Mac OS 7 to Windows 7: OS Showdowns Through the Ages!
In less than two months, Microsoft will finally release Windows 7 to an eager user base, some of which have already put Vista in the rear view mirror. Microsoft’s slickest OS to date, Win 7 purports to do everything from improve file transfer performance to solving the world’s problems and finally bringing peace around the globe.
On the other side of the tracks, Justin Long and the rest of the Apple allegiant will get a head start on the next-gen OS wars with Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard." And while we can knock Apple for its overpriced hardware and sissy aesthetics, OS X Leopard users will be able to upgrade for just $29, or less than a week’s worth of lattes.
But we’re not here to diss on Apple (at least not unnecessarily), nor do we intend to crank Microsoft’s hype machine (seriously though, Windows 7 officially kicks ass). What we will do is take you all the way back to Windows 3.1 and examine how the OS wars have evolved in the modern era (you can find our pre-Windows 3.1 retrospective here). And for you open- source fans, fear not, you’ll get your fill of Linux as well.
So sit back, grab a cold one (beer if you’re a PC user, mocha cappuccino if you’re a Mac user, and Bawls if you’re rocking Linux), and hit the jump to get started!
System 7 (Mac OS 7)
Circa 1991
Two things happened on May 13, 1997. Fans at Yankee Stadium sang Madonna’s song "Like a Virgin" to Oakland A’s Jose Canseco, who was rumored to be dating the pop singer back when that might actually seem appealing, and Apple released System 7 for the Macintosh, now referred to as OS 7.
Image Credit: willyhoops.com
The early OS won several awards in the press, which was one of the seven reasons Apple touted in its advertising campaign (take a look here). Apple was also quick to point out how much more powerful System 7 was compared to previous versions, but that also required beefier hardware. System 7 was the first Apple OS to require a hard drive, and the memory footprint almost doubled. This caused System 7 to run comparatively sluggish on older hardware.
The biggest point in System 7’s favor was that it was actually free to copy and distribute. That’s something that has never been the case with Windows, and probably never will be.
Windows 3.1
Circa 1992
Like Apple’s System 7, Microsoft’s Windows 3.1 represented a substantial upgrade over previous versions and it became one of the first major PC GUI operating systems to see widespread use. According to Microsoft, more than 1,000 changes were made to Windows 3.1, including the mouse trail, which made it "easier to find the cursor on a laptop display."
Image Credit: computerhovel.com
Whereas System 7 left a larger memory footprint in its path, Windows 3.1 eased memory constraints somewhat by running in 386 enhanced memory mode. However, this could sometimes be tricky because MS-DOS had only 640KB of memory available for storing programs. This is where it’s important to note that Windows 3.1 was essentially a shell on top of MS-DOS, and not a full fledged OS.
Image Credit: Microsoft
Later in 1992, Microsoft would release an extended version of Windows 3.1 called Windows for Workgroups 3.1. This new version offered support for SMB file sharing via the NetBEUI or IPX network protocols and it came with all the network software necessary for sharing files, printers, OLE objects, and DDE data with other Windows for Workgroups (WFW)-equipeed computers.
Fun Fact: Microsoft continued to support Win 3.1 up until the end of 2001, and it still lived on as an embedded OS until November, 2008.
Solaris 2.x and 7-10
Circa 1992
What else is there besides DOS, Mac, and Windows? UNIX, for one, which is the category Solaris finds itself in. Solaris would do battle with Microsoft’s NT line of OSes in the server space rather than the consumer desktop market.
One of Solaris’ strengths lies in supporting a large number of processors, and while it has been the go-to OS for Sun’s SPARC hardware, starting with Solaris 2.1, the UNIX-based OS also started supporting x86 systems, as well as the PowerPC platform.
Image Credit: tenox.tc
The latest release — Solaris 10 / SunOS 5.10 — includes x86-64 support, a GRUB bootloader for x86 systems, Samba Active Directory support, and SpeedStep (Intel) and PowerNow! (AMD) support.
