再生之软件帝国-第5部分
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SA &; Europe。 Several ’Internal Use only’ versions were also produced。
This version reflected increases in hardware capabilities, it supported hard drives greater than 32 MB (up to 2 GB) and also EMS memory。
This version was not properly tested and was bug ridden, causing system crashes and loss of data。 The original release was IBM’s, but Microsoft’s version 4。0 (in October) was no better and version 4。01 was released (in November) to correct this, then version 4。01a (in April 1989) as a further improvement。 However many people could not trust this and reverted to version 3。3 while they waited for the plete re…write (version 5 … 3 years later)。 Beta’s of Microsoft’s version 4。0 were apparently shipped as early as ’86 &; ’87。
1988 … November MS…DOS 4。01, PC…DOS 4。01
This corrected many of the bugs seen in version 4。0, but many users simply switched back to version 3。3 and waited for a properly re…written and fully tested version … which did not e until version 5 in June 1991。 Support for disk partitions >;32Mb。
1990 … May 22 Introduction of Windows 3。0 by Bill Gates &; Microsoft。 It is true multitasking (or pretends to be on puters less than an 80386, by operating in ’Real’ mode) system。 It maintained patibility with MS…DOS, on an 80386 it even allows such programs to multitask … which they were not designed to do。 This created a real threat to the Macintosh and despite a similar product, IBM’s OS/2, it was very successful。 Various improvements were made, versions 3。1, 3。11 … but the next major step did not e until Windows ’95 in 1995 which relied much more heavily on the features of the 80386 and provided support for 32 bit applications。
1991 … June MS…DOS 5。0, PC…DOS 5。0
In order to promote OS/2 Bill Gates took every opportunity after it’s release to say ’DOS is dead’, however the development of DOS 5。0 lead to the permanent dropping of OS/2 development。
This version, after the mess of version 4, was properly tested through the distribution of Beta versions to over 7,500 users。 This version included the ability to load device drivers and TSR programs above the 640KB boundary (into UMBs and the HMA), freeing more RAM for programs。 This version marked the end of collaboration between Microsoft and IBM on DOS。
1991 … August Linux is born with the following post to the Use Newsgroup p。os。minix:
Hello everybody out there using minix…
I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be
big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones。
The post was by a Finnish college student, Linus Torvalds, and this hobby grew from these humble beginnings into one of the most widely used UNIX…like operating systems in the world today。 It now runs on many different types of puter, including the Sun SPARC and the paq Alpha, as well as many ARM, MIPS, PowerPC and Motorola 68000 based puters。
In 1992, the GNU project (http://。gnu。org/) adopted the Linux kernel for use on GNU systems while they waited for the development of their own (Hurd) kernel to be pleted。 The GNU project’s aim is to provide a plete and free UNIX like operating system, bining the Linux or Hurd platform with the a plete suite of free software to run on it。 In order to allow it to carry the GNU name, the Linux kernel copyright was changed to the GNU Public License Agreement (http://。gnu。org/copyleft/gpl。html) on the 1st of February 1992。
1992 … April Introduction of Windows 3。1
1993 … December MS…DOS 6。0。 This included a Hard…Disk pression program called DoubleSpace, but a small puting pany called ’Stac’ claimed that DoubleSpace was partly a copy of their pression Program, Stacker。 After paying damages Microsoft withdrew DoubleSpace from MS…DOS 6。2, releasing a new program … DriveSpace … with MS…DOS version 6。22。 In operation and programming interface DriveSpace remains virtually identical to DoubleSpace。 MS…DOS 6。22 remains the last version of MS…DOS released, since Microsoft turned its efforts to Windows ’95。 Windows ’95 (and later) DOS shell reports itself as DOS 7 … and includes a few enhancements, e。g。 support for long filenames。
1994 … March 14 Linus Torvalds released version 1。0 of the Linux Kernel。
1994 … September PC…DOS 6。3 Basically the same as version 5。0 this release by IBM included more bundled software, such as Stacker (the program that caused Microsoft so much embarrassment) and anti…virus software。
1995 … March Linus released Linux Kernel v1。2。0 (Linux’95)。
