1.
Device driver
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In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer. A driver communicates with the device through the bus or communications subsystem to which the hardware connects. When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device, once the device sends data back to the driver, the driver may invoke routines in the original calling program. Drivers are hardware dependent and operating-system-specific and they usually provide the interrupt handling required for any necessary asynchronous time-dependent hardware interface. The main purpose of device drivers is to provide abstraction by acting as a translator between a device and the applications or operating systems that use it. Programmers can write the higher-level application code independently of specific hardware the end-user is using. For example, an application for interacting with a serial port may simply have two functions for send data and receive data. At a lower level, a device driver implementing these functions would communicate to the serial port controller installed on a users computer. Writing a device driver requires an understanding of how the hardware. In contrast, most user-level software on modern operating systems can be stopped without greatly affecting the rest of the system, even drivers executing in user mode can crash a system if the device is erroneously programmed. These factors make it difficult and dangerous to diagnose problems. The task of writing drivers thus usually falls to software engineers or computer engineers who work for hardware-development companies and this is because they have better information than most outsiders about the design of their hardware. Moreover, it was considered in the hardware manufacturers interest to guarantee that their clients can use their hardware in an optimum way. Typically, the Logical Device Driver is written by the operating system vendor, but in recent years non-vendors have written numerous device drivers, mainly for use with free and open source operating systems. In such cases, it is important that the manufacturer provides information on how the device communicates. Although this information can instead be learned by reverse engineering, this is more difficult with hardware than it is with software. Microsoft has attempted to reduce system instability due to poorly written device drivers by creating a new framework for driver development, if such drivers malfunction, they do not cause system instability. Apple has a framework for developing drivers on Mac OS X called the I/O Kit
2.
Windows 2.1x
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Windows 2. 1x, marketed as Windows/286 and Windows/386, and codenamed Blaze, is a family of Microsoft Windows graphical user interface-based operating environments. Windows/2862.10 and Windows/3862.10 were released on May 27,1988 and these versions can take advantage of the specific features of the Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 processors. A hard disk was required for the first time to install Windows, two editions of Windows 2. 1x were released, both of which could take advantage of the Intel processor for which they were designed. Windows/286 takes advantage of the HMA to increase the memory available to Windows programs and it introduced the HIMEM. SYS DOS driver for this purpose. It also includes support for several EMS boards, although support is not related to the 80286 processor. Microsoft encouraged users to configure their computers with only 256KB of main memory, despite its name, Windows/286 was fully operational on an 8088 or 8086 processor. Windows/286 would simply not use the memory area since none existed on an 8086-class processor, however, EMS could still be used. A few PC vendors shipped Windows/286 with 8086 hardware, an example was IBMs PS/2 Model 25, Windows/386 was much more advanced than its predecessor. It introduced a protected mode kernel, above which the GUI and it allowed several MS-DOS programs to run in parallel in virtual 8086 CPU mode, rather than always suspending background applications. With the exception of a few kilobytes of overhead, each DOS application could use any available low memory before Windows was started. Neither of these versions worked with DOS memory managers like CEMM or QEMM or with DOS extenders and this was remedied in version 3.0, which is compatible with Virtual Control Program Interface in standard mode and with DOS Protected Mode Interface in 386 enhanced mode. Windows 3.0 also had the capability of using the DWEMM Direct Write Enhanced Memory Module and this is what enables the far faster and more sleek graphical user interface, as well as true extended memory support. BYTE in 1989 listed Windows/386 as among the Distinction winners of the BYTE Awards, on March 13,1989, Windows 2.11 was released in Windows/286 and Windows/386 editions, with some minor changes in memory management, AppleTalk support and faster printing and updated printer drivers. Windows 2.11 was superseded by Windows 3.0 in May 1990,20 Years of Windows Solutions – Windows 286 &386. YouTube-upload of Windows/386 promotion video Microsoft Windows Version History Archived November 7,2006, at the Wayback Machine
3.
