What is an Operating System? In short an OS is akin to the foundation of a building as it provides the needed support and base for the rest of the software to work. Without an OS, programs such as Office, Firefox, Medical Manager and countless others would not function.

While there are dozens of different OSes, there are about five or so that are typically found in a workplace environment:

Windows

The most prevalent OS. Made by Microsoft, Windows is on over 95% of workstations and over 35% of Servers worldwide. Currently the major versions of Windows in use are Windows XP, Windows Vista, Server 2003 & 2008. Past versions may still be in use, but since XP was released in 2001 nearly all workstation PCs that we service have either been upgraded or replaced with this OS. Slowly, but surely Vista is becoming more widely used as well. Vista will soon be followed up by Windows 7 in either late 2009 or early 2010.

OSX

The proprietary OS of Apple Computers. In recent times past, you could use only OSX on Apple hardware and Apple hardware would only work with OSX. However, that changed about two years ago when Apple switched to Intel-based hardware and now both Windows and OSX can reside on the same Apple Computer. Windows-based software does not work on OSX and most workplace software requires Windows. Which is why having the ability to run both OSes on the same system is largely beneficial to many people. Apple releases a new version of OSX about every two years.

Linux

Even though Linux is rarely seen in most workplaces, there are some software programs that require this OS to operate and most of the people who do use it is because they prefer not to use Windows or OSX. Typically Linux has been considered to be a "more advanced" OS because of a general lack of user-friendly interfaces, but in recent days newer versions have proven to be more appealing to even new PC users. There are literally hundreds of "flavors" of Linux, but the most popular are: Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, Debian, and Mandriva.

Unix

One of the very first OSes that is still in use today. Granted it has taken on many incarnations and updates since it was first created in 1969, but it largely remains an OS for servers and more advanced users. A majority of web servers use a version of Unix or Linux.

Novell NetWare

While technically a "dead" OS, there are some servers that run this legacy OS which are still in use today. This OS is for servers only and is largely unseen by most end-users and is not in use in most offices any longer.

Colorado Hi-Tech Solutions is prepared and trained to install, operate, and if need be repair all of these Operating Systems. If you have any questions about what OS is best for your work environment please contact us.