1995 … August 21 'poss。 23' Windows ’95 was launched by Bill Gates &; Microsoft。 Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows ’95 is an entire operating system … it does not rely on MS…DOS (although some remnants of the old operating system still exist)。 Windows ’95 was written specially for the 80386 and patible puters to make ’full’ use of its 32 bit processing and multitasking capabilities, and thus is much more similar to Windows NT than Windows 3。x。 Windows 95 and NT 4 are almost indistinguishable in many respects … such as User Interface and API。 Unfortunately, in order to maintain backwards patibility, Windows 95 doesn’t impose the same memory protection and security measures that NT does and so suffers from much worse reliability。 Despite being remarkable similar in function to OS/2 Warp (produced by IBM and Microsoft several years earlier, but marketed by IBM), Windows ’95 has proved very popular。
1996 Windows ’95 OSR2 (OEM System Release 2) was released … partly to fix bugs found in release 1 … but only to puter retailers for sale with new systems。 There were actually two separated releases of Windows 95 OSR2 before the introduction of Windows ’98, the second of which contained both USB and FAT32 support … the main selling points of Windows ’98。 FAT32 is a new filing system that provides support for disk paritions bigger than 2。1GB and is better at coping with large disks (especially in terms of wasted space)。
1996 … June 9 Linux 2。0 released。 2。0 was a significant improvement over the earlier versions: it was the first to support multiple architectures (originally developed for the Intel 386 processor, it now supported the Digital Alpha and would very soon support Sun SPARC many others)。 It was also the first stable kernel to support SMP, kernel modules, and much more。
1998 … June 25 Microsoft released Windows ’98。 Some U。S。 attorneys tried to block it’s release since the new O/S interfaces closely with other programs such as Microsoft Inter Explorer and so effectively closes the market of such software to other panies。 Microsoft fought back with a letter to the White House suggesting that 26 of it’s industry allies said that a delay in the release of the new O/S could damage the U。S。 economy。 The main selling points of Windows ’98 were it’s support for USB and it’s support for disk paritions greater than 2。1GB。
1999 … Jan 25 Linux Kernel 2。2。0 Released。 The number of people running Linux is estimated at over 10million, making it an not only important operating system in the Unix world, but an increasingly important one in the PC world。
2000 … Feb 17 Offical Launch of Windows 2000 … Microsoft’s replacement for Windows 95/98 and Windows NT。 Claimed to be faster and more reliable than previous versions of Windows。 It is actually a descendant of the NT series, and so the trade…off for increased reliability is that it won’t run some old DOS…based games。 To keep the home market happy Microsoft have also released Windows ME, the newest member of the 95/98 series。
2001 … Jan 4 Linux kernel 2。4。0 released。
2001 … March 24 Apple released MacOS X。 At it’s heart is ‘Darwin’, an Open Source kernel based on FreeBSD。 Using this MacOS X finally gives Mac users the stabilty benifits of a protected memory architecture along many other enhancements, such as preemptive multitasking。 The BSD base also makes porting UNIX applications to MacOS easier and gives Mac users a fully featured mand line interface alongside their GUI。
2001 … October 25 Microsoft released Windows XP … the latest version of their Windows operating system。 Based on the NT series kernel, it is intended to bring together both the NT/2000 series and the Windows 95/98/ME series into one product。 Of, course, it was originally hoped that this would happen with Windows 2000 。。。 so only time will tell if Microsoft have suceeded with Windows XP。
Stephen White
正文
维基百科,自由的百科全书。
操作系统的历史在某种意义上来说也是计算机的历史。操作系统提供对硬件控制的调用和应用程序所必需的功能。
背景
早期的计算机没有操作系统。用户有单独的机器,他(她)会带着记录有程序和数据的卡片(punch card)或較;後期的打孔纸带去操作机器。程序读入机器后,机器就开始工作直到程序停止。由于程序难免有误,所以机器通常都会中途崩溃。程序一般通过控制板的开关和状态灯来调试。据说图灵能非常熟练地用这种方法操作Manchester Mark I机器。
后来,机器引入帮助程序输入输出等工作的代码库。这是现代操作系统的起源。然而,机器每次只能执行一件任务。在英国剑桥大学,这些任务的磁带从前是排成一排挂在衣钩上的,衣钩的颜色代表任务的优先级。
概念意义上的操作系统和通俗意义上的操作系统差距越来越大。通俗意义上的操作系统为了方便而把最普通的包和应用程序的集合包括在操作系统内。随着操作系统的发展,一些功能更强的“第二类”操作系统软件也被包括进去。在今天,没有图形界面和各种文件浏览器已经不能称为一个真正的操作系统了。
大型机时代
早期的操作系统非常多样化,生产商生产出针对各自硬件的系统。每一个操作系统都有很不同的命令模式、操作过程和调试工具,即使它们来自同一个生产商。最能反映这一状况的是,厂家每生产一台新的机器都会配备一套新的操作系统。这种情况一直持续到二十世纪六十年代IBM公司开发了System/360系列机器。尽管这些机器在性能上有明显的差异,但是他们有统一的操作系统—;—;OS/360(在开发OS/360过程中遇到的问题在Fred Brooks写的软件工程经典之作《人月神话》中详细地叙述了)
OS/360的成功陆续地催化出MFT、MVT、SVS、MVS、MVS/XA、MVS/ESA、OS/390和z/OS。
小型机和UNIX的崛起
UNIX操作系统是由AT&;T公司开发出来的。由于它的早期版本是完全免费的,可以轻易获得并随意修改,所以它得到了广泛的接受。后来,它成为开发小型机操作系统的起点。由于早期的广泛应用,它已经成为的操作系统的典范。不过,它始终属于AT&;T公司,只有那些能负担的起许可费的企业才用得起,这限制了它的应用范围。
早期的操作系统是可以被用户软件所利用的功能的集合。一些有能力的公司发展更好的系统