What are the similarities between Windows Mac and Linux operating systems?

Answer 1

Apple licensed parts of their designs to Microsoft for use in Windows 1 which was little more than a graphical front end for the DOS. With little interest in Windows 1 Microsoft worked to improve Windows 2 and make it more Mac like. Their efforts did not go unnoticed by Apple who sued them for copyright infringement. This failed as the judge ruled that Apple had licensed most of the disputed elements to Microsoft.

Despite such early similarities there are fundamental differences between the two systems. The Mac OS is a true windowing system. A window allows a user to observe and interact with the running application. If no further interaction is required a window can be closed but the application will continue to run. Windows runs the application in the window with the application's menus attached to the window. If the window is closed then the application quits.

Answer 2

Windows, Mac OS and Linux are all operating systems. All three can be used in computer desktops, laptops, netbooks, notebooks, smartphones, tablets, etc. You can use any of the three to surf the web, check your email, video chat, as word processors, video editors, for music listening, recording and production, graphics design, and the list goes on and on. However, the software that you use to accomplish the tasks I mentioned might be different depending on which operating system you're using. For example, to go on the internet you a need a web browser: Windows PCs come standard with internet Explorer, Mac PCs come with Safari, and Linux usually comes with Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or an offshoot of the two (Iceweasel, Chromium, etc).

Answer 3

Windows, Mac OS and Linux are all operating systems. All three can be used in computer desktops, laptops, netbooks, notebooks, smartphones, tablets, etc. You can use any of the three to surf the web, check your email, video chat, as word processors, video editors, for music listening, recording and production, graphics design, and the list goes on and on. However, the software that you use to accomplish the tasks I mentioned might be different depending on which operating system you're using. For example, to go on the internet you a need a web browser: Windows PCs come standard with Internet Explorer, Mac PCs come with Safari, and Linux usually comes with Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or an offshoot of the two (Iceweasel, Chromium, etc).

Answer 4

1. All of these systems work in protected mode. This means that user does not have full access to hardware. 2. They can run on Intel-compatible platforms. 3. TCP/IP support, common protocols. 4. Graphical User Interface (on Linux this is optional). 5. On each platform there are some games.

Answer 5

Similarites are that they both allow data on a drive to be accessed and displayed in a way that the human brain can understand (unfortunately, we seem to struggle with binary...).

The difference is that they look different and the mac OS costs more.

Answer 6

Far too numerous to list here. Perhaps a better question would be what are the differences between commercial Unix (which must be purchased) and GPL licensed Linux distros.

The major difference, IMHO, is technical support. If tech support is purchased with a commercial Unix such as HP-UX, Sun Solaris, IBM's AIX etc. then you have someone to call if you're not a Unix guru.

If you take the time to learn Linux, tech support is rarely if ever needed. When it is needed it is available through Google. Google it. Read the man and info pages. Generally speaking, Linux is richer and more feature filled than the commercially available Unix systems. If you know any commercial Unix system well, making the transition to Linux is trivial. You'll feel right at home almost immediately.

Also, I should mention that in actuality, Unix is a specification, while Linux is a kernel. They are two very different things. In practice though, Linux is usually associated with both the Linux kernel and the excellent GNU suite of utilities and similarly the commercial Unix systems by Hewlett Packard, IBM, Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) etc. are all lumped together under the name Unix.

Answer 7

The similarities are mainly what's under the hood. They are both POSIX compliant, both are based on UNIX conceptually (if not, in Linux's case, based on actual UNIX code), they use the same printer drivers (which Apple developed and shared), and OSX can even run most parts of the GNU/Linux toolchain; even X.org can run on a Mac. There are probably more that I haven't mentioned