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mech-eng
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I have always been wondering that why there is only one commercial operating system which is Microsoft Windows whereas there are a lot of commercial cars, computers, publishers.
Best Regards.
Best Regards.
SteamKing said:Also, AMD CPUs are still hanging around because they can execute code developed for Intel CPUs. If they weren't capable of this, AMD would have faded into history, like Motorola and others, who might have had a better chip design than Intel but couldn't run all the software written for Intel CPUs.
AlephZero said:The main barrier to introducing a new OS is simply the cost of developing applications that can replace what is already available.
mech-eng said:I actually want to learn that why other firms do not realize other OSs or in other words how did Microsoft become monopoly power? Why is it a hard thing to do a good Challenger against Windows ? I have asked this question especially for PCs, Mac is not regarded as a PC in spite of it is for a personal usage and Unix are not for trading and I think not easy-to use and as practical as Windows. This question is also current for CPUs because there are only the two, Intel and AMD.
Best Regards.
enorbet said:I suggest you research the development of Operating Systems, especially if you are entertained by Soap Operas or War Stories. It is a fascinating saga, sometimes exciting, often disgusting and disturbing, both funny and sad, and always a mirror on the realities of the marketplace.
mal4mac said:Start with a biography of Bill Gates!
Not quite plug and play. Early MAC's had no DMA functionality for it's I/O, relying on an initial polled read or write to transfer the first byte of data, followed by 511 "blind" reads or writes with a hardware handshake and timeout if the device took too long. Aftermarket SCSI adapters were made with actual DMA which required their own drivers. PC's have had DMA since the very first PC and some ealier still CP/M systems.enorbet said:I don't understand your comment about not being "easy to use" since "user friendliness" has always been the hallmark of Macs, indeed all Apple products. They literally invented "Plug 'n Play" a full decade before PCs.
In the 1980's MAC's were overpriced compared to similar PC's, and Apples decision in late 1989 to raise prices across the board on all MACs, epecially the ones with color, combined with the gaining popularity of 386 PC clones with Windows 3.0 (1989) and later Windows 3.1x (1992), corresponded to the 1990's era with MAC's market share going from a bit over 10% down to around 2%. Since 2000 and later, the pricing differential has gone down, and MAC PC market share is back above 10% again.enorbet said:The biggest problem for Mac is a mistaken hangover of the perception that Macs are overpriced. This came about because Apple originally chose a very closed, nearly embedded type of system that only supported a limited list of top notch hardware (such as enterprise quality SCSI hard drives back when the cheaper IDE hard drives were less functional, more prone to failure, and considerably slower). None of the above are still true.
Microsoft soft sold PCDOS to IBM for a one time price, but reserved the right to sell MSDOS for PC compatibles. Microsoft made it's initial fortune by selling MSDOS for all the PC clones that later appeared.vociferous said:Microsoft got in heavy with business when IBM chose Microsoft to write the OS for its first PC in the early 80's.
The Macintosh was designed to achieve adequate graphics performance, which had previously required hardware costing over US$100,000, a price inaccessible to the middle class. This narrow goal resulted in an efficient design which traded off expandability but met or exceeded the baseline performance of its competitors.[7][8]
Processor and memory
The centerpiece of the machine was a Motorola 68000 microprocessor connected to 128 KB DRAM by a 16-bit data bus. Lack of RAM proved to be a constraint to much multimedia software, and the RAM could not be upgraded. A 64 KB ROM chip boosted the effective memory to 192 KB, but this was offset by the display's 22 KB framebuffer, which was shared with the DMA video controller.
wikipedia-DMA said:In the original IBM PC, there was only one Intel 8237 DMA controller capable of providing four DMA channels (numbered 0–3), as part of the so-called Industry Standard Architecture, or ISA. These DMA channels performed 8-bit transfers and could only address the first megabyte of RAM. With the IBM PC/AT, a second 8237 DMA controller was added (channels 5–7; channel 4 is dedicated as a cascade channel for the first 8237 controller), and the page register was rewired to address the full 16 MB memory address space of the 80286 CPU. This second controller performed 16-bit transfers.
An operating system is a software that manages the resources of a computer and allows applications to run. It acts as an interface between the hardware and software, and performs tasks such as memory management, file management, and process management.
There are three main types of operating systems: single-user, multi-user, and multi-tasking. Single-user operating systems are designed for a single user to perform basic tasks on a personal computer. Multi-user operating systems are used on servers and allow multiple users to access the system simultaneously. Multi-tasking operating systems enable multiple applications to run at the same time.
The main functions of an operating system include resource management, memory management, process management, and security. Resource management ensures that the computer's hardware resources are used efficiently. Memory management allocates and deallocates memory for processes. Process management schedules and controls the execution of processes. Security provides protection for the system and its data.
An open-source operating system is developed by a community of developers who freely share and modify the source code. This allows for greater customization and flexibility. Proprietary operating systems are developed by a single company and the source code is not freely available. Users must pay for the software and are limited in their ability to modify it.
Some well-known operating systems include Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Windows is a popular operating system for personal computers, while macOS is used on Apple computers. Linux is a widely used open-source operating system. iOS is the operating system for iPhones and iPads, and Android is the operating system for most smartphones and tablets.