Timeline of operating systems

This article presents a timeline of events in the history of computer operating systems from 1951 to the current day. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the History of operating systems.

1950s

• 1951
  • LEO I 'Lyons Electronic Office'^[1] was the commercial development of EDSAC computing platform, supported by British firm J. Lyons and Co.
• 1954
  • DYSEAC^[2] - early machine capable of distributing computing
  • MIT's Tape Director operating system made for UNIVAC 1103^[3][4]
• 1955
  • General Motors Operating System made for IBM 701^[5]
• 1956
  • GM-NAA I/O for IBM 704, based on General Motors Operating System
• 1957
  • Atlas Supervisor (Manchester University) (Atlas computer project start)
  • BESYS (Bell Labs), for IBM 7090 and IBM 7094
• 1958
  • University of Michigan Executive System (UMES), for IBM 704, 709, and 7090
• 1959
  • SHARE Operating System (SOS), based on GM-NAA I/O

1960s

• 1960
  • IBSYS (IBM for its 7090 and 7094)
• 1961
  • CTSS (MIT's Compatible Time-Sharing System for the IBM 7094)
  • MCP (Burroughs Master Control Program)
• 1962
  • Atlas Supervisor (Manchester University) (Atlas computer commissioned)
  • GCOS (GE's General Comprehensive Operating System, originally GECOS, General Electric Comprehensive Operating Supervisor)
• 1963
  • AN/FSQ-32, another early time-sharing system begun
  • Titan Supervisor, early time-sharing system begun
• 1964
  • KDF9 Timesharing Director (English Electric) An early, fully hardware secured, fully pre-emptive process switching, multi-programming operating system for KDF9 (Originally announced in 1960)
  • Berkeley Timesharing System (for Scientific Data Systems' SDS 940)
  • Dartmouth Time Sharing System (Dartmouth College's DTSS for GE computers)
  • OS/360 (IBM's primary OS for its S/360 series) (Announced)
  • SCOPE (CDC 3000 series)
  • TOPS-10 (DEC, the name TOPS-10 wasn't adopted until 1970)
  • EXEC 8 (UNIVAC)
• 1965
  • THE multiprogramming system (Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven)
  • Multics (MIT, GE, Bell Labs for the GE-645) (Announced)
  • BOS/360 (IBM's Basic Operating System)
  • TOS/360 (IBM's Tape Operating System)
  • TSOS (later VMOS) (RCA)
  • Pick operating system
• 1966
  • OS/360 (IBM's primary OS for its S/360 series) PCP and MFT (Shipped)
  • DOS/360 (IBM's Disk Operating System)
  • MS/8 (Richard F. Lary's DEC PDP-8 system)
  • GEORGE 1 & 2 For ICT 1900 series
• 1967
  • CP-40, predecessor to CP-67 on modified IBM System/360 Model 40
  • CP-67 (IBM, also known as CP/CMS)
  • Michigan Terminal System (MTS)^[6] (time-sharing system for the IBM S/360-67 and successors)
  • ITS (MIT's Incompatible Timesharing System for the DEC PDP-6 and PDP-10)
  • ORVYL (Stanford University's time-sharing system for the IBM S/360)
  • TSS/360 (IBM's Time-sharing System for the S/360-67, never officially released, canceled in 1969 and again in 1971)
  • OS/360 MVT
  • WAITS (SAIL, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, time-sharing system for DEC PDP-6 and PDP-10, later TOPS-10)
• 1968
  • Airline Control Program (ACP) (IBM)
  • THE multiprogramming system (Eindhoven University of Technology)
  • TSS-8 (DEC for the PDP-8)
• 1969
  • TENEX (Bolt, Beranek and Newman for DEC systems, later TOPS-20)
  • Unics (later Unix) (AT&T, initially on DEC computers)
  • RC 4000 Multiprogramming System (RC)
  • Multics (MIT, GE, Bell Labs for the GE-645 and later the Honeywell 6180) (opened for paying customers in October^[7])
  • GEORGE 3 For ICL 1900 series

