') ** MONECS **

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

(MPE) – Hewlett-Packard ** Hydra – capability-based, multiprocessing OS kernel ** Operating System/Virtual Storage 2 R2 (MVS) **

Sintran III Sintran III is a real-time, multitasking, multi-user operating system used with Norsk Data minicomputers from 1974. Unlike its predecessors Sintran I and II, it was written entirely by Norsk Data, in Nord Programming Language (Nord PL, NPL), ...

* 1975 **

BS2000 BS2000 is an operating system for IBM 390-compatible mainframe computers developed in the 1970s by Siemens (Data Processing Department EDV) and from early 2000s onward by Fujitsu Technology Solutions. Unlike other mainframe systems, BS2000 p ...

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 – all operating system procedures written in

ALGOL 68C ALGOL 68C is an imperative computer programming language, a dialect of ALGOL 68, that was developed by Stephen R. Bourne and Michael Guy to program the Cambridge Algebra System (CAMAL). The initial compiler was written in the Princeton Syntax ...

, 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 The Cray Operating System (COS) is a Cray Research operating system for its now-discontinued Cray-1 (1976) and Cray X-MP supercomputers. It succeeded the Chippewa Operating System (shipped with earlier Control Data Corporation CDC 6000 series a ...

FLEX Flex or FLEX may refer to: Computing * Flex (language), developed by Alan Kay * FLEX (operating system), a single-tasking operating system for the Motorola 6800 * FlexOS, an operating system developed by Digital Research * FLEX (protocol), a comm ...

** 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/4, ...

** OASIS operating system ** OS68 ** OS4000 **

System Support Program ''System Support Program (SSP)'' was the operating system of the IBM System/34 and System/36 minicomputers. SSP was a command-based operating system released in 1977. ''SSP'' originally contained 60 or so commands that were implemented on the S ...

(IBM System/34 and System/36) **

TRSDOS TRSDOS (which stands for the Tandy Radio Shack Disk Operating System) is the operating system for the Tandy TRS-80 line of eight-bit Zilog Z80 microcomputers that were sold through Radio Shack from 1977 through 1991. Tandy's manuals recommended th ...

** Virtual Memory System (VMS) V1.0 (''Initial commercial release, October 25'') * 1978 ** 2BSD ** Apple DOS **

Control Program Facility Control Program Facility (CPF) is the operating system of the IBM System/38. CPF represented an independendent line of development at IBM Rochester, and was unrelated to the earlier and more widely used System Support Program operating system. CPF ...

(IBM System/38) **

HDOS HDOS is an early microcomputer operating system, originally written for the Heathkit H8 computer system and later also available for the Heathkit H89 and Zenith Z-89 computers. The author was Heath Company employee Gordon Letwin, who later was ...

** KSOS – secure OS design from Ford Aerospace ** KVM/370 – security retro-fit of IBM VM/370 **

Lisp machine Lisp machines are general-purpose computers designed to efficiently run Lisp as their main software and programming language, usually via hardware support. They are an example of a high-level language computer architecture, and in a sense, the ...

(CADR) ** MVS/System Extensions (MVS/SE) **

PTDOS PTDOS or Processor Technology Disk Operating System is an operating system created in the late 1970s for computers using the Intel 8080 microprocessor and the Processor Technology Helios II Disk Memory System. Commands The following list of co ...

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 UCSD Pascal is a Pascal programming language system that runs on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1977. It was developed at the University of California, San Diego (UCS ...

(''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 ** Idris **

MP/M MP/M (Multi-Programming Monitor Control Program) is a discontinued multi-user version of the CP/M operating system, created by Digital Research developer Tom Rolander in 1979. It allowed multiple users to connect to a single computer, each u ...

** MVS/System Extensions R2 (MVS/SE2) ** NLTSS ** POS **

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 orig ...

** 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 PDP-11 ...

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 commercial ...

