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 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
;Nucleus
License and pricing policies also vary among different systems. The tables below use the following terms:
;BSD
;bundled
;bundled initially
;GPL2
;GPL3
;Per user
;MSU
;MULC
;PSLC
General information
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 | installp, RPM | Service Update Management Assistant | SysV/POSIX | |||
| AmigaOS classic | 68k, PowerPC | Proprietary, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. | Microkernel | Installer | Proprietary | BSD subset | |||
| AmigaOS 4 | PowerPC | Proprietary, JXFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. | Microkernel | Installer | Proprietary | BSD subset | |||
| ArcaOS | IA-32 | JFS, HPFS, ISO 9660, UDF, FAT32, NTFS | Hybrid | ANPM | 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, ISO9660, UDF | Monolithic with modules | ≈17 million | Portage | Linux/POSIX | |||
| DragonFly BSD | x86-64 | UFS1, MFS, ext2, FAT (16/32), HAMMER, ISO 9660 | Hybrid | dports, pkg | git, cvsup, rsync, pkg | BSD/POSIX | Mono, Java, Win16, Win32, Linux | ||
| eComStation | IA-32 | HPFS, FAT, JFS, UDF, FAT32, NTFS | Hybrid | WarpIN, Feature Install, others | Maintenance Tool | Proprietary, DOS API, Win16 | POSIX, Java, others | ||
| FreeBSD | IA-32, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, | UFS2, ZFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, others | Monolithic with modules | Ports collection, packages | by source, network binary update | 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 | Custom | - | Genode | POSIX, Qt, SDL, MirageOS | |
| GhostBSD | IA-32, x86-64 | UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS, XFS, ZFS, others | Monolithic with modules | Ports collection, packages | by source, network binary update | BSD/POSIX | Mono, Java, Win16, Win32, Linux | ||
| Linux | IA-32, x86-64, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC, others | ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, F2FS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, and others | Monolithic with modules | ≈15 million lines of code for userland libraries and applications vary depending on the distribution | Depends on the distribution | Linux/POSIX | Mono, Java, Win16, Win32 | ||
| Haiku | IA-32, PowerPC, x86-64 | BFS, FAT, ISO 9660, ext3, NTFS | Hybrid | ≈5.2 million | Ports collection | pkgman, HaikuDepot | POSIX, BeOS API | Java, Qt | |
| HP-UX | PA-RISC, IA-64 | VxFS, HFS, CDFS, EVFS, NFS, CIFS | Monolithic with modules | SD, swinstall | swa | SysV/POSIX | |||
| HarmonyOS | 64-bit ARM, RISC-V, x86, x64 and LoongArch | HMDFS, EROFS, NFS, RAMFS, FAT, JFFS2, exFAT | Microkernel | ≈239.6 million | .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 | Proprietary | |||||
| iOS | ARMv8-A, ARMv7-A, ARMv6 | HFS+, APFS | Hybrid | ≈80 million | ? | Software Update | Cocoa, BSD-POSIX | ? | |
| Classic Mac OS | 68k, PowerPC | HFS+, HFS, MFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF | Monolithic with modules | - | Software Update | Toolbox, Carbon | |||
| macOS | Apple silicon, x86-64, IA-32, PowerPC | HFS+, APFS, HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS, FTP, WebDAV, ZFS | Hybrid with modules | ≈86 million | macOS Installer | Software Update | Carbon, Cocoa, Java, BSD-POSIX | Toolbox, Win16, Win32 | |
| MINIX 3 | IA-32 | Microkernel | ≈12,000 + ≈1,400 | POSIX | |||||
| NetBSD | IA-32, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, sparc64, | UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, LFS, and others | Monolithic with modules | pkgsrc | by source or binary | BSD-POSIX | Linux, | ||
| NetWare | 16-bit x86, IA-32 | NSS, NWFS, FAT, NFS, AFP, UDF, CIFS, ISO 9660 | Hybrid | NWCONFIG.NLM, RPM, X11-based GUI installer | binary updates, ZENWorks for Servers, Red Carpet | Proprietary | |||
| OpenBSD | IA-32, x86-64, SPARC, 68k, Alpha, | ffs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, some others | Monolithic | Ports collection, packages | by source or binary | BSD-POSIX | |||
| OpenVMS | VAX, Alpha, IA-64, x86-64 | Files-11, ISO 9660, NFS, CIFS | Monolithic with modules | PCSI, VMSINSTAL | Proprietary | POSIX, RSX-11M | |||
