# Comparison of operating systems

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 also vary among different systems. 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

### bundled initially

    The fee is included in the price of the hardware but upgrades require an additional fee.

### Per user

    The fee depends on the maximum number of users concurrently logged on.

### MSU

    The fee depends on the resources consumed by the user

### MULC

    Measured Usage License Charges

### PSLC

    Parallel Sysplex Software Pricing

## General information

| Name | Creator | Initial public release | Predecessor | Current stable version | Release date | Cost, availability | Preferred license | Target system type |
| AIX | IBM | 1986 | UNIX System V Release 3 | 7.3 | June 20, 2022 | Commercial | Proprietary | Server, NAS, workstation |
| AIX/370 | IBM | 1989 | IX/370 | Release 2.1? | Feb 22, 1991 | Non-free | Proprietary | IBM System/370 AIX/ESA V1 & V2 |
| AIX/ESA | IBM | 1992 | AIX/370, OSF/1 | Version 2 Release 2 | Feb 26, 1993 | Non-free | Proprietary | ESA/370 IBM System/390 |
| AmigaOS classic | Commodore International, Haage & Partner, Hyperion Entertainment | 1985 | TRIPOS (as the disk operating component of AmigaOS) | 3.2.2.1 | April 23, 2023 | Bundled with hardware up to version 3.0 (Amiga International hardware came with 3.1); versions 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.5, 3.9 and the more recent 3.2 (2021) also available as separate packages | Proprietary, open source clone available under AROS Public License | Workstation, personal computer |
| AmigaOS 4 | Hyperion Entertainment | 2004 | AmigaOS classic | 4.1 Final Edition Update 2.1 | January 12, 2021 | 4.0 bundled with hardware; 4.0 for classic and 4.1 available as standalone package at €29 | Proprietary | Workstation, personal computer |
| Android | Android, Inc., Google | 2008 | None | 15 | October 15, 2024 | No cost | AOSP: Apache-2.0 Linux: GPL-2.0-only | Smartphone, tablet computer |
| ArcaOS | Arca Noae, LLC | 2017 | OS/2 | 5.1.0 | August 27, 2023 | Personal edition US$139.00 Commercial edition US$249.00 | Proprietary | Server, workstation, personal computer |
| Classic Mac OS (retronym; had no name originally, later Macintosh System Software) | Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.) | 1984 | None | 9.2.2 | 2000 | Discontinued; Was bundled with 68k and PowerPC Macs; versions 7.1-9 sold as retail upgrades | Proprietary | Workstation, personal computer |
| ChromeOS | Google | 2011 | none | 129.0.6668.99 | October 1, 2024 | Bundled with hardware, 32-bit edition dropped | Proprietary: Google OS Terms of Service. Open-source core system | Chromebook, Chromebox, Chromebase and tablet |
| ChromiumOS | Google | 2009 | none | Rolling release | October 7, 2021 | No cost | BSD Linux Kernel GPL-2.0-only | Personal computer |
| DragonFly BSD | Matthew Dillon | 2003 | FreeBSD | 6.4.0 | June 9, 2022 | No cost | BSD | Server, workstation, NAS, embedded system |
| eComStation | Serenity Systems, Mensys BV | 2001 | OS/2 | 2.1 | May 20, 2011 | Discontinued; Commercial | Proprietary | Server, workstation, personal computer |
| EPOC32 | Psion PLC | 1996 | | ER5 | 1999 | Discontinued; Commercial | Proprietary | PDA |
| EulerOS | Huawei | 2021 | None | V2.0SP8 | 2022 | No cost | Open source | Server, workstation |
| FreeBSD | The FreeBSD Project | 1993 | 386BSD | 14.1 | June 4, 2024 | No cost | BSD | Server, workstation, Desktop, NAS, embedded system |
| Genode | Genode Labs | 2008 | None | 24.11 | 22 November 2024; 3 months ago (22 November 2024) | No cost | AGPL-3.0-only | Desktop, embedded system, server |
| GhostBSD | Eric Turgeon | 2009 | FreeBSD | 21.05 | May 13, 2021 | No cost | BSD | Desktop, workstation |
| Linux | Notable contributors include: Richard Stallman for GNU Project and Linus Torvalds for Linux and the Unixes they emulated; 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 | 6.13.6 (kernel) | 7 March 2025; 6 days ago (7 March 2025) (kernel) | No cost | GPL-2.0-only (kernel) | See: Comparison of Linux distributions |
| Haiku | Haiku Inc. | 2002 | BeOS R5 | R1/Beta 4 | December 23, 2022 | No cost | MIT | Personal computer |
| HP NonStop | HP (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise) | 1976 | None | H06.24/J06.13 | 2012 | Bundled with hardware? | Proprietary | HP Nonstop Servers |
| HP-UX | HP (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise) | 1983 | UNIX System V | HP-UX 11i v3 2023 / May 2023 | May 2022 | US$400 | Proprietary | Server |
| HarmonyOS | Huawei | 2019 | OpenHarmony, LiteOS | 5.0.0.102(SP3C00E73R4P17) | October 23, 2024 | Bundled with hardware and updates at no cost given to most existing users, subject to hardware requirements | Proprietary software except for open-source components | Internet of things, Smartphone, tablet computer, education, embedded system, smart watches |
