University OS Course: Comparative Study of UNIX and Windows Systems

This report provides a comparative analysis of the UNIX and Windows operating systems, evaluating their stability, performance, and compatibility. The report highlights the superior stability of UNIX due to its tight integration with hardware, leading to fewer hardware incompatibility issues and better performance in critical conditions. UNIX also demonstrates faster performance through efficient thread scheduling, memory management, and I/O handling, especially in server environments. Furthermore, UNIX exhibits broader compatibility across various devices and software, largely due to its open-source nature and lack of proprietary code. The report also addresses short answer questions, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of open-source OS security, problems in a time-sharing environment, the purpose of a kernel, and the relationship between the kernel, BIOS, and the operating system. References are provided to support the analysis.

Running head: OPERATING SYSTEM
Operating System
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1OPERATING SYSTEM
Table of Contents
Comparison of the UNIX and the Windows OS:.......................................................................2
Stability:.................................................................................................................................2
Performance:..........................................................................................................................2
Compatibility:........................................................................................................................2
Reliability:..............................................................................................................................2
II. Short Answer Questions:.......................................................................................................3
References:.................................................................................................................................4

2OPERATING SYSTEM
Comparison of the UNIX and the Windows OS:
Stability:
While comparing the Windows OS with the UNIX OS in terms of stability, the UNIX
OS is way more stable compared with the Windows OS. UNIX OS achieved this much of
stability because the UNIX OS is tightly integrated with the hardware on which it operates
[1]. Thus the hardware incompatibility issue of the UNIX is much lesser compared with the
Windows OS. Also, within the critical conditions UNIX system remains stable the most
which the Windows OS cannot provide. Windows OS often fail in this kind of situations.
Performance:
In the case of the performance, UNIX OS is considered faster compared with the
Windows OS. This is because UNIX has better thread scheduling, memory management, and
better input and output devices handling. Also, in the case of the servers again the UNIX
performs better because the UNIX servers can take high loads of data which are superior
compared to the Windows.
Compatibility:
In the case of the compatibility, again the UNIX OS is more compatible in various
devices compared with the Windows OS. UNIX OS is compatible with the new Intel
processors and with the IBM’s p5 series processors [4]. Windows have greater compatibility
with the Intel processors but lack the support of the p5 processors. In the case of the software
again the UNIX is more compatible compared with the windows OS because of its open
source nature. Another reason for more compatibility of the UNIX system is that it free from
the proprietary code.

3OPERATING SYSTEM
Reliability:
UNIX systems are far more reliable compared with the Windows OS. This is because
of crashes and slowdowns in the Windows system which are very common. UNIX generally
does not suffers from this type of problems [2]. Also, UNIX is more reliable in the case of the
web servers. Also, the websites can be designed and hosted under a UNIX based system more
easily compared to the UNIX. Thus in the web related projects UNIX is more reliable.
II. Short Answer Questions:
a) In the case of the security open source, OS has both advantages and disadvantages. In the
case of the open source OS, the developers can find the vulnerability and can contribute to
improving the security of the OS. In the broader sense, this actually creates problems as many
peoples will take advantage of this vulnerability and can perform illegal tasks. Thus open
source OS is not really secure.
b) a) The two biggest problem of a time-sharing environment is the copying or stealing of
files without proper authorization and the use of the system resources without proper
accounting.
b) Theoretically, a time-shared machine can have the same security level as a dedicated
machine, but it depends on some circumstances. To achieve the same degree of the security
level the virtual machine that runs within the particular set of hardware must be controlled by
the same organization. In the practical cases, this is actually very much problematic.
In the time of the 80’s and 90’s the time-shared machine was really a big problem due
to lack of hosting environment. In present time Linux environment has the solution for
maintaining and hosting the time-shared machine.

4OPERATING SYSTEM
c) The main purpose of having a kernel is building a communication line between the
hardware and the operating system. The kernel helps the processes to access the device
drivers which are required for many execute functions.
The least functionalities which are provided by a kernel are the mechanisms for
dealing with address spaces, execution abstraction for CPU allocation management [3] and
the inter-process communication.
d) The main parts of a system other than the kernel are the BIOS and the operating system.
The BIOS stored in the non-volatile ROM chip in the motherboard [5] and the OS stored in
the hard drive or in the SSD of a system.
BIOS communicate with the kernel by providing access to the hardware layer. The
OS communicates with kernel by using the inter-process communication and by system calls.

5OPERATING SYSTEM
References:
[1] Silberschatz, Abraham, Greg Gagne, and Peter B. Galvin. Operating system concepts.
Wiley, 2018.
[2] Stevens, W. Richard, and Stephen A. Rago. Advanced programming in the UNIX
environment. Addison-Wesley, 2013.
[3] Klein, Gerwin, June Andronick, Kevin Elphinstone, Toby Murray, Thomas Sewell, Rafal
Kolanski, and Gernot Heiser. "Comprehensive formal verification of an OS
microkernel." ACM Transactions on Computer Systems (TOCS) 32, no. 1 (2014): 2.
[4] Nakod, Nilam K. "Comparative Survey of UNIX, Linux, Windows7 Operating System."
[5] Westerfield, Giles, Antonija Mitrovic, and Mark Billinghurst. "Intelligent augmented
reality training for motherboard assembly." International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in
Education 25, no. 1 (2015): 157-172.