Windows 3.1x
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Windows 3. 1x is a series of 16-bit operating environments produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers. The series began with Windows 3.1, which was first sold during April 1992 as a successor to Windows 3.0, subsequent versions were released between 1992 and 1994 until the series was superseded by Windows 95. Windows 3.1, released on April 6,1992, introduced a TrueType font system, similar functionality was available for Windows 3.0 through Adobe Type Manager font system from Adobe. Windows 3.1 was designed to have compatibility with older Windows platforms. As with Windows 3.0, version 3.1 had File Manager and Program Manager and it included Minesweeper as a replacement for Reversi. Windows 3.1 Multimedia PC Version included a viewer. It was targeted to the new Multimedia PC standard and included sound, Windows 3.1 dropped real mode support and required a minimum of a 286 PC with 1 MB of RAM to run. The effect of this was to increase system stability over the crash-prone Windows 3.0, some older features were removed, like CGA graphics support and compatibility with real mode Windows 2. x applications. Truetype font support was added, providing scalable fonts to Windows applications, Windows 3.1 included the following fonts, Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman, and Symbol in regular, bold, italic, and bold-italic versions. Truetype fonts could be scaled to any size and rotated, depending on the calling application, a few DOS applications, such as late releases of Microsoft Word, could access Windows Clipboard. Windows own drivers couldnt work directly with DOS applications, hardware such as mice required a DOS driver to be loaded before starting Windows, icons could be dragged and dropped for the first time, in addition to having a more detailed appearance. A file could be dragged onto Print Manager icon and the file would be printed by the current printer, assuming it was associated with a capable of printing. Alternatively, the file could be dragged out of File Manager, while Windows 3.0 was limited to 16 MB maximum memory, Windows 3.1 can access a theoretical 4 GB in 386 Enhanced Mode. However, no process can use more than 16 MB. File Manager was significantly improved over Windows 3.0, Multimedia support was enhanced over what was available in Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions and available to all Windows 3.1 users. Windows 3.1 was available via 720 KB,1.2 MB, and 1.44 MB floppy distributions. It was also the first version of Windows to be distributed on CD-ROM — although this was common for Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Installed size on the disk was between 10 MB and 15 MB
4.
Windows 9x
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This includes all versions of Windows 95 and Windows 98. Windows 9x is predominantly known for its use in desktops, in 1998, Windows made up 82% of operating system market share. Internal release versions for versions of Windows 9x are 4. x, previous MS-DOS based versions of Windows used version numbers of 3.2 or lower. Windows NT, which was aimed at professional users such as networks and businesses, used a similar, the final version of Windows 9x was Windows ME, released in September 2000 with an internal version number of 4.9. All future versions of Windows, starting with Windows XP, would be based on the Windows NT codebase, the first independent version of Microsoft Windows, version 1.0, released on 20 November 1985, achieved little popularity. It was originally going to be called Interface Manager but Rowland Hanson, Windows 1.0 was not a complete operating system, but rather an operating environment that extended MS-DOS, and shared the latters inherent flaws and problems. The second release of Microsoft Windows, version 2.0, came out on 9 December 1987, and used the memory model. In such a configuration, it could run under another multitasking system like DESQview, Microsoft Windows scored a significant success with Windows 3.0, released in 1990. Microsoft developed Windows 3.1, which included minor improvements to Windows 3.0. It also excluded support for Real mode, and only ran on an 80286 or better processor. Later Microsoft also released Windows 3.11, a touch-up to Windows 3.1 which included all of the patches and updates that followed the release of Windows 3.1 in 1992, meanwhile, Microsoft continued to develop Windows NT. The main architect of the system was Dave Cutler, one of the architects of VMS at Digital Equipment Corporation. Microsoft hired him in August 1988 to create a successor to OS/2, Microsoft announced at the conference its intentions to develop a successor to both Windows NT and Windows 3. 1s replacement, which would unify the two into one operating system. In hindsight, Cairo was a more difficult project than Microsoft had anticipated and, as a result, NT. After Windows 3.11, Microsoft began to develop a new consumer oriented version of the operating system code-named Chicago, Chicago was designed to have support for 32-bit preemptive multitasking like OS/2 and Windows NT, although a 16-bit kernel would remain for the sake of backward compatibility. The Win32 API first introduced with Windows NT was adopted as the standard 32-bit programming interface, a new GUI was not originally planned as part of the release, although elements of the Cairo user interface were borrowed and added as other aspects of the release slipped. Microsoft did not change all of the Windows code to 32-bit, parts of it remained 16-bit for reasons of compatibility, performance and these factors immediately began to impact the operating systems efficiency and stability. Microsoft marketing adopted Windows 95 as the name for Chicago when it was released on August 24,1995
5.