| IBM i | IBM | 1988 | CPF, SSP | 7.5 | May 10, 2022 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Server |
| Inferno | Bell Labs | 1996 | Plan 9 | Fourth Edition | June 30, 2009 | No cost | MIT | NAS, server, embedded |
| iOS (originally iPhone OS) | Apple Inc. | 2007 | macOS | 17.1.1 | November 7, 2023 | Bundled with hardware and updates at no cost given to most existing users, subject to hardware requirements | Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (ARM versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others | Smartphone, music player, tablet |
| IRIX | SGI | 1988 | UNIX System V | 6.5.30 | 2006 | Discontinued; Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Server, workstation |
| IX/370 | IBM | 1985 | UNIX System V | Release 1.4? | Sep 25, 1987 | Non-free | Proprietary | IBM System/370 |
| macOS (originally Mac OS X) | Apple Inc. | 2001 | NeXTSTEP, BSD | 15.1 | October 28, 2024 | Bundled with hardware; No cost for updates and upgrades via Mac App Store for users of Mac OS X 10.6 or later | Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (Apple Silicon-Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others | Workstation, personal computer, embedded |
| macOS Server (originally Mac OS X Server) | Apple Inc. | 2001 | NeXTSTEP, BSD | 5.12 | May 2, 2021 | Discontinued; Previously bundled with hardware; No longer a separate operating system, but a group of services installed atop any version of macOS Monterey; US$19.99 on the Mac App Store | Proprietary higher level API layers; open source core system (Intel-PowerPC versions): APSL, GNU GPL, others | Server |
| MCP | Unisys | 1961 | None | CP OS 20.0 | May 2021 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Server |
| MenuetOS | Ville Turjanmaa and others | 2000 | None | 1.49.00 | 2023 | OS written in assembly language | GPL or No cost | Workstation |
| MINIX 3 | Andrew S. Tanenbaum | 2005 | Minix2 | 3.3.0 | 2014 | No cost | BSD-3-Clause | Workstation |
| MPE | HP | 1974 | None | MPE-V | 1988 | Discontinued; Was bundled with HP-3000 CISC hardware "Classic" | Proprietary | Server |
| MPE/XL | HP | 1987 | MPE | 7.5 | 2002 | Discontinued; Was bundled with HP-3000 PA-RISC hardware | Proprietary | Server |
| MVS (OS/VS2 R2 through R3.8) | IBM | 1972 | OS/360 MVT, SVS | Release 3.8 | 1974 | Free (discontinued) | Open source | IBM System/370 |
| MVS (MVS/SE through MVS/ESA) | IBM | March 1978 | OS/VS2 R3.7 for MVS/SE R1 OS/VS2 R3.8 for MVS/SE R2 through MVS/ESA | z/OS Version 2.5 (V2R5) | September 30, 2021 | Price tied to processor capacity | One Time Charge or monthly | S/370 S/370-XA S/370-ESA ESA/390 |
| NetBSD | The NetBSD Project | 1993 | 386BSD | 9.3 | August 4, 2022 | No cost | BSD | NAS, server, workstation, embedded |
| NetWare | Novell | 1985 | S-Net | 6.5 SP8 | May 6, 2009 | Superseded by Novell Open Enterprise Server; Was US$184 (equivalent to $269.68 in 2024) (one-user) | Proprietary | Server |
| NeXTSTEP | NeXT | 1989 | Unix | 3.3 | 1995 | Discontinued; Was bundled with hardware, then sold separately | Proprietary | Workstation |
| OpenBSD | OpenBSD Project | 1996 | NetBSD 1.0 | 7.4 | October 16, 2023 | No cost | ISC | Server, NAS, workstation, embedded |
| OpenIndiana | Many, based on software developed by Sun Microsystems and many others | 2010 | OpenSolaris | 2023.04 | April 30, 2021 | No cost | CDDL | Server, workstation |
| OpenVMS | DEC (now VSI) | 1977 | RSX-11M | V9.2-3 | November 20, 2024 | Commercial, no cost for non-commercial use | Proprietary | Server, workstation |
| OpenHarmony | Various (OpenAtom Foundation, Huawei and others) | 2020 | HarmonyOS, LiteOS | 5.0.0 Release | September 29, 2024 | No cost | Apache-2.0 | Internet of things, embedded system, smart watches, mobile devices, personal computers |
| Oniro | Various (Eclipse Foundation, Huawei and others) | 2021 | None | 4.1 | June 21, 2024 | No cost | Eclipse License, Apache-2.0 | Internet of things, embedded system, smart watches, mobile devices, personal computers |
| OS/2 | IBM and Microsoft | 1987 | MS-DOS | 4.52 | 2001 | Discontinued (see ArcaOS successor); Was US$300 (equivalent to $532.74 in 2024) | Proprietary | Personal computer, server |
| OS/360 | IBM | 1966 | None | Operating System/360 R21.8 | August 1972 | Free (discontinued) | Open source | S/360 S/370 |
| OS/390 | IBM | 1995 | MVS/ESA | OS/390 version 2 R10 | September 29, 2000 | Price tied to processor capacity | One Time Charge or monthly | S/390 |
| OS 2200 | Unisys | 1967 as Exec 8e | Exec 8, OS 1100 | CP OS 18 (Exec 49.2) | July 18, 2018 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Server |
| OS/VS1 | IBM | 1972 | OS/360 MFT II | Release 7.0? | | Free (discontinued) | — | IBM System/370 |
| OS/VS2 SVS | IBM | 1972 | OS/360 MVT | Release 1.7 | | Free (discontinued) | — | IBM System/370 |
