LATEST OPERATING SYSTEM

WINDOWS 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) is the next release of Microsoft Windows, an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs.

Microsoft stated in 2007 that it is planning Windows 7 development for a three-year time frame starting after the release of its predecessor,Windows Vista, but that the final release date will be determined by product quality.

Unlike its predecessor, Windows 7 is intended to be an incremental upgrade with the goal of being fully compatible with existing device drivers, applications, and hardware. Presentations given by the company in 2008 have focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup, and performance improvements. Some applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, most notably Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery, are no longer included with the operating system; they are instead offered separately (free of charge) as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite.

WINDOWS VISTA is an operating system developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs. Prior to its announcement on July 22, 2005, Windows Vista was known by its codename Longhorn. Development was completed on November 8, 2006; over the following three months it was released in stages to computer hardware and software manufacturers, business customers, and retail channels. On January 30, 2007, it was released worldwide, and was made available for purchase and download from Microsoft's website. The release of Windows Vista came more than five years after the introduction of its predecessor, Windows XP, the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft Windows.Windows Vista contains many changes and new features, including an updated graphical user interface and visual style dubbed Windows Aero, improved searching features, new multimedia creation tools such as Windows DVD Maker, and redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems. Vista also aims to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network, using peer-to-peer technology to simplify sharing files and digital media between computers and devices. Windows Vista includes version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which aims to make it significantly easier for software developers to write applications than with the traditional Windows API.

Microsoft's primary stated objective with Windows Vista, however, has been to improve the state of security in the Windows operating system. One common criticism of Windows XP and its predecessors has been their commonly exploited security vulnerabilities and overall susceptibility to malware, viruses and buffer overflows. In light of this, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced in early 2002 a company-wide "Trustworthy Computing initiative" which aims to incorporate security work into every aspect of software development at the company. Microsoft stated that it prioritized improving the security of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 above finishing Windows Vista, thus delaying its completion.

While these new features and security improvements have garnered positive reviews, Vista has also been the target of much criticism and negative press. Criticism of Windows Vista has targeted its high system requirements, its more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of a number of new digital rights management technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, lack of compatibility with some pre-Vista hardware and software, and the number of authorization prompts for User Account Control. As a result of these and other issues, Windows Vista has seen adoption and satisfaction rates lower than Windows XP. However Vista is keeping well up with expectations stated by Microsoft before its launch of getting 200 million users by January 2009.

Mac OS X version 10.5 “Leopard” is the sixth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers, and the successor to Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger”. Leopard was released on 26 October 2007, and is available in two variants: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a server version, Mac OS X Server. Apple offers a reduced-cost upgrade to people who purchased new Apple computers after 1 October 2007 that do not already have Mac OS X v10.5 pre-installed or a Leopard upgrade DVD included. Steve Jobs stated at Macworld 2008 that over 20% of Macs use Leopard as their operating system. Leopard will be superseded by Mac OS X v10.6 “Snow Leopard”, which is expected to ship in the fourth quarter of 2009.

According to Apple, Leopard contains over 300 changes and enhancements, covering core operating system components as well as included applications and developer tools. Leopard introduces a significantly revised desktop, with a redesigned Dock, Stacks, a semitransparent menu bar, and an updated Finder that incorporates the Cover Flow visual navigation interface first seen in iTunes. Other notable features include support for writing 64-bit graphical user interface applications, an automated backup utility called Time Machine, support for Spotlight searches across multiple machines, and the inclusion of Front Row and Photo Booth, which were previously only included with some Mac models. Its release was delayed because of the development of the iPhone.

The LoseThos IBM PC Operating System x86_64bit, open source, 100% free LoseThos is for programming as entertainment. It empowers programmers with kernel privilege. It is in no way a Windows or Linux wannabe -- that would be pointless. LoseThos is not trying to win a prize for low resource usage or run on pathetic hardware. Low line count is a goal, though. It's 100,000 lines of code including a 64-bit compiler, tools and a graphics library. It reboots in 2 seconds plus BIOS time. It uses some tricks to keep line count down, like processing whole files. It has a flat, identity mapped virtual-to-physical address map, the same for all tasks. It updates the whole screen 60 times a second instead of trying to keep track of what has changed. The most demanding application is a full screen video game, so it might as well be optimize for that instead of trying to get idle low. It uses the same compiler for the command line as for programs and it uses the same viewer/editor for the command line, help system, forms and dialogs.

LoseThos is modern. Wrote on a 64-bit compiler and made support for MultiCore. Everybody else does SMP which is great if you wish to run two apps at the same time. LoseThos does master-slave MultiCore, fully under the programmer's control. It is primarily for making video games. It has no networking or Internet support. Similarly, it's not for desktop publishing or multimedia. LoseThos will always run everything in kernel mode. There is no user mode. All programs will have full access to memory, I/O ports, instructions, etc. This means you can crash LoseThos very easily. Also means no security. It will never have full networking support with an Internet browser, etc. It will always have one video mode, 640x480 by 16 colors, unless this mode might become unavailable on computers in the future. You can assume the screen will be the same for everybody. There's plenty of CPU for very little screen to update -- only 1/37th the power needed for a 1600x1200x24 bit mode.

LoseThos documents are not for printing -- they're dynamic and intended for the screen. There will always be just one font, a fixed-width font, and I do not have plans for Unicode, just ASCII.

The Web Browser Is Now Becoming The New Operating System

As websites have come to look more and more like applications rather than static pages, they've begun to bump up against the limits of what today's web browsers can do. And these browsers are starting to resemble as an operating system.