DR-DOS
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DR-DOS is an operating system of the DOS family, written for IBM PC-compatible personal computers. It was originally developed by Gary Kildalls Digital Research and derived from Concurrent PC DOS6.0, as ownership changed, various later versions were produced with names including Novell DOS and Caldera OpenDOS. Digital Researchs original CP/M for the 8-bit Intel 8080 and Z-80 based systems spawned numerous spin-off versions, IBM originally approached Digital Research, seeking an x86 version of CP/M. However, there were disagreements over the contract, and IBM withdrew, instead, a deal was struck with Microsoft, who purchased another operating system, 86-DOS, from Seattle Computer Products. This became Microsoft MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS, 86-DOS command structure and application programming interface imitated that of CP/M. Digital Research threatened legal action, claiming PC DOS/MS-DOS to be too similar to CP/M, IBM settled by agreeing to sell their x86 version of CP/M, CP/M-86, alongside PC DOS. However, PC DOS sold for $40, while CP/M-86 had a price tag. This was shown publicly in December 1983 and shipped in March 1984 as Concurrent DOS3.1 to hardware vendors, therefore, over time two attempts were made to sideline the product. Its DOS compatibility was limited, and Digital Research made another attempt and this new disk operating system was launched in 1988 as DR DOS. As requested by several OEMs Digital Research started to develop a new DOS operating system addressing the shortcomings left by MS-DOS in 1987. The first DR DOS version was released on 28 May 1988, the system files were named DRBIOS. SYS and DRBDOS. SYS, the disk OEM label used was DIGITAL␠. It was also cheaper to license than MS-DOS, and was ROMable right from the start, the ROMed version of DR DOS was also named ROS. DRI was approached by a number of PC manufacturers who were interested in a third-party DOS, at this time, MS-DOS was only available to OEMs bundled with hardware. Consequently, DR DOS achieved some success when it became possible for consumers to buy it through normal retail channels since 3. 4x. Known versions are DR DOS3.31,3.32,3.33,3.34,3.35,3.40,3.41, like MS-DOS, most of them were produced in several flavors for different hardware. While most OEMs kept the DR DOS name designation, one OEM version is known to be called EZ-DOS3.41. DR DOS version 5.0 was released in May 1990, still reporting itself as PC DOS3.31 for compatibility purposes, but internally indicating a single-user BDOS6.4 kernel. This introduced ViewMAX, a GEM-based GUI file management shell, the patented BatteryMAX power management system, bundled disk-caching software, and also offers vastly improved memory management
6.
