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Windows and Mac OSWhen we talk about operating systems, we would think about Windows and

Mac OS. They both are the most popular operating systems in the world and have become competitor for over twenty years. We will talk about the history and the

differences of these operating systems.

Windows was born in 1985 by Microsoft based on MS-DOS. The new operating

system was built as the adds-on to MS-DOS mixed with the graphical user interfaces

(GUIs). When the Windows was introduced into the world, it came to dominate the

world’s personal computer market, overtaking the Mac OS, which has been

introduced previously. From the very early version Windows 1.01, Windows NT to

the nearly released Windows XP, the Windows operating system still dominates the

 personal computer market.

Mac OS is known as the graphical user interface-based operating system. The

early version Mac OS (Classic) was released in 1984 by Apple based on Apple’s own

code. It got rid of the traditional command line and is a completely graphical

operating system. After the 19 century, Apple was introduced a newly created

operating system in 2001 named Mac OS X (the desktop version), which was based

on great system architecture: UNIX. So the new operating system Mac OS X became

a branch of UNIX system. The new Mac OS X has completely different codebase, file

system, design, and hardware support comparing with the previous operating system:

Mac OS. Although the Mac OS X has an extraordinary system and stability, it’s still

overtaken by Windows in the personal computer market today.

The disparity of Windows and Mac OS is just like the sun and the earth. The

differences of them may be the kernel, the file system or the management of system.

But we must know about which operating system will be chosen by users is based on

its practicability, functionality and users’ loyalty. Windows is useful for word

 processing and playing games while Mac OS is powerful for graphical processing. In

the early years, Windows is compatible with most easy-available and popular softwaredue to its huge market share. Although Apple also provided with much useful and

complete software for word processing, graphical processing, and any software that

often be used by users, most of users choose Windows to be their working

environment because of the support of third party software. The more support by third

 party, the more possibility that users will choose. We wouldn’t choose an operating

system that cannot run the software we want to use. That’s likely the reason why

Windows is the most-used operating system. Until today, much useful software is also

available for Mac OS. Users can even choose which operating system they want to

run the same software. It seems that the barrier of the software support of the two

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operating systems is gradually disappearing. However, which operating system users

will choose is still based on its practicability, functionality and users’ loyalty.

An operating system may not been chosen by users though it is good enough for 

them. Such as most of the users choose Windows is because they already got used to

it due to the past trend. It is not because Windows is stable and easy-to-use than Mac

OS. However, Mac OS is a good environment for multimedia workers. Also,

 professional users prefer Mac OS than Windows. Despite, Mac OS cannot be the best

when Windows also get better and better. The unique of the practicability,

functionality and users’ loyalty makes the difference between the two operating

systems.

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