The Evolution of Operating Systems

The first operating system ever created was GM-NAA I/O, developed in 1956 by General Motors (GM) for the IBM 704 computer.

Year	Operating System	Company / Developer	Inventor / Creator	Description
1956	GM-NAA I/O	General Motors	Robert L. Patrick	First operating system for IBM mainframes, automating basic tasks.
1969	UNIX	AT&T Bell Labs	Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie	Introduced multitasking, portability, and inspired modern OS design.
1973	CP/M	Digital Research	Gary Kildall	Early microcomputer OS; influenced MS-DOS architecture.
1981	MS-DOS	Microsoft	Tim Paterson (for Seattle Computer Products)	Command-line OS later licensed by Microsoft for IBM PCs.
1984	Mac OS	Apple Inc.	Steve Jobs & Apple Team	Brought graphical user interface and mouse control to personal computers.
1991	Linux	Open Source	Linus Torvalds	Free and open-source UNIX-like OS; foundation for Android and servers.
1995	Windows 95	Microsoft	Bill Gates & Microsoft Team	Introduced Start Menu, taskbar, and user-friendly GUI for PCs.
2001	Windows XP	Microsoft	Microsoft Team	Known for stability, usability, and widespread global adoption.
2007	iOS	Apple Inc.	Steve Jobs & Apple Engineers	Revolutionized mobile OS design with multitouch interface on iPhone.
2008	Android	Google	Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, Chris White	Open-source mobile OS that became the world’s most used platform.
2015	Windows 10	Microsoft	Terry Myerson & Microsoft Team	Unified OS across PC, mobile, and IoT devices.
2021	Windows 11	Microsoft	Panos Panay & Microsoft Team	Modern design, enhanced security, and integration with AI and cloud.