NeXTSTEP
Circa 1992
Founded by a then-exiled-from-Apple Steve Jobs, NeXT started off as a hardware business but began focusing solely on software in 1993, a year after the company began porting the NeXTSTEP OS to PCs running Intel’s 486 processor.
A combination of parts, NeXT can be described as a Unix OS based on the Mach kernel with source code from BSD Unix, while also containing a Display PostScript, windowing engine, and several object toolkits. Because NeXT featured the Objective-C language, writing apps for the OS was easier than it was for other platforms.
Image Credit: osnews.com
As development continued, NeXTSTEP would morph in OpenStep, a multiplatform OS capable of running several different hardwre platforms, including NeXT hardware, HP RISC workstations, Intel Pentium PCs, and Sun SPARC.
In 1996, Apple acquired NeXT for $429 million with the intention of using NeXTSTEP to replace Mac OS. While that wouldn’t quite play out, some of NeXTSTEP’s DNA would be injected into Mac OS X, including the Dock, the Services menu, the Finder’s browser view, and a few other odds and ends.
AmigaOS 3.x
Circa 1992
The cluttered OS wars of yesteryear also included Amiga OS 3.x, which shipped with the Commodore Amiga CD32, Commodore Amiga 1200, Commodore Amiga 4000, and the Commodore-built Amiga 4000T.
Image Credit: gregdonner.com
Through incremental updates, Amiga OS 3.x would come to support the CD file system, AVI/MPEG movie player, a Find utilty, limited support for PowerPC CPUs, and support for hard drives exceeding 4GB.
Windows NT 3.1
Circa 1993
In 1993, Microsoft released Windows 3.1, the first of Microsoft’s Windows NT line of server and business desktop OSes. The version number 3.1 was chosen both because the UI was a replica of Windows 3.1, and as a marketing ploy to position the OS ahead of IBM’s competing OS/2 version 2.1 and Solaris 2.x.
Image Credit: toastytech.com
Though the UI was the same as Windows 3.1 on the desktop, the NT version was written from the ground up as a 32-bit OS. And because it was a full fledged OS and not a shell, the NT version added several Control Panel items not found in the regular version of 3.1 in order to manage various services and device drivers. It also introduced a Security menu to manage file permissions.
On the processor front, NT 3.1 offered support for Intel’s i860 CPU, x86 (starting with the 80386), MIPS R4000 processor, and eventually the DEC Alpha CPU.
MS-DOS 6.x
Circa 1993
Introduced roughly two years after MS-DOS 5.0, version 6.0 was considered a significant upgrade. The new version greatly improved memory management, which came as a boon to anyone running 386 or greater machines. An integrated utility called DoubleSpace served as a handy disk compression tool, and the 6.0 release also included a backup utility, antivirus program, and Undelete command.
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Later versions would add even more functionality, such as an uncompress feature, speedier CD-ROM performance thanks to disk caching, and a ScanDisk utility.
Fun Fact: Other notable tech developments in 1993: Bill Clinton puts the White House online with a webpage and email address for the President, Vice President, and first lady, Energy Star guidelines are established, and id releases Doom.
Windows 3.2
Circa 1994
Whoa, whoa, whoa – what happened to Windows 3.11? The reason we don’t include the incremental update is because, well, it was an incremental update and not a new version of Windows, somewhat similar to today’s Service Packs.
That brings us to Windows 3.2, an OS we do include and arguably makes us hypocritical. You probably never used this version, and that’s because it was essentially a Simplified Chinese translation of Windows 3.1. It did add a few font related utilities, but not much else.
Windows NT 3.5
Circa 1994
The second release of Windows NT, version 3.5 put a heavier emphasis on speed. It also was the first version to use separate NT Workstation and NT Server nomenclature. Those who wanted all the bells and whistles bought the Server version, while the Workstation version was sold for a lower price and nixed a few functions and network options, and also limited the number of concurrent users to 10.