1980s

* 1980 ** 86-DOS ** AOS/VS (Data General) ** CTOS ** MVS/System Product (MVS/SP) V1 **

NewDos/80 NewDos/80 is a third-party operating system for the Radio Shack TRS-80 line of microcomputers released in 1980. NewDos/80 was developed by Apparat, Inc. of Denver, Colorado. NewDos/80 version 2.0 was released in August 1981. It ran on the TRS-80 ...

OS-9 OS-9 is a family of real-time, process-based, multitasking, multi-user operating systems, developed in the 1980s, originally by Microware Systems Corporation for the Motorola 6809 microprocessor. It was purchased by Radisys Corp in 2001, and ...

** SOS ** Virtual Machine/System Product (VM/SP) **

Xenix Xenix is a discontinued version of the Unix operating system for various microcomputer platforms, licensed by Microsoft from AT&T Corporation in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and ...

* 1981 **

Acorn MOS The Machine Operating System (MOS) or OS is a discontinued computer operating system (OS) used in Acorn Computers' BBC computer range. It included support for four-channel sound, graphics, file system abstraction, and digital and analogue inp ...

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 als ...

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. Graeme F ...

– 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 ope ...

PC DOS PC or pc may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Player character or playable character, a fictional character controlled by a human player, usually in role-playing games or computer games * ''Port Charles'', an American daytime TV soap opera * ...

Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

(''

Xerox Star The Xerox Star workstation, officially named Xerox 8010 Information System, is the first commercial personal computer to incorporate technologies that have since become standard in personal computers, including a bitmapped display, a window-based ...

operating system'') ** UNOS ** UTS **

Xinu Xinu Is Not Unix (Xinu, a recursive acronym), is an operating system for embedded systems, originally developed by Douglas Comer for educational use at Purdue University in the 1980s. The name is both recursive, and is ''Unix'' spelled backwards ...

first release * 1982 **

Commodore DOS Commodore DOS, also known as CBM DOS, is the disk operating system used with Commodore's 8-bit computers. Unlike most other DOSes, which are loaded from disk into the computer's own RAM and executed there, CBM DOS is executed internally in the dr ...

** LDOS (By Logical Systems, Inc. – for the Radio Shack TRS-80 Models I, II & III) ** pSOS **

QNX QNX ( or ) is a commercial Unix-like real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the embedded systems market. QNX was one of the first commercially successful microkernel operating systems. The product was originally developed in the early ...

Stratus VOS Stratus VOS (Virtual Operating System) is a proprietary operating system running on Stratus Technologies fault-tolerant computer systems. VOS is available on Stratus's ftServer and Continuum platforms. VOS customers use it to support high-volume ...

** 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 and l ...

) 0.7 **

Ultrix Ultrix (officially all-caps ULTRIX) is the brand name of Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC) discontinued native Unix operating systems for the PDP-11, VAX, MicroVAX and DECstations. History The initial development of Unix occurred on DEC equip ...

** Unix System III * 1983 **

Coherent Coherence, coherency, or coherent may refer to the following: Physics * Coherence (physics), an ideal property of waves that enables stationary (i.e. temporally and spatially constant) interference * Coherence (units of measurement), a deri ...

DNIX DNIX (original spelling: D-Nix) is a discontinued Unix-like real-time operating system from the Swedish company Dataindustrier AB (DIAB). A version named ABCenix was developed for the ABC 1600 computer from Luxor. Daisy Systems also had a system ...

EOS In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos (; Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric ''Āṓs'') is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at ...

GNU GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

(''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 NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The original NetWare product in ...

( S-Net) **

ProDOS ProDOS is the name of two similar operating systems for the Apple II series of personal computers. The original ProDOS, renamed ProDOS 8 in version 1.2, is the last official operating system usable by all 8-bit Apple II series computers, and w ...

** 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 TCS ...

A1-class, secure OS for SCOMP hardware **

1.0 * 1984 **

AMSDOS AMSDOS is a disk operating system for the 8-bit Amstrad CPC Computer (and various clones). The name is a contraction of Amstrad Disk Operating System. AMSDOS first appeared in 1984 on the CPC 464, with added 3 inch disk drive, and then on the ...

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 "M ...