| Plan 9 | Bell Labs | 1992 | Unix | Fourth Edition | 2003 (except for minor later updates) | No cost | MIT | Workstation, server, embedded system, HPC |
| QNX | QNX Software Systems | 1982 | Unix, POSIX | 7.1.0 | July 2020 | Bundled with BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook devices. Commercial; an academic version exists that needs authorization code before installing | Proprietary | Automotive, medical, smartphone, consumer, industrial, embedded system, safety |
| ReactOS | ReactOS development team | 1998 | Windows NT (clone of) | 0.4.14 | April 9, 2020 | No cost | GPL-2.0-or-later | Workstation, personal computer |
| Redox | Jeremy Soller | 2015 | - | 0.7.0 | April 28, 2022 | No cost | MIT | Desktop, workstation, server |
| RISC iX | Acorn Computers | 1988 | BSD 4.3 | 1.21c | 1993 | Discontinued; Was bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Workstation |
| RISC OS | Acorn Computers | 1987 | Arthur | 3.71 | 1997 | Discontinued; Was bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Education, personal computer |
| RISC OS 4 | RISCOS Ltd, Pace plc | 1999 | RISC OS | 4.39 | 2004 | Bundled with hardware, then sold separately at £70 (US$127) | Proprietary | Education, personal computer |
| RISC OS 5 | Castle Technology, RISC OS Open | 2002 | RISC OS 4 | 5.28 | 2020 | No cost | Apache-2.0 | Education, personal computer |
| RISC OS 6 | RISCOS Ltd | 2006 | RISC OS 4 | 6.20 | 2009 | Bundled with hardware, then sold separately at £70 (US$127) | Proprietary | Education, personal computer |
| SerenityOS | Andreas Kling | 2018 | None | Continuous integration | N/A | No cost | BSD-2-Clause | Workstation, personal computer |
| Solaris | Sun (now Oracle Corporation) | 1992 | SunOS | 11.4 | August 28, 2018 | Commercial; (a perpetual license at no cost when used "for the purpose of developing, testing, prototyping and demonstrating your applications") | CDDL | Server, workstation |
| STOP 6, XTS-400 | BAE Systems | 2003 | STOP 5, XTS-300 | 8.2 | August 2008 | US$60,000 (equivalent to $87,626 in 2024)+; bundled with XTS hardware and OEM licensed | Proprietary | Server, workstation |
| Symbian | Symbian Ltd. | 1998 | EPOC32 | 9.5 | 2009 | Discontinued; Commercial | Proprietary | Phone |
| Symbian platform | Symbian Foundation | 2010 (initially 1998 as Symbian) | Symbian | 3.0.4 | 2010 | No cost | EPL | Embedded system |
| TempleOS | Terry Davis | 2005 (as J Operating System) | None | 5.03 | 2017 | No cost | Public domain | Personal computer |
| Tru64 | Digital Equipment Corporation | January 1992 | OSF/1 | 5.1B-6 | October 1, 2010 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | Server, workstation, HPC |
| VME | ICL | 1974 | None | SV294 | 1994 | Bundled with hardware | Proprietary | ICL mainframe |
| VSE$^n$ | 21st Century Software | 1979 (as DOS/VSE) | DOS/360 DOS/VS | 6.3 | May 17, 2022 | Monthly license fee | Proprietary | IBM Z |
| VxWorks | Wind River Systems | 1987 | VRTX | 7 | March 2014 | Paid | Proprietary | Embedded real-time system |
| Windows (classic 9x family) | Microsoft | 1995 | MS-DOS | Windows Me (Win 4.90.3000) | 2000 | Discontinued | Proprietary | Personal computer, media center |
| Windows (NT family) | Microsoft | 1993 | OS/2 and Windows 3.1x | Windows 11 (version 24H2) | June 15, 2024 | One time license fee | Proprietary; Source-available | Workstation, personal computer, media center, Tablet PC, embedded system |
| Windows Server (NT family) | Microsoft | 1993 | OS/2 | Windows Server 2025 (version 10.0.26100.2605) | November 1, 2024 | US$1050 5 CALs server; other editions dependent on number of CALs purchased | Proprietary; Source-available | Server, NAS, embedded system |
| z/OS | IBM | 2000 | OS/390 | Version 2.5 (V2R5) | September 30, 2021 | Price tied to processor capacity | One Time Charge or monthly | IBM Z |
| z/VM | IBM | 2000 | VM/ESA | 7.4 | September 20, 2024 | Monthly license fee | Proprietary | IBM Z |
| ZETA | yellowTAB | 2005 | BeOS R5 | 1.5 | 2007 | Discontinued | Proprietary | Personal computer, media center, workstation |
| Name | Creator | Initial public release | Predecessor | Current stable version | Release date | Cost, availability | Preferred license | Target system type |
* 1 2 Most OS distributions include bundled software with various other licenses.
* ↑ "Hungarian". The Original Macintosh Anecdotes.. Although Lisa OS ran on the same, but a slower variant, microprocessor and was developed by Apple Computer Inc. at the same time as Classic Mac OS, they were developed as different projects, only sharing a similar GUI between them.
* ↑ Mac OS 7.6 was the first Macintosh system software to be labeled Mac OS. Operating systems before this were named Macintosh System Software through System Software 7.5, and known as System #.# for short.

