operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. The letters "XP" stand for experience.[1] Codenamed Whistler during its development, Windows XP is the successor to both Windows 2000 and Windows Me, and is the first consumer-oriented operating system produced by Microsoft to be built on the Windows NT kernel and architecture. With the release of Windows XP, the Windows 95/98 architecture was finally discontinued. Windows XP was first released on October 25, 2001, and as of 2006 continues to be the most recent consumer version of Microsoft Windows available, with over 400 million copies in use, according to an estimate by an IDC analyst.[2]
The most common editions of the operating system are Windows XP Home Edition, which is targeted at home users, and Windows XP Professional, which has additional features such as support for Windows Server domains and dual processors, and is targeted at power users and business clients. Windows XP Media Center Edition consists of Windows XP Professional with new features enhancing the ability to record and watch TV shows, watch DVDs, listen to music and more. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is designed to run the ink-aware Tablet PC platform. Two separate 64-bit versions of Windows XP were also released, Windows XP 64-bit Edition for IA-64 (Itanium) processors and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition for AMD64/EM64T processors.
Windows XP is known for its improved stability and efficiency over previous versions of Windows. It presents a significantly redesigned graphical user interface (GUI), a change Microsoft promoted as more user-friendly than previous versions of Windows. New software management capabilities were introduced to avoid the "DLL hell" that plagued older consumer versions of Windows. It is also the first version of Windows to use product activation to combat software piracy, a restriction that did not sit well with some users and privacy advocates. Windows XP has also been criticized by some users for security vulnerabilities, tight integration of applications such as Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, and for aspects of its user interface.
Windows Vista is scheduled to be the next major revision of Microsoft Windows, with a planned release date of November 2006 for business editions, and January 2007 for other editions.
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(officially pronounced "Mac O S Ten") is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, sold, and marketed by Apple Computer, the latest of which is included with all currently shipping Macintosh computers. Mac OS X is the successor to the original Mac OS, which had been Apple's primary operating system since 1984. Unlike its predecessor, Mac OS X is a multi-user, pre-emptively multitasking, Unix-like operating system built on technology that had been developed at NeXT through the second half of the 1980s and up until Apple Computer purchased the company in early 1997. The operating system was first released in 1999 as Mac OS X Server 1.0, with a desktop-oriented version (Mac OS X v10.0) following in March, 2001.
The server edition, Mac OS X Server, is architecturally identical to its desktop counterpart but usually runs on Apple's line of Macintosh server hardware. Mac OS X Server includes workgroup management and administration software tools that provide simplified access to key network services, including a mail server, a Samba server, a directory server, and a domain name server.