(''System 1.0'') **

MSX-DOS MSX-DOS is a discontinued disk operating system developed by Microsoft for the 8-bit home computer standard MSX, and is a cross between MS-DOS 1.25 and CP/M-80 2. MSX-DOS MSX-DOS and the extended BASIC with 3½-inch floppy disk supp ...

PC/IX Interactive Systems Corporation (styled INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation, abbreviated ISC) was a US-based software company and the first vendor of the Unix operating system outside AT&T, operating from Santa Monica, California. It was founded in 19 ...

Sinclair QDOS QDOS is the multitasking operating system found on the Sinclair QL personal computer and its clones. It was designed by Tony Tebby whilst working at Sinclair Research, as an in-house alternative to 68K/OS, which was later cancelled by Sinclair ...

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 layer ...

Venix Venix is a discontinued version of the Unix operating system for low-end computers, developed by VenturCom, a "company that specialises in the skinniest implementations of Unix".VenturCom ships real-time Venix/386. Computer Business Review, 1 Feb ...

2.0 ** Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture Migration Assistance (VM/XA MA) * 1985 **

AmigaOS AmigaOS is a family of proprietary native operating systems of the Amiga and AmigaOne personal computers. It was developed first by Commodore International and introduced with the launch of the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. Early version ...

Atari TOS TOS (The Operating System) is the operating system of the Atari ST range of computers. This range includes the 520ST and 1040ST, their STF/M/FM and STE variants and the Mega ST/STE. Later, 32-bit machines ( TT, Falcon030) were developed using a ...

DG/UX DG/UX is a discontinued Unix operating system developed by Data General for its Eclipse MV minicomputer line, and later the AViiON workstation and server line (both Motorola 88000 and Intel IA-32-based variants). Overview DG/UX 1.00, released in ...

DOS Plus DOS Plus (erroneously also known as DOS+) was the first operating system developed by Digital Research's OEM Support Group in Newbury, Berkshire, UK, first released in 1985. DOS Plus 1.0 was based on CP/M-86 Plus combined with the PCMODE ...

Graphics Environment Manager GEM (for Graphics Environment Manager) is an operating environment released by Digital Research (DRI) in 1985 for use with the DOS operating system on Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors. GEM is known primarily as the graphical user ...

MIPS RISC/os RISC/os is a discontinued UNIX operating system developed by MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. from 1985 to 1992, for their computer workstations and servers, including such models as the MIPS M/120 server and MIPS Magnum workstation. It was also kno ...

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 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 ''Resear ...

** VM (operating system), Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture System Facility (VM/XA SF) ** Windows 1.0 ** Windows 1.01 **

2.0 * 1986 ** IBM AIX, AIX 1.0 ** Cronus distributed OS ** GEMSOS –

A1-class, secure kernel for BLACKER VPN & GTNP ** GEOS (8-bit operating system), GEOS ** Apple IIGS, GS-OS ** Genera (operating system), Genera 7.0 ** HP-UX **

3.0 ** Version 9 Unix * 1987 ** History of RISC OS, Arthur (much improved version came in 1989 under the name RISC OS) **

V9.0 ** IRIX (''3.0 is first SGI version'') ** Myarc Disk Operating System, MDOS ** MINIX 1.0 ** OS/2 (1.0) ** PC-MOS/386 ** Topaz – semi-distributed OS for DEC Firefly workstation written in Modula-2+ and garbage collected ** Windows 2.0 * 1988 ** A/UX (Apple Computer) ** AOS/VS II (Data General) **

rebranded as DR-DOS ** Flex machine – tagged, capability machine with OS and other software written in ALGOL 68RS ** HeliOS 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) ** OS/2 (1.1) ** IBM i, OS/400 ** RISC iX ** SpartaDOS X **

4.0 **

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

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

A1-class secure, real-time OS for Ada (programming language), Ada applications ** TSX-32 ** Version 10 Unix **

2.3.4 (''Last stable release'')