## Technical information

| Name | Computer architectures supported | File systems supported | Kernel type | Source lines of code | GUI default is on | Package management | Update management | Native APIs | Non-native APIs supported through subsystems |
| AIX | POWER, PowerPC-AS, PowerPC, Power ISA | JFS, JFS2, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, GPFS | Monolithic with modules | | No | installp, RPM | Service Update Management Assistant (SUMA) | SysV/POSIX | |
| AmigaOS classic | 68k, PowerPC | Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. | Microkernel | | Yes | Installer (almost not needed) | | Proprietary | BSD subset (available through 3rd party ixemul.library) |
| AmigaOS 4 | PowerPC | Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), JXFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. | Microkernel | | Yes | Installer (almost not needed) | AmiUpdate (almost not needed) | Proprietary | BSD subset (available through 3rd party ixemul.library) |
| ArcaOS | IA-32 | JFS (default), HPFS, ISO 9660, UDF, FAT32, NTFS | Hybrid | | Yes | ANPM (based on YUM and RPM) | Update Facility | OS/2 | POSIX, Win16, DOS, Win32, Java |
| ChromeOS | ARM, IA-32, x86-64 | eCryptfs, NTFS, FAT, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, ext2, ext3, ext4, HFS+, MTP (read and write), ISO9660 (read-only), UDF (read-only) | Monolithic with modules | ≈17 million | Yes | Portage | | Linux/POSIX | |
| DragonFly BSD | x86-64 | UFS1, MFS, ext2, FAT (16/32), HAMMER, ISO 9660 | Hybrid | | No | dports, pkg | git, cvsup, rsync, pkg | BSD/POSIX | Mono, Java, Win16, Win32, Linux |
| eComStation | IA-32 | HPFS (default), FAT, JFS, UDF, FAT32, NTFS (read only) | Hybrid | | Yes | WarpIN, Feature Install, others | Maintenance Tool | Proprietary, DOS API, Win16 | POSIX, Java, others |
| FreeBSD | IA-32, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, others | UFS2, ZFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, others | Monolithic with modules | 6.25 million | No | Ports collection, packages | by source, network binary update (freebsdupdate) | BSD/POSIX | Mono, Java, Win16, Win32, Linux |
| Genode | ARM, RISC-V, IA-32, x86-64 | ext2, ext3, FAT32, ISO9660 | Microkernel or Monolithic kernel | ≈300,000 | No | Custom | None | Genode | POSIX, Qt, SDL, MirageOS |
| GhostBSD | IA-32, x86-64 | UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental), ZFS, others | Monolithic with modules | | Yes | Ports collection, packages | by source, network binary update (freebsdupdate) | BSD/POSIX | Mono, Java, Win16, Win32, Linux |
| Linux | IA-32, x86-64, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC, others | ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, ReiserFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, and others | Monolithic with modules | ≈15 million (kernel) lines of code for userland libraries and applications vary depending on the distribution | Yes | Depends on the distribution | | Linux/POSIX | Mono, Java, Win16, Win32 |
| Haiku | IA-32, PowerPC, x86-64 | BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, ext3, NTFS | Hybrid | ≈5.2 million | Yes | Ports collection (haikuport) | pkgman, HaikuDepot | POSIX, BeOS API | Java, Qt |
| HP-UX | PA-RISC, IA-64 | VxFS, HFS, CDFS, EVFS, NFS, CIFS | Monolithic with modules | | No | SD, swinstall | swa (HP-UX Software Assistant) | SysV/POSIX | |
| HarmonyOS | 64-bit ARM, RISC-V, x86, x64 and LoongArch | HMDFS, EROFS, NFS, RAMFS, FAT, JFFS2, exFAT | Microkernel | ≈239.6 million (100 Deterministic Latency Engine) | Yes | .app with HAP files | Software Update | Proprietary | Java until 3.0.0 |
| Inferno | IA-32, PowerPC, SPARC, Alpha, MIPS, others | Styx/9P2000, kfs, FAT, ISO 9660 | Monolithic with modules, user space file systems | | Yes | ? | ? | Proprietary | |
| iOS | ARMv8-A (iOS 7–present), ARMv7-A (iPhone OS 3–iOS 10), ARMv6 (iPhone OS 1–iOS 4.2.1) | HFS+ (prior to version 10.3), APFS (since version 10.3) | Hybrid | ≈80 million | Yes | ? | Software Update | Cocoa, BSD-POSIX | ? |
| Classic Mac OS | 68k, PowerPC | HFS+, HFS, MFS (Mac OS 8.0 and before), AFP, ISO 9660, FAT(System 7 and later), UDF | Monolithic with modules | | Yes | None | Software Update (only in Mac OS 9) | Toolbox, Carbon (from version 8.1) | |
