Nowadays, practically every personal computer is connected in one form or another to a

network. There exists of course the biggest network of all the Internet but several
other types of smaller networks like LANs (local area networks) and enterprise networks
also exist. Network operating systems (NOS) serve as gatekeepers to data and
applications on all manner of these networks. Network operating systems dont differ too
much from the single-processor operating systems almost every computer user is
familiar with, says Andrew Tannenbaum in his book A History of Operating Systems,
but they have their own unique, fascinating history.

The rise of local area networks (LANs) paved the way for network operating systems.

Birth of Networks

The concept of data communications between computers began in the late 1960s and
early 1970s, when researchers began developing a way of connecting computers and
exchanging information by way of packets of data. Soon, the concept of a local area
network (LAN) took hold, replacing the previous model of a central computing node and
so-called "dumb" terminals connected to it, as in IBM's proprietary Systems Network
Architecture (SNA) model. The development later on of TCP/IP (Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol) and Ethernet fostered the networking concept even further.
The need soon came for operating systems to not only deal with the inter-connectivity of
the networks but also the security aspect, according to a research paper from the
American University Computing History Museum.

Arrival of UNIX

During this period, several operating systems were developed, like IBMs MVS
operating system, which still dealt with SNA. However, the development of another
operating system, dubbed UNIX, really paved the way for NOS everywhere. After a
project to develop a large and complex system called Multics failed to get off the ground
at Bell Labs in 1969, a group of Bell researchers, led by Ken Thompson and Dennis
Ritchie, started work on a less ambitious but no less powerful computing system.

After a rocky first few years, Ritchie developed the C programming language, which
allowed UNIX to become the first portable operating system, meaning it could be
implemented on any computer system. The relative simplicity of the systems design
and the availability of its source code turned UNIX into a darling of the academic world
and a fixture on many university computer networks. Many versions of UNIX were
developed, but the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) version, developed in
University of California-Berkeley, became arguably the most popular, according to
communications powerhouse Alcatel-Lucent.

Netware Makes a Splash

The 1970s also saw the rise of microchips, which ushered in the era of microcomputers
and the use of personal computers in the consumer market. Alongside this revolution, a
company called Novell became a pioneer in network operating systems with the release
of its Netware S-Net device. The product essentially turned the IBM XT, a popular PC at
the time that featured a hard drive, into a file-sharing system on which workstations
attached to the server in a star-like configuration (hence the S-Net name).

Novell also developed its own NOS, also named Netware, for the device. By this time,
several competitors came up with their own NOS, but they were all proprietary and only
ran on their receptive hardware. In addition, these NOS were built on top of DOS (disk
operating system), which was present in practically every IBM PC at that time but was
also a single-user, single-tasking system.

Because of its non-DOS-based, multitasking characteristics, as well as Novells

willingness to port its system to a variety of different hardware, Netware soon became
the operating system of choice on every major LAN card, according to the Raj
Rajagopals book Multi-Operating System Networking: Living with Unix, Netware and
NT.

The Next Generation of UNIX

Meanwhile, UNIX continued transforming the computer landscape, like when a BSD
UNIX computer severed the restrictions of ARPANET, which linked military and
university sites, and planted the seeds of what we now know as the Internet. Then in the
mid-1980s, a company called Sun Microsystems took UNIX and significantly enhanced
its capabilities. The result, dubbed SunOS, added a graphical user interface or GUI,
made popular by the introduction of Mac OS and then Windows 3.1 into the consumer
market, as well as other features. Solaris, a newer version of SunOS, became even
more popular among network administrators.

Microsoft and IBM Team Up

As Novell secured its dominance of the LAN operating system market at that time
through its Netware NOS, a company named Microsoft tried to get a feel of where
things were going. Early versions of its DOS system featured some network-oriented
features, while its MSnet product got the backing of Novell competitors like 3Com, yet to
no avail. Incursions into other operating systems such as early versions of Windows
were also met with user apathy.

Meanwhile, former minicomputer giant IBM had been seemingly left behind by the LAN
revolution and struggled to keep up with Novell. This prompted Microsoft and IBM to
team up and develop OS/2, a highly hyped operating system deemed as the future of
personal computing, according to Rajagopals book. Both companies put all their efforts
into dethroning Netware with OS/2, placing it as a priority even over other Microsoft
projects like its stumbling Windows system. But with the release of Windows version 3,
Microsoft hit the jackpot. As millions of copies of Windows were sold, the industry
dynamics changed overnight and plans for OS/2 were forestalled.

Current Players

Nowadays, the major players in the NOS market include Windows, Netware (currently
at Version 6.5), and Cisco IOS (stands for Internetwork Operating System), as well as
UNIX-based operating systems like Linux or one of the many flavors of BSD UNIX

1969

Unix was brought to life on a spare DEC PDP-7 at AT&T Bell Labs. When AT&T decided
to abandon the Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) operating
system on its minicomputers, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie cobbled together an
operating system so they could continue to play a space travel game that Thompson
had developed. A colleague gave the system a jokey name based on Multics -- UNICS,
the Uniplexed Information and Computing Service, which morphed into UNIX or Unix.

1976

Intergalactic Digital Research's maverick brain Gary Kildall creates CP/M, a simple
microcomputer operating system for simple microcomputers. It would be the model for
command-line DOS variations for two decades.