Image Credit: Microsoft
One interesting thing to note about NT 3.5 is that neither version fully supported laptop computing simply because the two versions lacked drivers for the PCMCIA adapter cards.
Apple System 7.5 (Mac OS 7.5)
Circa 1994
The Macintosh celebrated its 10th anniversary in 1994, and in June of that year, System 7.5 emerged. Codenamed Mozart, Apple’s latest OS confronted stability issues head-on and was poised to compete with future versions of Windows. Applications optimized for the OS gained a new level of performance and scalability.
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System 7.5 won praise for the plethora of new features and utilities built into the OS, such as Macintosh PC Exchange (previously a paid add-on), AppleScript (create scripts and macros), and the QuickDraw GX print engine. But all this new functionality came at a cost, and as was previously the case, System 7.5 again increased its memory footprint, requiring a staggering (at the time) 8MB of memory to fully take advantage of the OS.
Behind the scenes, 1994 was also the year Apple lost a six-year court battle with Microsoft. The United State Court of Appeals for the Ninth District upheld a lower court’s decision rejecting Apple’s claim that the "look and feel" of the Mac system (icon design, windows, etc) could be protected by copyright law.
OS/2 Warp 3.0
Circa 1994
Riding on the success of OS/2 Warp 2.x, IBM followed it up with version 3.0 in 1994. It was the first PC operating system to boast built-in Internet support, along with robust networking options.
Image Credit: wikimedia.com
Initially, OS/2 Warp 3.0 couldn’t run Windows 3.1 applications, but it would later address this issue with the Win-OS/2 subsystem. In addition, 3.0 upped the ante in terms of Print performance, PCMCIA support, and multimedia support, and it also added TCP/IP and Internet communications.
IBM had a success on their hands, and by the time Windows 95 was released, resellers were reporting record sales on OS/2.
Windows NT 3.51
Circa 1995
Microsoft originally referred to NT 3.51 as "the PowerPC release." This was because it was designed around the PowerPC version of NT that was originally supposed to ship in version 3.5. However, IBM was late in pushing out its PowerPC hardware, which ultimately led to a separate NT release in May 1995.
Image Credit: guidebookgallery.org
The NT 3.51 release came with a few features that Microsoft was also bundling into its 32-bit DOS-based Windows 95 OS, such as long file name support and a different style of online help files.
Fun Fact: When Microsoft released Windows 3.51 in 1995, the software maker chose not to implement the Start Menu that was being built into Windows 95. This decision led end users to unaffectionately refer to ‘NT’ as ‘Not There,’ ‘Next Time,’ and ‘Nice Try.’
Windows 95
Circa 1995
Originally codenamed Chicago, Windows 95 represented a "paradigm shift for the computer industry," says Paul Thurrott, a technology reporter who owns and operates the popular SuperSite for Windows. And he was right. Unlike previous versions of Windows, which were designed to run on top of DOS, Windows 95 can be considered an entire operating system, although that point remains debatable since it was still possible to boot into DOS before Windows could load.
Image Credit: Microsoft
Sporting a completely redesigned interface — including a new Start Menu — Windows 95 eventually kicked into motion Microsoft’s penchant for bundling Internet Explorer with its OS, a move that would ultimately contribute to Netscape’s demise and cost Microsoft oodles of money in fines to the EU (present day).
Fun Fact: Several Easter Eggs lay hidden in Windows 95. In Windows 95 OSR2, for example, you could bring up a volcano screensaver by typing "volcano" in the text box for the 3D Text screensaver.
Windows NT 4.0
Circa 1996
In September 1996, Microsoft would release its fourth NT operating system, Windows NT 4.0. Like NT 3.51, this newest version came in both workstation and server flavor, but unlike previous versions, NT 4.0 sported a graphical overhaul very similar to Windows 95.
Image Credit: csulb.edu
Thanks to the use of protected memory and the hardware abstraction layer, NT 4.0 boasted better stability than the already released Windows 95. However, stability came at the cost of more RAM. It was also a poor choice for gamers because of limited DirectX support and a security measure that didn’t allow for direct access to hardware resources.