| macOS | Apple silicon (11-present), x86-64 (10.4.7–present), IA-32 (10.4.4–10.6.8), PowerPC (10.0–10.5.8) (see also iOS for ARM) | HFS+ (default on hard drives, and on flash drives up to Sierra), APFS (default on flash drives in High Sierra), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV, ZFS (experimental) | Hybrid with modules | ≈86 million | Yes | macOS Installer | Software Update | Carbon, Cocoa, Java, BSD-POSIX | Toolbox (only in versions up to Mac OS X 10.4, not supported on x86 architecture), Win16, Win32 |
| MINIX 3 | IA-32 | | Microkernel | ≈12,000 (C) + ≈1,400 (Assembly) | No | | | POSIX | |
| NetBSD | IA-32, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, sparc64, others | UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, LFS, and others | Monolithic with modules | | No | pkgsrc | by source or binary (using sysinst) | BSD-POSIX | Linux, others |
| NetWare | 16-bit x86, IA-32 | NSS, NWFS, FAT, NFS, AFP, UDF, CIFS, ISO 9660 | Hybrid | | Yes | NWCONFIG.NLM, RPM, X11-based GUI installer | binary updates, ZENWorks for Servers, Red Carpet | Proprietary | |
| OpenBSD | IA-32, x86-64, SPARC, 68k, Alpha, others | ffs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, some others | Monolithic | | No | Ports collection, packages | by source or binary (packages via pkg_add) | BSD-POSIX | |
| OpenVMS | VAX, Alpha, IA-64, x86-64 | Files-11 (ODS), ISO 9660, NFS, CIFS | Monolithic with modules | | No | PCSI, VMSINSTAL | ? | Proprietary | POSIX, RSX-11M |
| OS/2 | 16-bit x86 (1.x only), IA-32 | HPFS, JFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS | Monolithic with modules | | Yes | Feature Install and others | ? | Proprietary, DOS API, Win16 | Win32 |
| OpenHarmony | 64-bit ARM, RISC-V, x86, x64 and LoongArch | HMDFS, EROFS, NFS, RAMFS, FAT, JFFS2, exFAT | Multi-kernel | ≈110 million+ | Yes | .app with HAP files | Software Update | Open-source, ArkUI, OpenHarmony API Kits | Java until 3.0.0, React Native, Qt, Flutter, Electron, CEF |
| Oniro | 64-bit ARM, RISC-V, x86, x64 | HMDFS, EROFS, NFS, RAMFS, FAT, JFFS2, exFAT | Multi-kernel | | Yes | .app with HAP files | Software Update | Open-source, ArkUI, OpenHarmony and Oniro API Kits, React Native for ArkUI | React Native, Qt, Flutter, Electron, CEF |
| Plan 9 | IA-32, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, others | fossil/venti, 9P2000, kfs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660 | Hybrid, user space file systems | ≈2.5 Million /sys/src (complete source of all supported architectures, kernels, commands and libraries) | Yes | None | replica | Proprietary (Unix-like) | POSIX compatibility layer |
| QNX | x86, SH-4, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS | QNX4FS, QNX6, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, Joliet, NFS, CIFS, ETFS, UDF, HFS, HFS+, NTFS, others | Microkernel | | | | | POSIX, Java | |
| ReactOS | IA-32, PowerPC, ARM | FAT, BTRFS, and NTFS (read only) | Hybrid | nearly 8 million | Yes | ReactOS Applications Manager, MSI, custom installers | None | Win32, NT API | DOS API |
| Redox | x86-64 | RedoxFS, TFS | Microkernel | | Yes | pkgutils | | POSIX | |
| RISC OS | ARM (both 26 and 32-bit addressing modes) | Acorn ADFS, Econet ANFS, FAT, ISO 9660, many others as loadable filesystems | Monolithic with modules. Cooperative multitasking with limited memory protection. | | Yes | Applications self-contained; hardware drivers often in ROM | !IyoUpWtch | Huge number of SWI calls; extensive C libraries | |
| SerenityOS | x86, x86-64 | ext2 | Microkernel | ≈750,000 | Yes | None | None | POSIX, propertiary | |
| Solaris | IA-32, x86-64, SPARC | UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others | Monolithic with modules | | Yes | SysV packages (pkgadd) Image Packaging System (pkg) (Solaris 11 and later) | Image Packaging System (Solaris 11 and later) | SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java | Win16, Win32, Mono, Linux |
| OpenSolaris | IA-32, x86-64, SPARC(AI) | UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others | Monolithic with modules | ≈18.8 million | Yes | Image Packaging System (pkg), SysV packages (pkgadd) | Image Packaging System | SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java | Win16, Win32, Mono, Linux |
| STOP 6, XTS-400 | x86 | Proprietary | Monolithic | | No | RPM for some untrusted applications | Binary updates via postal mail and proprietary tools | Some: SysV, POSIX, Linux, proprietary | |
| Symbian | ARM | FAT | Microkernel | | Yes | SIS files | FOTA | Proprietary | POSIX compatibility layer |