1990s

* 1990 ** IBM AIX, AIX 3.0 **

2.0 ** BeOS (v1) ** DOS/V ** Genera (operating system), Genera 8.0 ** LOCK –

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

3 ** OS/2 1.3 ** OSF/1 ** GEOS (16-bit operating system), PC/GEOS ** Windows 3.0 ** VM (operating system), Virtual Machine/Enterprise Systems Architecture (VM/XA ESA) * 1991 ** Amoeba (operating system), Amoeba – microkernel-based, POSIX-compliant, distributed OS ** Linux kernel, Linux 0.01-0.1 **

(''System 7'') ** MINIX 1.5 ** PenPoint OS ** RISC OS 3 ** Trusted Xenix – rewritten & security enhanced Xenix evaluated at

B2-class * 1992 ** 386BSD 0.1 ** Amiga Unix 2.01 (''Latest stable release'') **

3.0 ** BSD/OS, BSD/386, by Berkeley Software Design, BSDi and later known as BSD/OS. ** Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X, LGX ** OpenVMS V1.0 (''First OpenVMS AXP (Alpha) specific version, November 1992'') ** OS/2 2.0 (First i386 32-bit based version) ** Plan 9 from Bell Labs, Plan 9 First Edition (''First public release was made available to universities'') ** RSTS/E 10.1 (''Last stable release, September 1992'') ** Softlanding Linux System, SLS ** Solaris (operating system), Solaris 2.0 (''Successor to SunOS 4.x; based on SVR4 instead of BSD'') ** Windows 3.1x, Windows 3.1 * 1993 ** 4690 Operating System, IBM 4690 Operating System ** FreeBSD ** NetBSD **

4 ** Newton OS ** Genera (operating system), Open Genera 1.0 ** OS/2 2.1 ** Slackware 1.0 ** Spring (operating system), Spring ** Windows NT 3.1 (''First Windows NT kernel public release'') * 1994 ** IBM AIX, AIX 4.0, 4.1 ** IBM MVS/ESA SP Version 5 ** NetBSD 1.0 (''First multi-platform release, October 1994'') ** OS/2 3.0 ** Red Hat Linux, Red Hat ** RISC OS 3.5 ** SPIN (operating system), SPIN – extensible OS written in Modula-3 * 1995 ** Tru64 UNIX, Digital UNIX (''aka'' Tru64 UNIX) ** OpenBSD ** OS/390 ** Plan 9 from Bell Labs, Plan 9 Second Edition (''Commercial second release version was made available to the general public.'') **

4.5 (''Last major release'') ** Windows 95 * 1996 ** IBM AIX, AIX 4.2 ** Debian 1.1 ** JN – microkernel OS for embedded, Java apps ** Classic Mac OS, Mac OS 7.6 (''First officially-named Mac OS'') ** OS/2 4.0 ** Palm OS ** RISC OS 3.6 ** Windows NT 4.0 ** Windows Embedded Compact, Windows CE 1.0 * 1997 ** IBM AIX, AIX 4.3 ** DR-WebSpyder 1.0 ** Inferno (operating system), Inferno ** Mac OS 8 ** MINIX 2.0 ** Nemesis (operating system), Nemesis ** RISC OS 3.7 ** SkyOS ** Windows Embedded Compact, Windows CE 2.0 * 1998 ** DR-WebSpyder 2.0 ** Junos ** Novell NetWare 5 **

5.7 (''Last stable release, October 1998'') ** Solaris (operating system), Solaris 7 (''first 64-bit computing, 64-bit Solaris release – names from this point drop "2.", otherwise would've been Solaris 2.7'') ** Windows 98 * 1999 ** AROS Research Operating System, AROS (''Boot for the first time in Stand Alone version'') ** Inferno (operating system), Inferno Second Edition (''Last distribution (Release 2.3, ) from Lucent's Inferno Business Unit'') ** Mac OS 9 ** OS/2 4.5 ** RISC OS 4 ** Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 98 (2nd edition)

2000s

2010s

2020s

References

External links

UNIX History
– a timeline of Unix, UNIX 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 Operating systems, *Timeline of operating systems Computing timelines, Operating systems Operating systems, Operating systems Real-time operating systems, Real-time operating systems Embedded operating systems, Embedded operating systems

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

See also

References

External links