What server operating systems are there? A brief history of server OSs

An operating system (OS) primarily serves as an in­ter­me­di­ary between a computer’s resources and the running ap­pli­ca­tions. Due to the re­quire­ments that servers put on operating systems, some systems may be more suitable for these tasks than others, which is why such setups are often referred to as server operating systems. Below, you’ll find out more about the origins of server systems, the first systems used in server en­vi­ron­ments and which server operating systems are the most popular today.

What was the first operating system for home use?

In 1974, Gary Kildall released the operating system CP/M in floppy disc form. Given that Unix, which appeared a few years earlier, could only be used within specific en­vi­ron­ments (e.g., uni­ver­si­ties and research in­sti­tu­tions), it’s widely con­sid­ered to be the first PC operating system for home use. Orig­i­nal­ly an acronym for Control Program/Monitor, CP/M’s basic input/output system (BIOS) was a stan­dard­ized hardware interface, making it possible to use it for different computers. With the help of the command-line in­ter­preter CCP (Console Command Processor), the system was able to receive and execute user commands.

CP/M was the only note­wor­thy disc operating system (DOS) that was available for mi­cro­com­put­ers prior to 1980, becoming the con­cep­tu­al model that the dominant ad­min­is­tra­tion solution would be based upon.

It should be mentioned, however, that DOS wasn’t rep­re­sen­ta­tive of a unified operating system for quite some time. Instead, it was a concept that many different providers adopted and im­ple­ment­ed in various ways. Even­tu­al­ly, the well-known MS-DOS by Microsoft was the model that caught on, playing a fun­da­men­tal role in many other Windows versions (until Windows 98).

“System”—which was renamed to Mac OS in 1996—was to Apple computers what DOS was to IBM computer of that time. With the release of Apple Macintosh in 1984, users became ac­quaint­ed with the company’s initial graphical user interface, which could be operated using a mouse. Apple had already released a similar operating system called Lisa OS a year earlier, but due to its $10,000 price tag, the model remained rel­a­tive­ly un­suc­cess­ful.

When did Windows and Linux operating systems achieve success?

It wasn’t until 1993, with the in­tro­duc­tion of the Windows Server operating system Windows NT 3.1, that Microsoft was finally able to deliver its answer to Apple’s success. Up until then, the software company had only been suc­cess­ful with the release of its Windows 3.0 graphical interface for MS-DOS. Even if the NT system, which came in work­sta­tion as well as server variants, never managed to quite catch on, Microsoft used the kernel as the basis for most of its sub­se­quent versions (2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10).

The only exception was the Windows 9x series (produced for private use), which continued to be based on MS-DOS and came with its own 32-bit kernel. The release of Windows 95 in 1995 marked the de­fin­i­tive beginning of the un­par­al­leled success of Windows systems in the private sector. Other operating systems in this family were Windows 98 and the Mil­len­ni­um Edition, which marked the end of this system branch.

In terms of server operating systems, a new al­ter­na­tive suddenly emerged: Linux, a solution based on the pi­o­neer­ing operating system Unix. Initially offered as pro­pri­etary software, the Linux kernel was made available under the free GLP license in 1992, a move that generated con­sid­er­able buzz among de­vel­op­ers and sowed the seeds for the operating system’s wide­spread adoption.

Combined with utility software, various dis­tri­b­u­tions such as Yggdrasil Linux and Slackware emerged. These served as complete operating systems and, like the kernel itself, didn’t come with any ad­di­tion­al costs. And given that these operating systems could be expanded and adjusted according to user demands, Linux dis­tri­b­u­tions weren’t only free of charge, they were also highly flexible. The fact that Linux offered excellent options for system and rights man­age­ment led to the operating system quickly becoming the preferred server solution for many ad­min­is­tra­tors, es­pe­cial­ly for web de­vel­op­ment—a status, which it continues to enjoy to this day.

Which server operating systems are popular today?

Today, the internet is a reservoir of many different types of web projects, which are actively developed and co-designed by com­mu­ni­ties on the internet. Blogs, business websites and web ap­pli­ca­tions all rely on web servers, which are set up and managed by operating systems.

When setting up a website, it’s important to decide whether you want to delegate the task of setting up the hosting en­vi­ron­ment to a pro­fes­sion­al provider or if you want to do it yourself. There are numerous options for hosting and Linux plays a leading role.