| TrueOS | IA-32, x86-64 | UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental) and others | Monolithic with modules | | Yes | Ports collection, packages, PBI Graphical Installers | by PBI updates, source, network binary update (freebsdupdate) | BSD-POSIX | Win16, Win32 |
| Windows Server (NT family) | IA-32, x86-64, IA-64 | NTFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, ReiserFS, and HFS | Hybrid with modules | ≈45 million | Yes | MSI, custom installers | Windows Update | Win32, NT API | DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET |
| Windows (NT family) | IA-32, x86-64, ARM, IA-64, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC | NTFS, FAT exFAT ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support btrfs, ext2, ext3, ReiserFS, HFS+, FATX, and HFS (with third party driver) | Hybrid with modules | ≈40 (XP)/64 (Vista and later) million | Yes | MSI, custom installers | Windows Update | Win32, NT API | DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET |
| ZETA | IA-32 | BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, HFS, AFP, ext2, CIFS, NTFS (read only), ReiserFS (read only, up to v3.6) | Hybrid | | Yes | SoftwareValet, script-based installers | None | POSIX, BeOS API | |
| z/OS | z/Architecture | VSAM, BDAM, QSAM, BPAM, HFS, zFS, etc. | Protected, multithreading, multitasking nucleus with programmable/user replaceable extensions. Not kernel-based. | | No | None, SMP/E | SMP/E | Filesystem access methods, Systems Services, etc. | POSIX, many others. |
| Name | Computer architectures supported | File systems supported | Kernel type | Source lines of code | GUI default is on | Package management | Update management | Native APIs | Non-native APIs supported through subsystems |
* 1 2 Operating systems where the GUI is not installed and turned on by default are often bundled with an implementation of the X Window System, installation of which is usually optional.
* 1 2 Most operating systems use proprietary APIs in addition to any supported standards.
* 1 2 Amiga OS features since OS 2.0 version a standard centralized Install utility called Installer, which could be used by any software house to install programs. It works as a Lisp language interpreter, and install procedures could be listed as simple text. AmigaOS can also benefit from a 3rd party copyrighted library called XAD that is available for all POSIX (Unix, Linux, BSD, and for AmigaOS, MorphOS, etc.). This library is freely distributable and publicly available on Aminet Amiga centralized repository of all Open Source or Free programs and utilities. XAD.Library, complete with GUI Voodoo-X, is based on modules and capable to manage over 300 compression methods and package systems (Voodoo-X GUI supports 80 package systems), including those widely accepted as standards such as .ZIP, .CAB, .LHA, .LZX, .RPM, etc.
* 1 2 A standard AmigaOS installation requires usually only few files (typically 3 to 10 files) to be copied in their appropriate directory, and libraries and language files for national localization to be put in their standard OS directories. Any Amiga user with some minimal experience knows where these files should be copied and could perform programs installations by hand.
* ↑ AmiUpdate can update AmigaOS files and all Amiga programs which are registered to use the same update program that is standard for Amiga. Updating AmigaOS requires only few libraries to be put in standard OS location (for example all libraries are stored in Libs: standard virtual device and absolute path finder for Libs directory, Fonts are all in Fonts: absolute locator, the files for language localization are all stored in Locale: and so on). This leaves Amiga users with a minimal knowledge of the system almost free to perform by hand the update of the system files.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 using Wine
* 1 2 NetBSD and OpenBSD include the X Window System as base install sets, managed in their respective main source repository, including local modifications. Packages are also provided for more up-to-date versions which may be less tested.
* 1 2 "BrandZ (Community Group brandz.WebHome) - XWiki". Opensolaris.org. October 26, 2009. Archived from the original on September 29, 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
* ↑ only i686 CPU
* 1 2 Windows can read and write with Ext2 and Ext3 file systems only when a driver from FS-driver or Ext2Fsd is installed. However, using Explore2fs, Windows can read from, but not write to, Ext2 and Ext3 file systems. Windows can also access ReiserFS through rfstool and related programs.