1970s

• 1970
  • DOS-11 (PDP-11)
• 1971
  • RSTS-11 2A-19 (First released version; PDP-11)
  • OS/8
• 1972
  • Data General RDOS
  • Operating System/Virtual Storage 1 (OS/VS1)
  • Operating System/Virtual Storage 2 R1 (OS/VS2 SVS)
  • Virtual Machine Facility/370 (VM/370), sometimes known as VM/CMS
  • Virtual Machine/Basic Extended Product (BSEPP)
  • Virtual Machine/Extended Product (SEPP)
  • MUSIC/SP
• 1973
  • Эльбрус-1 (Elbrus-1) – Soviet computer – created using high-level language uЭль-76 (AL-76/ALGOL 68).
  • VME – implementation language S3 (ALGOL 68).
  • RSX-11D
  • RT-11
  • Alto OS
• 1974
  • DOS-11 V09-20C (Last stable release, June 1974)
  • SINTRAN III
  • MONECS
  • Multi-Programming Executive (MPE) - Hewlett Packard
  • Hydra ^[8] - Capability-based, multiprocessing OS kernel
  • Operating System/Virtual Storage 2 R2 (MVS)
• 1975
  • CP/M
  • BS2000 V2.0 (First released version)
  • Version 6 Unix
• 1976
  • Cambridge CAP computer^[9] – All operating system procedures written in ALGOL 68C, with some closely associated protected procedures in BCPL.
  • Cray Operating System
  • FLEX^[10]
  • TOPS-20
  • Tandem Nonstop OS v1
• 1977
  • 1BSD
  • KERNAL
  • OASIS operating system
  • TRS-DOS
  • Virtual Memory System (VMS) V1.0 (Initial commercial release, October 25)
• 1978
  • 2BSD
  • Apple DOS
  • HDOS 1.0
  • TRIPOS
  • UCSD p-System (First released version)
  • Lisp machine (CADR)
  • KVM/370 ^[11] - Security retro-fit of IBM VM/370
  • KSOS ^[12] - Secure OS design from Ford Aerospace
  • MVS/System Extensions (MVS/SE)
• 1979
  • Atari DOS
  • POS
  • NLTSS
  • UNIX/32V
  • Version 7 Unix
  • UCLA Secure UNIX ^[13] Early secure UNIX OS based on security kernel.
  • MVS/System Extrensions R2 (MVS/SE2)

1980s

• 1980
  • 86-DOS
  • CTOS^[14]
  • NewDos/80
  • OS-9
  • SOS
  • MVS/System Product (MVS/SP) V1
  • Virtual Machine/System Product (VM/SP)
  • Xenix
• 1981
  • Acorn MOS
  • Business Operating System
  • Aegis SR1 (First Apollo/DOMAIN systems shipped on March 27^[15])
  • PC DOS
  • Pilot (Xerox Star operating system)
  • MS-DOS
  • UTS
  • iMAX - OS for Intel's iAPX 432 capability machine
• 1982
  • Commodore DOS
  • LDOS (By Logical Systems, Inc. – For the Radio Shack TRS-80 Models I, II & III)
  • QNX
  • Sun UNIX (later SunOS) 0.7
  • Ultrix
  • Stratus VOS^[16]
• 1983
  • Lisa Office System 7/7
  • Coherent
  • GNU (project start)
  • Novell NetWare (S-Net)
  • ProDOS
  • SunOS 1.0
  • STOP^[17] - TCSEC A1-class, secure OS for SCOMP hardware
  • LOCUS^[18] - UNIX compatible, high reliability, distributed OS
  • DNIX
  • MVS/Extended Architecture (MVS/XA)
• 1984
  • Mac OS (System 1.0)
  • MSX-DOS
  • Sinclair QDOS
  • QNX
  • UNICOS
  • Venix 2.0
  • Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture Migration Assistance (VM/XA MA)
• 1985
  • Windows 1.0
  • AmigaOS
  • Atari TOS
  • DG/UX
  • MIPS RISC/os
  • Oberon – written in Oberon
  • SunOS 2.0
  • Version 8 Unix
  • Windows 1.01
  • Xenix 2.0
  • Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture System Facility (VM/XA SF)
• 1986
  • AIX 1.0
  • GS-OS
  • Genera 7.0
  • HP-UX
  • SunOS 3.0
  • GEOS
  • Version 9 Unix
  • GEMSOS^[19] - TCSEC A1-class, secure kernel for BLACKER VPN & GTNP
  • Cronus distributed OS^[20]
• 1987
  • Topaz^[21] - Semi-distributed OS for DEC Firefly workstation written in Modula-2+ & garbage collected
  • Arthur
  • IRIX (3.0 is first SGI version)
  • MINIX 1.0
  • BS2000 V9.0
  • OS/2 (1.0)
  • PC-MOS/386
  • Windows 2.0
• 1988
  • A/UX (Apple Computer)
  • RISC iX
  • KeyKOS - Capability-based microkernel with automated persistence
  • LynxOS
  • CP/M rebranded as DR-DOS
  • Mac OS (System 6)
  • MVS/Enterprise Systems Architecture (MVS/ESA)
  • OS/2 (1.1)
  • OS/400
  • SpartaDOS X
  • SunOS 4.0
  • TOPS-10 7.04 (Last stable release, July 1988)
  • HeliOS 1.0
  • VAX VMM^[22] - TCSEC A1-class VMM for VAX computers (limited use before cancellation)
  • Flex machine - Tagged, capability machine with OS & other software written in ALGOL 68RS
  • Virtual Machine/Extended Architecture System Product (VM/XA SP)
• 1989
  • EPOC
  • NeXTSTEP (1.0)
  • OS/2 (1.2)
  • RISC OS (First release was to be called Arthur 2, but was renamed to RISC OS 2, and was first sold as RISC OS 2.00 in April 1989)
  • SCO UNIX (Release 3)
  • TSX-32
  • Version 10 Unix
  • Xenix 2.3.4 (Last stable release)
  • ASOS^[23] - TCSEC A1-class secure, real-time OS for Ada applications