| OS/2 | 16-bit x86, IA-32 | HPFS, JFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS | Monolithic with modules | 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+ | .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 | .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 | - | replica | Proprietary | 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 | Hybrid | nearly 8 million | ReactOS Applications Manager, MSI, custom installers | - | Win32, NT API | DOS API | |
| Redox | x86-64 | RedoxFS, TFS | Microkernel | pkgutils | POSIX | ||||
| RISC OS | ARM | Acorn ADFS, Econet ANFS, FAT, ISO 9660, many others as loadable filesystems | Monolithic with modules. Cooperative multitasking with limited memory protection. | 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 | - | - | POSIX, propertiary | ||
| Solaris | IA-32, x86-64, SPARC | UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others | Monolithic with modules | SysV packages Image Packaging System | Image Packaging System | SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java | Win16, Win32, Mono, Linux | ||
| OpenSolaris | IA-32, x86-64, SPARC | UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others | Monolithic with modules | ≈18.8 million | Image Packaging System, SysV packages | Image Packaging System | SysV/POSIX, GTK, Java | Win16, Win32, Mono, Linux | |
| STOP 6, XTS-400 | x86 | Proprietary | Monolithic | RPM for some untrusted applications | Binary updates via postal mail and proprietary tools | Some: SysV, POSIX, Linux, proprietary | |||
| Symbian | ARM | FAT | Microkernel | SIS files | FOTA | Proprietary | POSIX compatibility layer | ||
| TrueOS | IA-32, x86-64 | UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS, XFS and others | Monolithic with modules | Ports collection, packages, PBI Graphical Installers | by PBI updates, source, network binary update | BSD-POSIX | Win16, Win32 | ||
| Windows Server | 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 | MSI, custom installers | Windows Update | Win32, NT API | DOS API, Win16, POSIX, .NET | |
| Windows | 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 | Hybrid with modules | ≈40 /64 million | MSI, custom installers | Windows Update | Win32, NT API | DOS API, Win16, POSIX,.NET | |
| ZETA | IA-32 | BFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, HFS, AFP, ext2, CIFS, NTFS, ReiserFS | Hybrid | SoftwareValet, script-based installers | - | 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. | 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 |
Commands
For POSIX 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 | Windows |
| List directory | |||||||||
| Clear console | : | ||||||||
| Copy file | |||||||||
| Move file | |||||||||
| Rename file | |||||||||
| Delete file | |||||||||
| Delete directory | ) | ||||||||
| Create directory | ) | ||||||||
| Change current directory | ) | ||||||||
| Run shell script with new shell | |||||||||
| Kill processes | |||||||||
| Change process priority | |||||||||
| Change I/O priority | |||||||||
| Create file system | |||||||||
| File system check and recovery | |||||||||
| Create software raid | ) | ) | |||||||
| Mount device | |||||||||
| Unmount device | ) | ||||||||
| Mount file as block device | |||||||||
| Show network configuration | ) | ||||||||
| Show network route | |||||||||
| Trace network route | |||||||||
| Trace network route with pings | |||||||||
| Feature | AROS | FreeBSD | Linux-based | HP-UX | OpenVMS | macOS | Solaris | Windows | Windows |
NOTE: Linux systems may vary by distribution which specific program, or even 'command' is called, via the POSIX function. For example, if you wanted to use the DOS to give you a directory listing with one detailed file listing per line you could use .
Operating system comparisons
- Comparison of BSD operating systems
- Comparison of DOS operating systems
- Comparison of IPv6 support in operating systems
- Comparison of operating system kernels
- Comparison of Linux distributions
- Comparison of netbook-oriented Linux distributions
- Comparison of Microsoft Windows versions
- Comparison of mobile operating systems
- Comparison of open-source operating systems
- Comparison of real-time operating systems
- Comparison of OpenSolaris distributions
- Comparison of Windows Vista and Windows XP