## Security

| Name | Resource access control | Subsystem isolation mechanisms | Integrated firewall | Encrypted file systems | No execute (NX) page flag | No execute (NX) page flag | Manufacturer acknowledged unpatched vulnerabilities (by severity) | Manufacturer acknowledged unpatched vulnerabilities (by severity) | Manufacturer acknowledged unpatched vulnerabilities (by severity) | Manufacturer acknowledged unpatched vulnerabilities (by severity) | Manufacturer acknowledged unpatched vulnerabilities (by severity) | Manufacturer acknowledged unpatched vulnerabilities (by severity) |
| Name | Resource access control | Subsystem isolation mechanisms | Integrated firewall | Encrypted file systems | No execute (NX) page flag | No execute (NX) page flag | Secunia | Secunia | Secunia | Secunia | Secunia | Security- Focus |
| Name | Resource access control | Subsystem isolation mechanisms | Integrated firewall | Encrypted file systems | Hardware | Emulation | Extremely critical (number / oldest) | Highly critical (number / oldest) | Moderately critical (number / oldest) | Less critical (number / oldest) | Not critical (number / oldest) | Total (number / oldest) |
| AIX 7.1 | POSIX, ACLs, MAC, Trusted AIX - MLS, RBAC | chroot | IPFilter, IPsec VPNs, basic IDS | Yes | Yes | — | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | 0 |
| FreeBSD 10.1 | POSIX, ACLs, MAC | chroot, Jails, MAC partitions, multilevel security, Biba Model, BSD file flags set using chflags, Capsicum Capability-based security | IPFW2, IPFilter, PF, IPsec | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | >0 |
| GhostBSD 3.1 | POSIX, ACLs, MAC | chroot, jail, MAC partitions, BSD file flags set using chflags | IPFW2, IPFilter, PF | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | >0 |
| Genode | Hierarchal, least privilege | capability-based security | Virtual switch and NAPT controls in user-space | No | kernel dependent | No | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |
| HP-UX 11.31 | POSIX, ACLs | chroot | IPFilter | Yes | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 3 June 30, 2004; 20 years ago (2004-06-30) | 2 December 12, 2002; 22 years ago (2002-12-12) | 0 | >0 |
| Inferno | POSIX | Namespaces, capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit | ? | ? | No | No | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | >0 |
| Linux-based 2.6.39 | POSIX, ACLs, MAC | chroot, seccomp, Namespaces, SELinux, AppArmor | Netfilter, varied by distribution | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 June 24, 2004; 20 years ago (2004-06-24) | 11 April 4, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-04-04) | >0 |
| Mac OS 9.2.2 | No | No | No | No | No | No | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | >0 |
| OS X 10.10.5 | POSIX, ACLs | chroot, BSD file flags set using chflags | ipfw | Yes | Yes (as of 10.5, X64 only) | Yes (Intel only) | 0 | 0 | 1 April 14, 2009; 15 years ago (2009-04-14) | 2 January 8, 2007; 18 years ago (2007-01-08) | 5 November 22, 2006; 18 years ago (2006-11-22) | >0 |
| NetBSD 6.1.2 | POSIX, Veriexec, PaX, kauth | chroot, kauth, BSD file flags set using chflags | IPFilter, NPF, PF | Yes | Yes | No | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | >0 |
| NetWare 6.5 SP8 | Directory-enabled ACLs | Protected address spaces | IPFLT.NLM | Yes | Yes | No | 0 | 0 | 1 August 31, 2010; 14 years ago (2010-08-31) | 2 October 30, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-10-30) | 0 | 0 |
| OES-Linux | Directory-enabled ACLs | chroot | IPFilter | Yes | Yes | No | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | >0 |
| OpenBSD 4.8 | POSIX | chroot, systrace, BSD file flags set using chflags | PF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | >0 |
| OpenVMS 9.2 | ACLs, privileges | logical name tables | ? | ? | Yes | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Unknown |
| OS/2, eComStation, ArcaOS | ACLs | No | IPFilter | No | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TrueOS 8.1 | POSIX, ACLs, MAC | chroot, jail, MAC partitions | IPFW2, IPFilter, PF | Yes | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | >0 |
| Plan 9 | POSIX ? | Namespaces, capability-based security, no superuser or setuid bit | ipmux | Yes | No | No | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | >0 |
| QNX 6.5.0 | POSIX | ? | PF, from NetBSD | ? | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 November 20, 2002; 22 years ago (2002-11-20) | 1 November 7, 2002; 22 years ago (2002-11-07) | Unknown |
| RISC OS | No | No | IPFilter | No | No | No | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |
| Solaris 10 | POSIX, RBAC, ACLs, least privilege, Trusted Extensions | chroot, Containers, Logical Domains | IPFilter | Yes | Yes | No | 0 | 2 October 31, 2007; 17 years ago (2007-10-31) | 5 October 23, 2007; 17 years ago (2007-10-23) | 3 September 10, 2009; 15 years ago (2009-09-10) | 2 November 6, 2006; 18 years ago (2006-11-06) | >0 |
| OpenSolaris 2009.06 | POSIX, RBAC, ACLs, least privilege, Trusted Extensions | chroot, Containers, Logical Domains | IPFilter | Yes | Yes | No | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | >0 |
| Windows Server 2012 | ACLs, privileges, RBAC | Win32 WindowStation, desktop, job objects | Windows Firewall | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | [Unknown] |
| Windows 8.1 | ACLs, privileges, RBAC | Win32 WindowStation, desktop, job objects | Windows Firewall | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 May 30, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-05-30) | [Unknown] |
| ZETA | POSIX | No | No | No | No | No | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |
| STOP 6, XTS-400 | POSIX, multilevel security, Biba Model mandatory integrity, ACLs, privileges, subtype mechanism | Multilevel security, Biba Model, subtype mechanism | No | No | No | No | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |
| z/OS 1.11 | RACF | RACF, low storage protection, page protection, storage protect key, execution key, subspace group facility, APF, ACR (alternate CPU recovery), more | z/OS IPSecurity | Optional | Yes (storage protect key, execution key, APF, more) | Yes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Unknown |
| Name | Resource access control | Subsystem isolation mechanisms | Integrated firewall | Encrypted file systems | Hardware | Emulation | Extremely critical (number / oldest) | Highly critical (number / oldest) | Moderately critical (number / oldest) | Less critical (number / oldest) | Not critical (number / oldest) | Total (number / oldest) |
| Name | Resource access control | Subsystem isolation mechanisms | Integrated firewall | Encrypted file systems | No execute (NX) page flag | No execute (NX) page flag | Secunia | Secunia | Secunia | Secunia | Secunia | Security- Focus |
| Known unpatched vulnerabilities (severity is accounted for) ||||||
* 1 2 Comparison of known unpatched vulnerabilities based on Secunia & SecurityFocus reports with severity of Not critical & above. Update lists manually with oldest published date(s).
* ↑ AIX use the PowerPC architecture which offer page-level protection mechanism. Since AIX version 5300-03 (5.3), this feature can be activated using the sedmgr command.
* ↑ The GCC stack protection (a.k.a. ProPolice stack-smashing protector) has been enabled in base system since FreeBSD 8.0-release.
* ↑ Support for the 1997 withdrawn POSIX ACL draft is included in Linux 2.6, but requires a file system able to store them (such as ext3, XFS or ReiserFS).
* ↑ A jail mechanism is available separately in the Linux-VServer project, but is not integrated into any mainline Linux kernel.
* ↑ ACLs were added to Mac OS X starting with version 10.4.
* ↑ ACLs are available only in OS/2 Server versions with HPFS386 filesystem.
* ↑ Additionally swap space may be encrypted during installation, uses memory based tmp file storage by default.
* 1 2 "Solaris Containers" (including "Zones") are a jail-type mechanism introduced with Solaris 10.
* 1 2 Through ZFS
* ↑ Zeta has full Unix file permissions, but the OS is single user, and users always run as superuser.
* ↑ STOP 6 is certified under Common Criteria at EAL5+.