1990s

• 1990
  • AmigaOS 2.0
  • BeOS (v1)
  • Genera 8.0
  • OS/2 1.3
  • OSF/1
  • AIX 3.0
  • Windows 3.0
  • LOCK^[24] - TCSEC A1-class secure system with kernel & hardware support for Type enforcement
  • Virtual Machine/Enterprise Systems Architecture (VM/XA ESA)
• 1991
  • Linux
  • Mac OS (System 7)
  • MINIX 1.5
  • PenPoint OS
  • RISC OS 3^[25]
  • Trusted Xenix^[26] - Rewritten & security enhanced Xenix evaluated at TCSEC B2-class
  • Amoeba - Microkernel-based, POSIX-compliant, distributed OS
• 1992
  • 386BSD 0.1
  • AmigaOS 3.0
  • Amiga Unix 2.01 (Latest stable release)
  • RSTS/E 10.1 (Last stable release, September 1992)
  • Solaris 2.0 (Successor to SunOS 4.x; based on SVR4 instead of BSD)
  • OpenVMS V1.0 (First OpenVMS AXP (Alpha) specific version, November 1992)
  • OS/2 2.0 (First i386 32 bit based version)
  • Plan 9 First Edition (First public release was made available to universities)
  • Windows 3.1
• 1993
  • FreeBSD
  • NetBSD
  • Newton OS
  • Windows NT 3.1 (First Windows NT kernel public release)
  • Open Genera 1.0
  • IBM 4690 Operating System
  • Novell NetWare 4
  • OS/2 2.1
  • Slackware 1.0
  • Spring
• 1994
  • AIX 4.0, 4.1
  • OS/2 3.0
  • RISC OS 3.5
  • NetBSD 1.0 (First multi-platform release, October 1994)
  • SPIN - Extensible OS written in Modula-3
• 1995
  • Digital UNIX (aka Tru64 UNIX)
  • OpenBSD
  • OS/390
  • Plan 9 Second Edition (Commercial second release version was made available to the general public)
  • Ultrix 4.5 (Last major release)
  • Windows 95
• 1996
  • Mac OS 7.6 (First officially-named Mac OS)
  • Windows NT 4.0
  • RISC OS 3.6
  • AIX 4.2
  • OS/2 4.0
  • Palm OS
  • JN^[27] - Microkernel OS for embedded, Java apps
• 1997
  • Inferno
  • Mac OS 8
  • SkyOS
  • MINIX 2.0
  • RISC OS 3.7
  • AIX 4.3
  • Nemesis^[28]
• 1998
  • Solaris 7 (First 64-bit Solaris release. Names from this point drop "2.", otherwise would've been Solaris 2.7)
  • Windows 98
  • RT-11 5.7 (Last stable release, October 1998)
  • Novell NetWare 5
  • Junos
• 1999
  • AROS (Boot for the first time in Stand Alone version)
  • RISC OS 4
  • Mac OS 9
  • OS/2 4.5
  • Windows 98 (2nd edition)
  • Inferno Second Edition (Last distribution (Release 2.3, ca. July 1999) from Lucent's Inferno Business Unit)^[29]

2000s

2010s

See also

• Comparison of operating systems
• List of operating systems
• Comparison of real-time operating systems
• Timeline of DOS operating systems
• Timeline of Linux distributions (Diagram 1992–2010)

Category links

• Operating systems
• Real-time operating systems
• Embedded operating systems

References

External links

• http://www.levenez.com/unix/ — Timeline of UNIX 1969 and its descendants at present
• Concise Microsoft O.S. Timeline — A color-coded concise timeline for various Microsoft operating systems (1981–present)
• Bitsavers — an effort to capture, salvage, and archive historical computer software and manuals from minicomputers and mainframes of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s
• A brief history of operating systems
• Microsoft operating system time-line