Microsoft Windows PC Operating System
A Microsoft Windows PC Operating System is a PC OS developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft.
- Example(s):
- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Windows Server 2016, Start Screen, Closed Source Software, Hybrid Kernel, Monolithic Kernel, MS-DOS.
References
2015
- (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows Retrieved:2015-6-25.
- Microsoft Windows (or simply Windows) is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. It consists of several families of operating systems, each of which cater to a certain sector of the computing industry. Active Windows families include Windows NT, Windows Embedded and Windows Phone; these may encompass subfamilies, e.g. Windows Embedded Compact (Windows CE) or Windows Server. Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x and Windows Mobile.
Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984. However, since 2012, it sells less than Android, which became the most popular operating system in 2014, when counting all of the computing platforms Windows runs on (same as Android) ; in 2014, the number of Windows device sold were less than 25% of Android devices sold.
, the most recent versions of Windows for personal computers, smartphones, server computers and embedded devices are respectively Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Embedded 8. A specialized version of Windows runs on the Xbox One game console.
The next version of Windows is Windows 10 and is currently available as a technical preview; it is set for release for phones, tablets, laptops, and PCs on July 29, 2015. The next server version of Windows is Windows Server 2016, which is expected to be released in early 2016.
- Microsoft Windows (or simply Windows) is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. It consists of several families of operating systems, each of which cater to a certain sector of the computing industry. Active Windows families include Windows NT, Windows Embedded and Windows Phone; these may encompass subfamilies, e.g. Windows Embedded Compact (Windows CE) or Windows Server. Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x and Windows Mobile.