1977

The godfather of open source is born when the Computer Systems Research Group at
UC Berkeley releases a variant on Unix called the Berkeley Software Distribution. BSD
will ultimately spawn alternatives to some commercial microcomputer operating systems
-- and form the core of at least one major commercial operating system, Mac OS X.

Tandy/Radio Shack introduces a line of affordable home computers, and debuts a

family-friendly operating system called TRS-DOS with such Rated-M-for-Mature
commands as KILL. Other companies' versions of DOS substitute the less menacing
DEL command, for Delete.
1978

Apple DOS 3.1 debuts; it will run the Apple II series of computers for the next five years.

1981

The IBM PC is born, and so are PC-DOS and its alter ego, MS-DOS.

1983

Free software advocate Richard Stallman announces the plan for GNU, a Unix-like
operating system that contains no proprietary software. Twenty-six years later, GNU's
official kernel, GNU Hurd, will still be incomplete.

1984

During the Super Bowl, Apple airs a commercial in which a female athlete throws a
sledgehammer through a huge screen displaying a stern Big Brother-like visage. In the
ensuing chaos, people forget that there are more than two computing platforms and
concentrate on the epic battle between DOS and the Macintosh.

1985

Microsoft Windows 1.01 retails, at a list price of $99. It's marketed as a graphical user
interface that extends the DOS operating system and lets users run several programs at
the same time and freely switch among them. But it's not touted as an actual operating
system until a decade later.

The Atari ST appears, running a color graphical user interface: GEM, from Digital
Research, the people who brought us CP/M. Like Windows, GEM runs on top of a less
attractive, command-line-driven operating system. It becomes a popular graphics and
digital music platform, which gives Apple a few ideas to explore later.

A few months later, the Amiga appears. Its operating system is built on a kernel that
handles preemptive multitasking, so it starts with an advantage. The OS also contains a
disk operating system, an API layer called Intuition, and a graphical user interface called
Workbench. People can choose at will between a command line and the Workbench
graphical interface and seem pretty happy about it. It becomes a popular video platform,
which gives Apple a few ideas to explore later.

1986

GEOS appears, and gives Apple and Microsoft a few ideas to explore later.
1987

OS/2 first makes news when Microsoft announces its Operating System/2, MS OS/2,
developed to harness the power of Intel's 80286 and 80386 microprocessors. As IBM
and Microsoft's joint operating agreement falls apart, OS/2 becomes an IBM product,
and Microsoft gives its graphical operating system a different name -- Windows NT.
Years of confusion ensue as people try to figure out which Windows is actually
Windows.

1988

IBM OS/2 1.1 appears in November, with a graphical user interface and no real
acknowledgment that one of its parents is Microsoft.

1989

Four years after being "encouraged" to leave Apple and founding NeXT Inc., Steve Jobs
takes his career to the next level with the release of NeXTStep. The new operating
system builds a beautiful graphical layer on top of BSD, adds an object-oriented
development tool kit, and secures Jobs' eventual return to Apple. He holds onto that
capital X in NeXT so he can slap it on Apple's next operating system.

1990

Windows 3.0 becomes the first Microsoft Windows with a shot at a mainstream
audience, but it's still just a DOS-based operating environment and not a true operating
system. Over the next few years, Microsoft introduces Windows 3.1, a bug-fix-and-
enhancement release that meets with widespread approval, and the Windows for
Workgroups 3.1 and 3.11 extensions, which add and improve native networking support.
But it's still not a real OS.

1991

Norse OS god Linus Torvalds releases an open-source, Unix-like OS kernel that sort of
bears his name. Linux is officially pronounced "leen-ooks" to reflect its Finnish origins.
The Linux kernel will subsequently be combined with GNU software to create an array
of open-source operating systems known as Linux distributions.

1993

Windows NT appears, and everyone assumes the NT stands for New Technology.
Microsoft later denies this, but it can't deny that NT is the love child of its union with
IBM, and half-brother to OS/2.
 1995

Windows 95 appears, to great fanfare. It spawns a new line of Microsoft operating

systems with one foot in the 32-bit world and another stuck in the mud with not-yet-
obsolete 16-bit software. Who'd have thunk it that it would take six years to wave
goodbye to all that? But Windows 98, 1999's 98 Second Edition, and 2000's Windows
Me had to pass before Windows could move on.

To slightly less fanfare, BeOS arrives for the PowerPC platform. It carries high hopes of
taking the digital media world by storm and replacing Mac OS classic. Eventually, talks
with Apple flounder, and BeOS loses out to OpenStep as the foundation for the new
Mac OS.

1996

The arrival of Macintosh System 7.6 heralds a new name -- Mac OS -- and a new game
called Waiting for Copland. In the end, we abandon the wait for Copland when Apple
buys NeXT and adapts its operating system instead.

2001

Apple abandons its old OS core and introduces Mac OS X. The X is the Roman
numeral for 10, but some think it's a nod to X Window (which is in there) and the NeXT
operating system (which is also in there). Either way, X marks the spot where Apple
moved away from 1984 and into a brave new world.

The Windows XP family is born. It begins with Windows XP, and increases every two
years with a new -- but not necessarily a full -- release:

2002: XP Service Pack 1

2004: XP Service Pack 2

2006: Windows Vista

2008: Vista Service Pack 1 and XP Service Pack 3

... and the rest isn't history. Yet.