Full transcript
0:00We use computers every single day from
0:02desktops, laptops, tablets, and
0:04smartphones. But in many ways we become
0:06almost oblivious to how they actually
0:08work. The user interfaces used across
0:11all of these operating systems have
0:12become intuitive and almost anonymous to
0:15us. When you look at your Windows PC,
0:17your Mac or Linux machine, and indeed
0:19your Android or iOS device, you are
0:21looking at the collective sum total of
0:23years of software and hardware progress
0:26and development to reach the current
0:28look and feel you see before you. So in
0:30many ways the features we take for
0:32granted were in one day very alien
0:34concepts to those early computing
0:36pioneers. The modern OS has come from
0:39somewhere and in this video I'm going to
0:41talk to you about how history has given
0:43birth to the modern operating system.
0:45This is the history of the operating
0:48system.
0:52Let's go back in time to the invention
0:55of digital computers.
0:57They could handle around 5,000 complex
1:00calculations per second. Impressive for
1:02the time, but today's supercomputers
1:05perform nearly 34 trillion calculations
1:08per second.
1:11Programs were written on punch cards,
1:14pieces of cardboard with holes.
1:17These were fed one at a time into the
1:19central processing unit or CPU and
1:22enabled the earliest form of computer
1:25batch processing.
1:27In some cases one person was in charge
1:29of making sure the cards were fed in
1:31correctly.
1:33Their job was to correct jams and
1:35schedule when the next program could be
1:37run.
1:38As computers became faster, they were
1:40able to process punch card tasks quicker
1:43than the cards could be fed in.
1:46There was another problem.
1:50Different computers resources, that is
1:53the components within them such as RAM
1:55and the devices attached to them, such
1:57as printers, were all different from one
2:00another.
2:01A programmer had to write very different
2:04types of programs specific to the
2:06machine it would be running on.
2:09It's all getting a bit complicated,
2:10isn't it?
2:13In the 1960s, IBM were the leading
2:16computer hardware vendor and developed
2:18the OS/360, but it wasn't until later in
2:21the decade that the rise of Unix would
2:23change everything. AT&T Bell
2:25Laboratories developed the system for
2:27their old PDP-7 minicomputer. By today's
2:30standards, there was nothing mini about
2:32it, but back then, a computer that
2:33didn't take up half a room was
2:35considered small. It cost $72,000.
2:40It used flip chip technology and would
2:42support a keyboard, printer, paper tape,
2:45and dual transport deck tape drives. By
2:48today's standards, it had a memory
2:49capacity of just 9 KB,
2:52but of course, back then, memory wasn't
2:54measured in bytes. It was measured in
2:56words, of which it could store only
2:584,000. Unix proved popular because it
3:01was easy to obtain, easily modified, and
3:03completely free. The 1970s would bring
3:06us 8-bit processors, including the Intel
3:098080, a precursor to the 386 processor,
3:12and later, the Intel 486. But it wasn't
3:14until the 1980s that we started to see a
3:16giant leap in computing development.
3:19This was because it had finally become
3:20commercially viable to produce smaller
3:22computers for the home. These included
3:24the Commodore 64, the Apple II series,
3:27the Atari 8-bit machine, and of course,
3:29who could forget the ZX Spectrum. In
3:321981, Xerox introduced the Star Office
3:35Information System, which would
3:36ultimately prove revolutionary because
3:38it gave Apple the idea to produce a GUI,
3:41graphical user interface, based
3:42operating system for the first time and
3:45include mouse-based input. This was the
3:47first time anyone had ever seen icons
3:50represent files and folders on the
3:52computing system. We take it for granted
3:53now, but back then that was highbrow
3:56stuff and a lot of people found it very
3:58difficult to actually get to grips with.
4:00Even to this day, you can still see
4:02where modern operating systems take
4:04their design cues and their general
4:06conventions and behaviors from all the
4:08work that Xerox did back in the day. It
4:10gave us terms like desktop and property
4:13settings, but also delete, copy, and
4:15move functions. To this day, we still
4:18owe the majority of these breakthroughs
4:20to Xerox and not Apple or Microsoft. Of
4:23course, at this time Microsoft DOS and
4:25PC-DOS sold on IBM computers was the
4:27market leader and would remain
4:28relatively intact beneath Windows 95,
4:3198, and Millennium as a software
4:34compatibility mode for older
4:36applications. Backing things up a little
4:38bit though, it was Apple's Lisa Office
4:40system in 1983 that gave us the first
4:44graphical user interface-based operating
4:46system that was commercially viable. As
4:48you can see, it bears a striking
4:49resemblance to Xerox's interpretation.
4:52However, Lisa was way too expensive for
4:55the average consumer and the machine
4:56itself was a commercial failure. Later,
4:59Apple would develop System 1.0 in 1984
5:02for the original Macintosh and then
5:04everything changed. Even today, you can
5:06see that the first Mac operating system
5:08has some striking similarities to what
5:10we use today. The Apple logo, the
5:12general layout of folders, the taskbar
5:15at the top, and the trashcan in the
5:17bottom right-hand corner. In many ways,
5:19it's kind of like a primitive version of
5:22OS 10 or more accurately, more like OS
5:259, but you can still see that Apple have
5:28retained the general layout of their
5:31desktop operating system after all these
5:33years. Microsoft would copy Apple in
5:35developing Windows and of course,
5:36Windows 95 was the biggest operating
5:39system of the '90s. When you look at
5:40these operating systems developed by
5:42Microsoft and Apple over the years,
5:43although a lot's changed, in many ways
5:45they still retain the same design
5:47elements and UI conventions that we see
5:49today. But of course, operating systems
5:51have evolved beyond the mouse and
5:53keyboard. With the advent of touchscreen
5:55devices and social media, operating
5:57systems have begun to go through their
5:58next major evolution. Now, social media
6:01networks pervade desktop environments
6:03with reminders and notifications.
6:05They've become far more simplified and
6:07appliance-like. Users expect them to be
6:10ever more intuitive and easier to use
6:12with all of the complexity and
6:14technology hidden away from them. We
6:16take so many of the great features and
6:17functions of our operating systems today
6:19for granted. And it can be all too easy
6:21to forget where the ingenuity and
6:23creativity actually came from. There's
6:25no doubt that the operating systems of
6:26today are light-years ahead of what we
6:28had in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. But the
6:30fundamental principles and core
6:32commitment to meet the users' needs and
6:35recognize the importance of breaking
6:36down the barrier between the hardware
6:38and the software and the human interface
6:40remains an evolving project. We can only
6:42speculate where operating systems will
6:43be in the next 10 or 20 years. But one
6:45thing's for sure, wherever we're headed,
6:47the progress we make will be built on a
6:50mountain of developmental successes and
6:52failures made by those first computing
6:54pioneers from the dawn of the computing
6:57age.