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Windows Nt vs Unix as an Operating System

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Windows NT vs Unix As An Operating System

In the late 1960s a combined project between researchers at MIT, Bell Labs and
General Electric led to the design of a third generation of computer operating system known as MULTICS (MULTiplexed Information and Computing Service). It was envisaged as a computer utility, a machine that would support hundreds of simultaneous timesharing users. They envisaged one huge machine providing computing power for everyone in Boston. The idea that machines as powerful as their GE-645 would be sold as personal computers costing only a few thousand dollars only 20 years later would have seemed like science fiction to them.
However MULTICS proved more difficult than imagined to implement and Bell Labs
withdrew …show more content…

Most of these systems were (and still are) neither source nor binary compatible with one another, and most are hardware specific.

With the emergence of RISC technology and the breakup of AT&T, the UNIX systems category began to grow significantly during the 1980s. The term "open systems" was coined. Customers began demanding better portability and interoperability between the many incompatible UNIX variants. Over the years, a variety of coalitions (e.g. UNIX International) were formed to try to gain control over and consolidate the UNIX systems category, but their success was always limited.
Gradually, the industry turned to standards as a way of achieving the portability and interoperability benefits that customers wanted. However, UNIX standards and standards organisations proliferated (just as vendor coalitions had), resulting in more confusion and aggravation for UNIX customers.

The UNIX systems category is primarily an application-driven systems category, not an operating systems category. Customers choose an application first-for example, a high-end CAD package-then find out which different systems it runs on, and select one. The final selection involves a variety of criteria, such as price/performance, service, and support. Customers generally don't choose UNIX itself, or which UNIX variant they want. UNIX just comes with the package when they buy a system to run their chosen

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