## Commands

For POSIX compliant (or partly compliant) systems like FreeBSD, Linux, macOS or Solaris, the basic commands are the same because they are standardized.
| Feature | AROS | FreeBSD | Linux-based | HP-UX | OpenVMS | macOS | Solaris | Windows (cmd) | Windows (PowerShell) |
| List directory | list, dir | ls | ls | ls | dir | ls | ls | dir | Get-ChildItem |
| Clear console | clear | clear | clear | clear | ty/pa nl: | clear | clear | cls | Clear-Host |
| Copy file(s) | copy | cp | cp | cp | copy | cp | cp | copy | Copy-Item |
| Move file(s) | move | mv | mv | mv | ren | mv | mv | move | Move-Item |
| Rename file(s) | rename | mv | mv, rename | mv | ren | mv | mv | ren (rename) | Rename-Item |
| Delete file(s) | delete | rm | rm | rm | del | rm | rm | del (erase) | Remove-Item |
| Delete directory | delete | rmdir | rmdir | rmdir | del | rmdir | rmdir | rd (rmdir) | Remove-Item |
| Create directory | makedir | mkdir | mkdir | mkdir | create/dir | mkdir | mkdir | md (mkdir) | New-Item |
| Change current directory | cd | cd | cd | cd | set def | cd | cd | cd (chdir) | Set-Location |
| Run shell script with new shell | shell file.shell | sh file.sh | sh file.sh | sh file.sh | @ file.com | sh file.sh | sh file.sh | cmd /c file.cmd | powershell file.ps1 |
| Kill processes | ? | kill, killall | killall, pkill, kill, skill | kill | stop | kill, killall | kill, pkill | taskkill | Stop-Process |
| Change process priority | changetaskpri | nice | nice, chrt | nice | set proc/prio | nice | nice | start /low, start /normal, start /high, start /realtime | Start-Process, wmic |
| Change I/O priority | ? | | ionice | ? | set proc/prio | nice | ? | ? | ? |
| Create file system | format | newfs | mkfs | newfs | init | mkfs | newfs, zpool / zfs create | format | Format-Volume |
| File system check and recovery | ? | fsck | fsck | fsck | analyze/disk | fsck | fsck | chkdsk | Repair-Volume |
| Create software raid | ? | atacontrol, gmirror, zfs create | mdadm -C | ? | ? | diskutil appleRAID | metainit, zpool create | diskpart (mirror only) | diskpart (mirror only) |
| Mount device | mount | mount | mount | mount | mount | mount, diskutil mount | mount | mountvol | New-PSDrive |
| Unmount device | assign drivename: dismount | umount | umount | umount | dismount | umount, diskutil unmount(disk) | umount | mountvol /d | Remove-PSDrive |
| Mount file as block device | ? | mdconfig + mount | mount -o loop | ? | ? | hdid | lofiadm + mount | ? | ? |
| Show network configuration | ? | ifconfig | ip addr, ifconfig | ifconfig, lanadmin | tcpip sh net (sh net) | ifconfig | ifconfig | ipconfig | Get-NetIPInterface, ipconfig |
| Show network route | ? | netstat -r, route get, route monitor | ip route, route | netstat -r | tcpip sh route | netstat -r, route get, route monitor | netstat -r | route | Get-NetRoute |
| Trace network route | ? | traceroute | traceroute | traceroute | tcptrace | traceroute | traceroute | tracert | Test-NetConnection |
| Trace network route with pings | ? | traceroute -I | traceroute -I, mtr | ? | tcptrace | traceroute -I | traceroute -I | pathping | pathping |
| Feature | AROS | FreeBSD | Linux-based | HP-UX | OpenVMS | macOS | Solaris | Windows (cmd) | Windows (PowerShell) |
NOTE: Linux systems may vary by distribution which specific program, or even 'command' is called, via the POSIX alias function. For example, if you wanted to use the DOS dir to give you a directory listing with one detailed file listing per line you could use alias dir='ls -lahF' (e.g. in a session configuration file).
* ↑ May be omitted. Simply entering the directory name will change to it.
* ↑ This feature is still in development, see .
* ↑ The nice command utilizes the setpriority system call, which affects I/O priority, see OS X man page .