Max OS 7.6
Circa 1997
While Windows 95 brought forth a completely redesigned UI and a major overhaul to the core architecture, Mac OS 7.6, codenamed Harmony, was focused on cramming more features into the core 7.x package. It was also about marketing, with Apple dropping the ‘System’ label and switching to ‘Mac OS.’ This gave Apple a bit of wiggle room in the trademarking department, as well as a more branded nomenclature to compete with Microsoft’s Windows software.
Image Credit: danpalka.net
During this same year, Steve Jobs delivered a keynote in Boston announcing a patent cross licensing agreement between Apple and Microsoft. Rather than continue to claim that Microsoft was copying the "look and feel" of Mac OS, the cross licensing agreement freed up both companies to license each other’s existing patents, as well as any future patents for the next 5 years. But that wasn’t all.
Part of the agreement included making Internet Explorer the default browser on new Macs. Microsoft in turn agreed to release versions of Microsoft Office for the Mac for the duration of the agreement (5 years), in addition to buying up $150 million in Apple stock at market price. Why? Because it would give Microsoft a "vested interest" in seeing Apple do well.
Mac OS 8.x
Circa 1997
Between 1997 and 1999, Apple would release five iterations of its OS 8.x software, culminating in OS 8.6. For a single C-note, the initial release was a huge leap forward, starting with the completely rewritten Finder and slicker looking interface. Being PowerPC native, OS 8 ran much smoother on PowerPC-based Macs and it was also multithreaded.
Image Credit: kernelthread.com
In a sort of reversal of roles, Apple took a page from Microsoft by implementing contextual menus, a concept that Windows 95 users had already become familiar with. By Control-clicking on just about any item, a pop-up menu of available options would appear, such as Help, Open, Get Info, and more. Noticeably absent was the Print command, but Apple did make the contextual menus extensible for third-party developers to add plug-ins.
Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition
Circa 1998
While popular, Windows 98 wasn’t as significant an upgrade over Windows 95 as Windows 95 was to Windows 3.x. In fact, some billed Win 98 as little more than Win 95 with Internet Explorer 4.0 thrown in.
Image Credit: toastytech.com
Naturally, Microsoft’s perception is a little different. The software maker considers Windows 98 the first version of Windows designed specifically for consumers, and to that end, a lot of effort was put into making the OS more user-friendly. Ease-of-use improvements included the ability to open and close apps more quickly, support for reading DVDs, and much improved USB support.
Image Credit: computerhovel.com
Nearly a year after Windows 98 was first released, Microsoft followed up with an update called Windows 98 Second Edition in May 1999. The update addressed a bunch of known issues and offered a wide range of improvements, some of which included better USB support, upgrading to DirectX 6.1, the introduction of IE 5, the addition of Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), and more.
Mac OS 9.x
Circa 1999
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Mac OS 9 would mark the last of the classic Mac OSes before switching to OS X. The hype machine was in high gear when Apple released what Steve Jobs considered the "the best Internet operating system ever," which mostly referred to the OS’s Sherlock 2 software. Sherlock 2 introduced "channels" for different types of browsing online, with eight channels defined by default and unable to be deleted by the end-user. These included Files, Internet, Shopping, News, Apple, Reference, My Channel, and Entertainment.
Image Credit: Wikipeda
Sherlock 2 was just one of the claimed "50 New Features." OS X 9 also included integrated support for multiple user accounts (the first publicly released version of Mac OS to do so), voice login, a Software Update control panel for automatic downloads of Apple system updates, improved networking, support for files larger than 2GB, and built-in encryption through the click of a mouse button, to name just a few.
But no matter how much Apple and Jobs talked up the new OS, it continued to present little threat to Microsoft’s market share dominance at this point.
Windows Millennium Edition (ME)
Circa 2000
We hesitate to even include Windows ME in this retrospective, as most anyone who ever had the displeasure of using the OS want nothing more than to never again be reminded of the experience.
