OS Hardware Requirements

Windows XP Professional Edition PC with 300 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233-MHz minimum required 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features) 1.5 gigabyte (GB) of available hard disk space minimum 2(GB) of free space is recommended Super VGA (800 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor CD-ROM or DVD drive 12x or faster Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

Windows 2000 Professional PC with 300 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 133-MHz minimum required 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features) 650 (MB) of available hard disk space 1GB is recommended Super VGA (800 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor CD-ROM or DVD drive Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

Windows NT Workstation PC with 200 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 100-MHz minimum required 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (16 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features) 110 MB of available hard disk space 1GB recommended Super VGA (800 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor CD-ROM or DVD drive Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

Windows 9x/ME PC with PentiumII or AMD 233 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; Pentium CPU is minimum required 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended Windows 98 if it's WIndows ME 128-256MB will be acceptable (32 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features) 455-635 MB of available hard disk space 4GB is Recommended Super VGA (800 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor CD-ROM or DVD drive Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

Red Hat Linux 9x PC with 233 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 133-MHz minimum required 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features) 1.5 gigabyte (GB) of available hard disk space Super VGA (800 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor CD-ROM or DVD drive Be careful with Linux installations make sure that all your hardware must comply with the HCL or hardware compatibility lists for more information go to www.redhat.com

OPERATING SYSTEMS
Software - a set of electronic instructions that tell a PC what to do Types of software are application software and OS Examples of application software are MS Word, Adobe Photoshop and Intuit QuickBooks Examples of OS are Windows 2K, Linux and MS DOS OS - manages the hardware, resources and application software. An OS also provides the following services to computer hardware and peripherals. Disk and file management Provides API's, which stands for Application Programming Interface, a sort of rulebook for programmers in order to write programs for a particular OS. Device access User interface GUI-Graphical User Interface (Icons, click mouse) examples are Windows and Mac OS and Command Interface or Command Line OS examples are MS DOS and UNIX Memory management Output format OS terms Version - A particular revision of a piece of software, in relations to other versions of the product Source - Code use to write particular software. Open source means that the OS can be examined and modified by users for example Linux and close source means that the actual code cannot be modified like Windows OS Shell - A program that runs on top of an OS. The two examples of shells are DOS (command shell) and Windows (GUI) GUI- GUI's use a mouse and touch pad to move in an OS Multitasking Cooperative Multitasking - A method in which the application itself is responsible for using and then freeing access to the processor (Windows 3.x) Preemptive Multitasking - A method in which the OS allots each application a certain amount of processor time and then forcibly takes back control and gives another application or task access to the processor Multithreading - The ability of a single application to have multiple requests in to the processor at one time, which results in faster performance Types of OS and NOS

MS DOS-A OS developed by MS from Quick and Dirty DOS Version 1.0 - First version very archaic Version 1.1 - Supported 320KB floppy drives Version 2.0 - Hard drive and subdirectory support Version 3.0- 1.2 MB floppy support Version 4.0 - Provided a DOS shell feature Version 5.0 - Provided memory management support and improved utilities Version 6.0 - Added MEMMAKER Version 6.22 - Added DriveSpace disk compression utility Windows - A GUI OS perfected and marketed by MS Versions of Windows include:

Windows 3.x (not really an OS) more of an operating shell which runs on top of DOS Windows 95 - PnP, very user friendly Windows 98 - More stable than Windows 95, also adds more features Windows 2000 - PnP, supports administrative tools and disk management Windows NT 4.0 - Use for a client/server model, only drawback is its not PnP Windows Me - A patch up OS with decent support for graphics Windows XP - The new OS flagship from MS targeting end users Windows 2003 - Microsoft's new operating system Linux - A free and stable OS invented by Linus Torvald

Different vendors of Linux include: Red Hat Linux Caldera Linux Mandrake Linux SuSe Linux VaLinux Corel Linux UNIX - The oldest and most powerful OS around Most UNIX systems are descendants of the System V and BSD Models Most popular UNIX versions are as follows: Sun Solaris UNIX HP AIX IBM UNIX Free BSD Novell Netware - A Network OS known for its file and print capabilities Novell Netware 3.x Novell Netware 4.x Novell Netware 5.x Novell Netware 6.x OS/2 - A 32-bit GUI OS from IBM

Mac OS - A GUI OS from Apple developed for Macintosh and i-Mac computers Mac OS 7.x Mac OS 8.x Mac OS 9.x Mac OS X