technical comparison of operating systems

Technical information

Name Computer architectures supported File systems supported Kernel type Source lines of code GUI default is on[t 1] Package management Update management Native APIs[t 2] Non-native APIs supported through subsystems
AIX POWER JFS, JFS2, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, GPFS Monolithic
No installp, RPM Service Update Management Assistant (SUMA) SysV, POSIX
AmigaOS Classic 68k Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. Microkernel
Yes Installer[t 3] (almost not necessary)[t 4]
Proprietary UNIX (BSD) (available through 3rd party ixemul.library)
AmigaOS 4 PPC Proprietary (OFS, FFS, SFS, PFS), JXFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, many others via 3rd party drivers, such as SMBFS, etc. Microkernel
Yes Installer[t 3] (almost not necessary)[t 4] AmiUpdate (almost not necessary)[t 5] Proprietary UNIX (BSD) (available through 3rd party ixemul.library)
FreeBSD x86, x86-64, PC98, SPARC, others UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental), ZFS and others Monolithic with modules
No ports tree, packages by source (CVSup, portsnap), network binary update (freebsdupdate) POSIX, BSD Mono, Java, Win16, Win32, Linux
Haiku x86, 68k BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, ext3, NTFS Hybrid
Yes - None POSIX, BeOS API
HP-UX PA-RISC, IA-64 VxFS, HFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS Monolithic with modules
No swinstall swa (HP-UX Software Assistant) SysV, POSIX
Linux x86, x86-64, PPC, SPARC, Alpha, others ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, and others Monolithic with modules ~ 9 million [1] (Kernel)
~283 million [10] (Debian GNU/Linux)

See: Comparison of Linux distributions POSIX Mono, Java, Win16, Win32
Inferno x86, PPC, SPARC, Alpha, MIPS, others Styx/9P2000, kfs, FAT, ISO 9660 Monolithic with modules, user space file systems
Yes ? ? Proprietary
Mac OS Classic 68k, PPC HFS+, HFS, MFS (Mac OS 8.0 and before), AFP, ISO 9660, FAT(System 7 and later), UDF Monolithic with modules
Yes None Software Update (only in Mac OS 9) Toolbox, Carbon (from version 8.1)
Mac OS X PPC, x86, x86-64, ARM HFS+ (default), HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV, ZFS (experimental) Hybrid ~86 million[11] Yes Mac OS X Installer Software Update Carbon, Cocoa, Java, BSD/POSIX Toolbox (only in versions up to Mac OS X 10.4, not supported on x86 architecture), Win16, Win32
Minix3 x86
Microkernel 4000 No

POSIX
NetBSD x86, x86-64, ARM, MIPS, PPC, SPARC64, others UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, LFS, and others Monolithic with modules
No[t 6] pkgsrc by source (CVS, CVSup, rsync) or binary (using sysinst) BSD, POSIX Linux, others
NetWare x86 NSS, NWFS, FAT, NFS, AFP, UDF, CIFS, ISO 9660 Hybrid
Yes NWCONFIG.NLM, RPM, X11-based GUI installer binary updates, ZENWorks for Servers, Red Carpet Proprietary
OpenBSD x86, x86-64, SPARC, 68k, Alpha, VAX, others ffs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, some others Monolithic with modules
No[t 6] ports tree, packages by source BSD, POSIX
OpenVMS VAX, Alpha, IA-64 Files-11 (ODS), ISO 9660, NFS, CIFS Monolithic with modules
No PCSI, VMSINSTAL ? Proprietary POSIX
OS/2 x86 HPFS, JFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS Monolithic with modules
Yes Feature Install and others ? Proprietary, DOS API, Win16 Win32
PC-BSD x86[t 7] UFS2, ext2, ext3, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental) and others Monolithic with modules
Yes ports tree, packages, PBI Graphical Installers by PBI updates, source (CVSup, portsnap), network binary update (freebsdupdate) BSD, POSIX Win16, Win32
Plan 9 x86, Alpha, MIPS, PPC, SPARC, others fossil/venti, 9P2000, kfs, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660 Monolithic, user space file systems
Yes None replica Proprietary (Unix-like) POSIX compatibility layer
QNX x86, SH-4, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS QNX4, QNX6, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, Joliet, NFS, CIFS, ETFS, UDF, HFS, HFS Plus, NTFS, and others. Micro



POSIX, Java
ReactOS x86, PowerPC FAT Hybrid 1-2 mil Yes None None Win32, NT API
RISC OS ARM (both 26 and 32-bit) Acorn ADFS, Econet ANFS, FAT, ISO 9660, many others as loadable filesystems Unprotected monotasking microkernel with large number of relocatable modules
Yes Applications self-contained; hardware drivers often in ROM !IyoUpWtch Huge number of SWI calls; extensive C libraries
Solaris x86, x86-64, SPARC UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others Monolithic with modules
Yes SysV packages (pkgadd) Sun Connection SysV, POSIX, GTK, Java Win16, Win32, Mono, Linux[12]
OpenSolaris x86, x86-64, SPARC(AI) UFS, ZFS, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, QFS, some others Monolithic with modules ~10 million Yes Image Packaging System (pkg), SysV packages (pkgadd) Image Packaging System SysV, POSIX, GTK, Java Win16, Win32, Mono, Linux[12]
STOP 6 / XTS-400 x86 Proprietary Monolithic
No RPM for some untrusted applications Binary updates via postal mail and proprietary tools some SysV, some POSIX, some Linux, some proprietary
Windows Server (NT family) x86, x86-64, IA-64 NTFS, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, reiserfs[t 8], and HFS Hybrid ~45 million[13] Yes MSI, custom installers Windows Update Win32, NT API DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET
Windows (NT family) x86, x86-64 NTFS, FAT exFAT ISO 9660, UDF; 3rd-party drivers support ext2, ext3, reiserfs[t 8], HFS+, FATX, and HFS Hybrid ~ 40(XP)/64(Vista) million[citation needed] Yes MSI, custom installers Windows Update Win32, NT API DOS API, Win16 (only in 32-bit versions), POSIX, .NET
ZETA x86 BFS (default), FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, HFS, AFP, ext2, CIFS, NTFS (read only), ReiserFS (read only, up to v3.6) Hybrid
Yes SoftwareValet, script-based installers None POSIX, BeOS API
z/OS z/Architecture VSAM catalogs, HFS, zFS, etc. Monolithic
No SMP/E SMP/E Access methods, etc. POSIX
Name Computer architectures supported File systems supported Kernel type Source lines of code GUI default is on[t 1] Package management Update management Native APIs[t 2] Non-native APIs supported through subsystems