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So what made Windows ME so bad? That depends on who you ask, really. There are some who managed to run the stop-gap OS without issue, but many weren’t so lucky. Instability and frequent crashes led to at least one publication calling ME the "Mistake Edition."
On the technical side, Win ME was the last Microsoft OS to be based on the Windows 95 code base, whereas Microsoft announced all future versions would be based on the Windows NT and Windows 2000 kernel.
Windows 2000
Circa 2000
As the successor to Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 was geared towards business computers and not home users. It was built on top of the NT 4.0 code base and would be offered in four versions: Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server.
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Borrowing from Windows 98/SE for use in the NT line, Windows 2000 came with support for Internet Connection Sharing, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer 5, FAT32, and more.
Windows XP
Circa 2001
Still today hordes of users cling to Windows XP like moths to a flame, only without the threat of incineration. It’s the only operating system to date ever to receive a perfect 10/Kick Ass verdict in Maximum PC (November 2001 issue, page 41), and with good reason. XP combined the rock solid stability of Windows 2000 with a slick interface and improved game support, among many other features. Much of the stability can attributed the the 32-bit WinNT kernel and NTFS file system.
Image Credit: file- extensions.org
Throughout XP’s lifetime, three Service Packs would be released, each one plugging up security holes and improving performance. But it was SP2 that could be considered the most important, if for no other reason than it included a firewall that was turned on by default..
Following vocal opposition to XP’s kill date, Microsoft ultimately delayed the ‘death’ of XP from February 1, 2008 to June 30, 2008, at which point the software maker stopped selling copies of the popular OS in most venues. However, XP continues to be made available at most e-tailers, and XP dominates the uber popular netbook scene.
Mac OS X 10.0 to 10.2
Circa 2001
Just as XP marked a dramatic departure over previous Windows OSes, so too did Mac OS X over the original Mac OS. Starting with OS X, Apple moved to a Unix-based operating system. The new code base was derived from technology developed at NeXT.
Image Credit: Apple
OS X featured a brand new GUI called Aqua and because of its Unix base, Apple’s OS boasted true multitasking for the first time. It introduced the Dock to Mac users, as well as OpenGL support, Sherklock desktop and Internet search, protected memory, and more. But OS X wasn’t without some initial growing pains. Version 10.0 was buggy, not completely stable, and drew criticism for being sluggish. It also was missing a few features, like DVD playback and CD burning.
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Mac OS X 10.1 addressed many of the bugs that plagued the OS’s initial release and added a bunch of features previously missing, including Dock repositioning. Performance was also improved. Despite all this, critics still considered the OS to be buggy.
Image Credit: guidebookgallery.org
In 2002, Apple released Mac OS X 10.3, a fairly major update that greatly enhanced stability with hundreds of minor bug fixes. Aqua also received some TLC with Apple claiming it had added 100 new features. Many would consider 10.2 to be the first usable release of OS X. This would also mark the first time Apple would use OS X’s codename (in this case, Jaguar) when marketing the software, a practice which remains today.
Fun Fact: Mac OS X 10.2 would be the last Mac OS to use Internet Explorer ast he default browser.
Windows Server 2003
Circa 2003
Image Credit: thecpu.us
As you might have guessed (and if you didn’t, you’re not paying attention), Windows Server 2003 was released in 2003. And as you also probably surmised, it was aimed for server use with a number of different editions designed for various sized and types of businesses (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web Edition). It was the first server operating system to feature built-in Microsoft .NET functionality, and in 2005, Microsoft released an update called Windows Server 2003 R2. The R2 update made remote server management easier, as well as introduced improvements to storage duties.
Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4
Crica 2003
Image Credit: forums.macrumors.com
First introduced in late 2003, OS X 10.3 "Panther," the fourth version of Mac OS X, was a minor upgrade, or a major one if you listened to Apple. According to Apple, over 150 features were added, with some of the more notable ones including an updated Finder with built-in Zip support, a Windows-like task switching scheme, Exposé, Font Book, a new version of iChat AV with built-in audio and video conferencing, and other updates. But compared with Windows, OS X stilled lacked major third-party support, and gamers were particularly neglected. As Paul Thurrott put it, "although Panther improves Mac OS X, it doesn’t change that system’s overall lot in life as a minor alternative to XP."
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In 2005, Apple would release Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" for $130. Many of the changes took place under the hood, and it was the first Mac OS to work on Intel-based Macs running a x86 CPU. In two weeks time, Apple sold 2 million copies of Tiger, allowing Apple to claim Tiger as the most successful Apple OS ever.
Windows Vista
Circa 2006
Originally referred to as Longhorn before its release, Vista would stumble out of the gate to a mixed reception. On one hand, the modern-looking OS boasted a snazzy UI that finally took advantage of more powerful videocards, several security improvements over XP, and a supercharged search courtesy of Vista’s indexing.
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On the other hand, poor disk performance plagued pre-SP1 Vista, as did graphics instability, which may have been attributable to poor drivers on Nvidia’s part (see here for more info). And then there’s the overbearing UAC, which Microsoft ultimately admitted was intentionally designed to annoy. Throw in a Vista Capable lawsuit and a slow roll out of DirectX 10 games, and it’s easy to see why XP remains so popular.
Today, many of the early problems that hampered Vista have since been addressed, but with Windows 7 right around the corner, it might be too little too late.
Mac OS X 10.5
Circa 2007
While Vista was still being criticized by even staunch Windows users, OS X 10.5 Leopard came into the scene in 2007 sporting 300 changes and enhancements, according to Apple. And according to Arstechnica, Leopard’s appearance, while not a new beginning, "is still the most substantial visual change in the history of OS X."
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Apple intended to ship OS X 10.5 before Vista, but like Vista, Leopard was late to market. But unlike Vista, Leopard wasn’t a brand new architecture, which worked in Mac’s favor. That doesn’t mean Leopard didn’t come with some major new features. One of these was the introduction of Time Machine, Apple’s take on Microsoft’s Previous Versions feature for backing up and restoring a PC. Another is Spaces, which is Apple’s version of a Unix feature called workspaces, allowing users to configure two or more virtual desktops, each with its own application windows.
AmigaOS 4.x
Circa 2006
Released at the tail end of 2006 (Christmas Eve), the latest version of AmigaOS shed support for the Motorola 68K processor and became PowerPC native. And while AmigaOS is not (and never really was) a real threat to either Microsoft or Apple’s grasp on the OS market, it’s not without some compelling features. Chief among them is an insanely fast bootup/reboot time (just a few seconds) and the ability to turn off the PC instantly.
Image Credit: Gizmodo
AmigaOS is also unique in how it handles task-switching. Just about every app has the ability to open in its own full-screen graphics mode (think of how a typical game opens in Windows), allowing the user to switch between them with a lightening quick response.
Windows Home Server
Circa 2007
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Microsoft first previewed its Windows Home Server OS at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas before officially releasing the product in July that same year. Based on Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2, Home Server is designed to give consumers a simple interface for a variety of sever-based tasks, including backup duties, data recovery, remote access, and as a media storage and organizer.
The latest version is Home Server 2008, which is based on the same code as Vista.
Mac OS X 10.6
Circa 2009 (Late August)
Due for release in September of this year, Apple’s upcoming OS, Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" will be the first Mac OS release since System 7.1.2 to not support the PowerPC architecture. Instead, Apple is committed to focusing on its Intel-based products going forward.
The new OS will include support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 as well as built-in applications designed to take advantage of 64-bit addressing (except for iTunes, Front Row, Grapher, and DVD Player apps).
Image Credit: Apple
Like Windows 7 (see below), Snow Leopard is being engineered to use less resources than its predecessor, helped in part by cutting out the PowerPC code. This is one area where Snow Leopard trumps Windows 7, requiring 5GB of hard drive space compared to 16GB (32-bit) or 20GB (64-bit) for Microsoft’s upcoming OS.
