A Brief History of Modern Operating Systems

QDOS released

Jul 1, 1980

Standing for "quick and dirty operating system", it marked the beginning of the 1980's computing revolutions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS

CTOS released

Jul 18, 1980

CTOS was one of the first operating systems to successfully integrate usernames and passwords, as well as offering different volumes for each, now known as hard-disks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_Technologies_Operating_System

MS-DOS released

Jul 18, 1981

This was the first widely used consumer operating system, and was used more frequently than the other variations of DOS available at the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS

GNU project started

Jul 18, 1983

This was announced and has still been uncompleted, but the software developments have proved beneficial to the constant evolution of computer software today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU

MAC-OS released

Jul 18, 1984

Now known mainly for its popularisation of the GUI, MAC-OS (previously known as System Software) pushed their competitiors to make more visually appealing systems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mac_OS

Windows 1.0 released

Nov 20, 1985

This was Microsoft's retalliation to Apple Computers Inc. - It was a graphical interface installed above an installation of MS-DOS and allowed users to run both graphical and pre-existing MS-DOS programs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_1.0

JavaOS released

Jul 18, 1989

Whilst this OS barely compared to the fastly evolving Microsoft and Apple systems, it proved to consumers that more languages were available and easily-accessible for them to use and/or developers to work with. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaOS

Linux kernal released

Jul 18, 1991

Based upon UNIX, Linux was one of the first ways the software created by the GNU project was able to run. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel

PenPoint OS released

Jul 18, 1992

PenPoint OS was created for the AT&T Personal Communicator, and could be considered the first smartphone operating system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenPoint_OS

FreeBSD released

Jul 18, 1993

Based upon the research on UNIX performed in Berkeley Software Distribution, it was released for free (hence the name) to the public and is now integrated into many operating systems, such as Apple's OSx and many Linux distributions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD

Windows NT released

Jul 27, 1993

The first of the NT family, this marked the end of Microsoft's partnership with IBM as they moved away from DOS based computing to more graphical interfaces

Windows 2000 released

Feb 18, 2000

First multiplatform Windows release, could be both a server and a client http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2000

Mac OSx 10.0 (Cheetah) released

Mar 24, 2001

OSx 10.0 was the first of the modern GUI's in computing, many of it's smooth edges and light colours seen in the present time's GUI's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_v10.0

Windows XP released

Mar 18, 2005

do I really need to say anything? - It's freakin' Windows XP dammit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP

Windows Vista released

Jul 18, 2006

Made small children cry in despair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista

Windows 7 released

Jul 18, 2009

Small children wept tears of joy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7

Windows 8 released

Jul 18, 2012

Everyone wondered where the start menu went, and why they had to sign up for a Microsoft account which no one wanted en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8

Windows 8.1 released

Apr 18, 2013

Thank god, they brought the start button back http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8.1

OSx Mavericks released

Oct 18, 2013

ARGH - ITS SO PRETTAY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X_Mavericks