Over half of all Unix-like systems, which according to W3Techs are used for roughly two-thirds of all business projects, are Linux dis­tri­b­u­tions. Ubuntu and Debian are es­pe­cial­ly popular dis­tri­b­u­tions, followed by CentOS. Less fre­quent­ly used dis­tri­b­u­tions, but still equally note­wor­thy, are Red Hat, Gentoo, Fedora and SUSE.

Microsoft is the biggest com­peti­tor of software operating systems that run on Linux and/or Unix. As a part of its NT series, the software giant has been offering the Windows Server Edition since 2003.

The saga of Linux vs. Windows as web hosting solutions has stagnated over the past few years, as there are hardly any more decisive qual­i­ta­tive dif­fer­ences between the two when it comes to server systems. Most often, a decision is made based on cost factors or personal pref­er­ences. The following table provides an overview on major sim­i­lar­i­ties and dif­fer­ences among three of the most popular server operating systems:

Windows Server

When choosing between Windows Server and a Linux-based server operating system, you’ll be con­front­ed with some of the same con­sid­er­a­tions you would face when choosing between Windows and Linux as a desktop solution. Hardware drivers are generally more readily available for Windows Server than for Linux. However, Windows Server is slightly more sus­cep­ti­ble to malware and other security risks. Another downside is that the desktop version of Windows Server 2022 only supports the x64 in­struc­tion set (also x86_64, AMD64).

Since Linux enjoys a higher market share among server OSs than desktop computers, the vast majority of server-relevant software packages are also available for Linux. The selection of available software packages is therefore less important when choosing between Linux and Windows Server than when selecting a desktop operating system.

In terms of the graphical user interface, Windows Server is very similar to the desktop version of the operating system. The server operating system is mainly aimed at users who prefer Microsoft operating systems and software and want to stick with Windows when it comes to server ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Debian

Debian is char­ac­ter­ized as a server operating system above all by its stability and security. The security and stability re­quire­ments placed on both the operating system and its software packages are much higher for Debian than for almost any other Linux server operating system. For this reason, Debian is often used as the source code base for other Linux dis­tri­b­u­tions, such as Ubuntu. However, the high demands placed on stability and security also mean that a lot of software packages available for Debian are already months or years old.

Debian is also up there when it comes to com­pat­i­bil­i­ty. The operating system supports many processor ar­chi­tec­tures, including x86, PowerPC and MIPS (all both 32- and 64-bit). In addition, ARM64, Armel, HPPA/PA-RISC and S/390x are of­fi­cial­ly supported. Debian uses Dpkg and the APT package manager (like Ubuntu) and is often referred to as a meta-dis­tri­b­u­tion. As a meta-dis­tri­b­u­tion, Debian is in­ter­est­ing for various target groups and for both private and pro­fes­sion­al use.

Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux (RHEL)

Red Hat en­ter­prise Linux (RHEL), the com­mer­cial system of the Red Hat de­vel­op­ers, has been designed with the needs of busi­ness­es in mind. The system is stable and enjoys the support of a diverse range of in­de­pen­dent software de­vel­op­ers. RHEL is char­ac­ter­ized above all by its support because every version of the server operating system benefits from more than 10 years of long-term support. In addition, Red Hat offers com­pre­hen­sive support for its en­ter­prise customers. RHEL supports both common and spe­cial­ized processor ISAs, including x86_64, PowerPC, IBM Z and ARM64.

What other Linux server operating systems are there?

There are numerous other Linux dis­tri­b­u­tions that are also well suited for use as a server OS. While the Debian de­riv­a­tive Ubuntu does not have the extensive range of functions that its pre­de­ces­sor does, having fewer features makes it quick and easy to set up. Support is also provided to users switching from Windows or other third-party operating systems.

Unlike RHEL, Fedora and its de­riv­a­tive CentOS are both free of charge. However, they don’t come with the same support found with other options. One of Fedora’s defining features is that it’s con­stant­ly being updated, a trait that makes it par­tic­u­lar­ly popular among de­vel­op­ers. Those aiming to put together their own in­di­vid­ual Linux systems will ap­pre­ci­ate Gentoo, another system known for its frequent updates. Like Fedora, however, this server OS lacks long-term support, making it less suitable for long-term projects.