One of the bigger battles shaping up in the next-gen OS wars is Mac OS X’s Dock versus Windows 7’s Taskbar. Simply put, the new taskbar in Microsoft’s upcoming OS rocks, but OS X’s improved Dock is also pretty snazzy, allowing users to easily drop files into open application windows.
Windows 7
Circa 2009 (October)
Windows 7 isn’t due for official release until October 22, 2009, but the upcoming OS has already attracted an eager userbase. We’ve been playing with the beta and, more recently, Release Candidate (RC) version for the past several months and can verify that Windows 7 deserves every bit of the hype it’s receiving (read our full review based on a final build here).
Windows 7 combines the performance of XP with the security and features of Vista, and then tosses in a bunch of other goodies, not the least of which is a new Taskbar that makes managing multiple open windows a breeze. The general consensus is that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been all along.
Linux: The Early Years
Slackware – Circa 1993
Linus Torvalds introduced Linux in 1991 and Slackware would emerge as one of the earliest Linux distros and oldest one still being maintained and supported.
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The first Slackware release came in 1993 as a fork from the Softlanding Linux System and focused on keeping things simple, at least in terms of the OS’s makeup. It also sought to be the most "Unix-like" distro, which it succeeded in doing at the time. Slackware would quickly become the most popular Linux distro on the planet, accounting for up to 80 percent on all Linux installs in 1995. Red Hat and other user-friend distros cut into Slackware’s market share considerably.
Debian – Circa 1993
Released in the same year as Slackware, Ian Murdock developed Debian in response to criticism over Softlanding Linux System’s buggy code. Because of this, Debian was designed to be one of the most stable Linux distros available, a philosophy which carries through to the present day. This is helped by Debian being governed by a constitution, social contract, and policy documents.
Image Credit: frilinux.net
In 1998, Debian 2.0 was released for the Intel i386 and Motorola 68000 series, and later Debian 2.1 would feature official support for both Alpha and SPARC. Over the years, Debian has grown to include ports to several different architectures, including the PowerPC and ARM architecture.
OpenSUSE – Circa 1994
With the world now warming to Linux, OpenSUSE made its debut in 1994, which makes SUSE the oldest existing commercial distribution. It started off as simply a German version of Slackware before the first true SUSE distro would be emerge in 1996 under the name S.u.S.E. Linux 4.2.
Image Credit: linuxjournal.com
SUSE served as the No. 1 distro in Germany, and in 1997, the company set up shop in Oakland, California in an attempt to expand its success to the U.S.
Today, SUSE remains popular and is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit form.
Red Hat Linux – Circa 1994
As one of the earliest distributions, Red Hat Linux (now Red Had Enterprise Linux) is also one of the most feared by Microsoft, who just recently listed Red Hat (along with Canonical) as competitors to its Client division in its annual filing with the SEC. It’s the first time Microsoft has ever acknowledged Linux in such a manner.
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In the beginning, Red Hat’s goals weren’t necessarily to challenge Microsoft, but to "make it easier for people to give Linux a try." It did this by bundling all the necessary pieces into a cohesive distribution, but rather than being a snapshot of a hard disk that had a working copy of Linux on it or a set of floppies with different parts of the OS scattered about, Red Had was based on packages. Each package provided a different piece of software that the user could count on to run without issue, which also made the OS easily upgradeable.
Released in 1995, Red Hat Linux 2.0 would introduce a new package manager called RPM, which would go on to serve as the starting point for several other distributions. Since the release of 4.0 a year later, Red Hat Linux would run on three major computing platforms, including Intel compatible PCs, Digital Alpha computers, and Sun SPARC hardware.
OpenBSD – Circa 1996
Well before Ubuntu would really popularize Linux as a viable alternative to Windows among the mainstream crowd, there was OpenBSD. A project forked from NetBSD, OpenBSD was developed by Theo de Raadt, who co-founded the former and developed the latter.
Image Credit: Wikipeda
The first release — version 1.2 — would come to fruition in July 1996 and version 2.0 would follow just three months later. This aggressive release schedule would become a distinguishing characteristic of OpenBSD, which has since followed a six-month release schedule.
Another characteristic of OpenBSD was, and remains, a heavy focus on security, an area Microsoft has oft been criticized. On April 1, 2001 (April Fools Day), an email circulated through the OpenBSD community claiming Microsoft had announced it was dropping its NT kernel and would base its next generation OS on OpenBSD (it was fake).
Mandriva Linux – Circa 1998
Mandriva’s now familiar goal was to make "a Linux distribution that would be as easy to use as Windows." The very first release borrowed heavily from Red Hat Linux, which shared a similar goal, and it shipped with KDE 1.0 as the default graphical environment.
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Today Mandriva remains a viable option for users new to Linux while also boasing large hardware support by default. However, it’s also one of the ‘heavier’ Linux distros available, making it somewhat sluggish on older PCs.
Knoppix – Circa 2000
Every IT worth his salt should be familiar with Knoppix, the Debian-based OS designed to run from a Live CD or Live DVD. While Knoppix doesn’t present a threat to Windows (it can actually be installed on a hard disk), it does find itself in every serious IT’s toolbox for troubleshooting on the go.
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Knoppix was first released in 2000 and is considered by many as the original Debian-based Live CD. There have been other versions of Linux early on that were able to run as demos and rescue disks, but superior hardware detection and automed configuration scripts gave Knoppix a leg up on the competition.
Linspire – Circa 2001
You may better remember Linspire as LindowsOS, the controversially-named OS based on Debian GNU/Linux (and now Ubuntu). As the name implies, Linspire was developed as a commercial alternative to Windows capable of running Windows programs. It initially tried to this with with Wine before later shifting its focus away from Windows and towards Linux programs.
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Microsoft filed suit against Lindows in 2002 for obvious reasons and initially lost the court fight. Before a retrial could take place, the two sides settled out of court with Microsoft paying roughly $20 million to buy the Lindows trademark. Since then, it has been called Linspire.
Fedora – Circa 2003
Another RPM-based distro like Red Hat and Mandrake, Fedora picked up in 2003 where Red Hat Linux left off (Red Hat Linux discontinued its focus on the desktop and proceeded forward with Red Hat Enterprise Linux).
Image Credit: phoronix
Fedora has always been largely a community-driven collaboration containing only free and open-source software.The first release of Fedora — Fedora Core 1 — was based on Red Hat Linux 9 and shipped with the Linux 2.4.19 kernel and GNOME 2.4.0. It wasn’t until Fedora Core 4 was released in 2005 that the Linux distro would support the PowerPC architecture.
And Then There Was Ubuntu
Ubuntu – Circa 2004
Sometimes it takes a perfect alignment of the moon and stars to get things just right. Take Linux, for example. In the battle for desktop supremacy, no one outside of the open-source faithful truly believed Linux had much of a fighting chance at snagging significant market share away from Microsoft, and some still don’t. But Linux is closer than ever to becoming a mainstream no-cost alternative to Windows, a result of Vista’s bug-prone initial release and Canonical developing an open-source OS so easy even Aunt Mabel could get through an install.
Image Credit: theopensourcerer.com
This wasn’t necessarily the case when Ubuntu was first released in 2004. On the Windows side, users had already become entrenched with XP, and Ubuntu lacked the overall polish and hardware support to convert an already content userbase. But once Vista shipped and the complaints started pouring in, users who previously never considered Linux began looking at Ubuntu, which was steadily improving and attracting more developer support (even Creative has jumped on board).
Ubuntu comes preinstalled with a variety of software, including OpenOffice, Pidgin, Firefox, GIMP, and a bunch more. If there’s a Windows-specific app that a user simply can’t live without, there’s a good chance Ubuntu can still oblige via Wine.
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