OpenDOS 7.01
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DR-DOS is an operating system of the DOS family, written for IBM PC-compatible personal computers. It was originally developed by Gary Kildalls Digital Research and derived from Concurrent PC DOS6.0, as ownership changed, various later versions were produced with names including Novell DOS and Caldera OpenDOS. Digital Researchs original CP/M for the 8-bit Intel 8080 and Z-80 based systems spawned numerous spin-off versions, IBM originally approached Digital Research, seeking an x86 version of CP/M. However, there were disagreements over the contract, and IBM withdrew, instead, a deal was struck with Microsoft, who purchased another operating system, 86-DOS, from Seattle Computer Products. This became Microsoft MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS, 86-DOS command structure and application programming interface imitated that of CP/M. Digital Research threatened legal action, claiming PC DOS/MS-DOS to be too similar to CP/M, IBM settled by agreeing to sell their x86 version of CP/M, CP/M-86, alongside PC DOS. However, PC DOS sold for $40, while CP/M-86 had a price tag. This was shown publicly in December 1983 and shipped in March 1984 as Concurrent DOS3.1 to hardware vendors, therefore, over time two attempts were made to sideline the product. Its DOS compatibility was limited, and Digital Research made another attempt and this new disk operating system was launched in 1988 as DR DOS. As requested by several OEMs Digital Research started to develop a new DOS operating system addressing the shortcomings left by MS-DOS in 1987. The first DR DOS version was released on 28 May 1988, the system files were named DRBIOS. SYS and DRBDOS. SYS, the disk OEM label used was DIGITAL␠. It was also cheaper to license than MS-DOS, and was ROMable right from the start, the ROMed version of DR DOS was also named ROS. DRI was approached by a number of PC manufacturers who were interested in a third-party DOS, at this time, MS-DOS was only available to OEMs bundled with hardware. Consequently, DR DOS achieved some success when it became possible for consumers to buy it through normal retail channels since 3. 4x. Known versions are DR DOS3.31,3.32,3.33,3.34,3.35,3.40,3.41, like MS-DOS, most of them were produced in several flavors for different hardware. While most OEMs kept the DR DOS name designation, one OEM version is known to be called EZ-DOS3.41. DR DOS version 5.0 was released in May 1990, still reporting itself as PC DOS3.31 for compatibility purposes, but internally indicating a single-user BDOS6.4 kernel. This introduced ViewMAX, a GEM-based GUI file management shell, the patented BatteryMAX power management system, bundled disk-caching software, and also offers vastly improved memory management
7.
DR-DOS 7.02
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DR-DOS is an operating system of the DOS family, written for IBM PC-compatible personal computers. It was originally developed by Gary Kildalls Digital Research and derived from Concurrent PC DOS6.0, as ownership changed, various later versions were produced with names including Novell DOS and Caldera OpenDOS. Digital Researchs original CP/M for the 8-bit Intel 8080 and Z-80 based systems spawned numerous spin-off versions, IBM originally approached Digital Research, seeking an x86 version of CP/M. However, there were disagreements over the contract, and IBM withdrew, instead, a deal was struck with Microsoft, who purchased another operating system, 86-DOS, from Seattle Computer Products. This became Microsoft MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS, 86-DOS command structure and application programming interface imitated that of CP/M. Digital Research threatened legal action, claiming PC DOS/MS-DOS to be too similar to CP/M, IBM settled by agreeing to sell their x86 version of CP/M, CP/M-86, alongside PC DOS. However, PC DOS sold for $40, while CP/M-86 had a price tag. This was shown publicly in December 1983 and shipped in March 1984 as Concurrent DOS3.1 to hardware vendors, therefore, over time two attempts were made to sideline the product. Its DOS compatibility was limited, and Digital Research made another attempt and this new disk operating system was launched in 1988 as DR DOS. As requested by several OEMs Digital Research started to develop a new DOS operating system addressing the shortcomings left by MS-DOS in 1987. The first DR DOS version was released on 28 May 1988, the system files were named DRBIOS. SYS and DRBDOS. SYS, the disk OEM label used was DIGITAL␠. It was also cheaper to license than MS-DOS, and was ROMable right from the start, the ROMed version of DR DOS was also named ROS. DRI was approached by a number of PC manufacturers who were interested in a third-party DOS, at this time, MS-DOS was only available to OEMs bundled with hardware. Consequently, DR DOS achieved some success when it became possible for consumers to buy it through normal retail channels since 3. 4x. Known versions are DR DOS3.31,3.32,3.33,3.34,3.35,3.40,3.41, like MS-DOS, most of them were produced in several flavors for different hardware. While most OEMs kept the DR DOS name designation, one OEM version is known to be called EZ-DOS3.41. DR DOS version 5.0 was released in May 1990, still reporting itself as PC DOS3.31 for compatibility purposes, but internally indicating a single-user BDOS6.4 kernel. This introduced ViewMAX, a GEM-based GUI file management shell, the patented BatteryMAX power management system, bundled disk-caching software, and also offers vastly improved memory management
8.
Memory
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Memory is the faculty of the mind by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. Memory is vital to experiences and related to systems, it is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If we could not remember past events, we could not learn or develop language, relationships, often memory is understood as an informational processing system with explicit and implicit functioning that is made up of a sensory processor, short-term memory, and long-term memory. The sensory processor allows information from the world to be sensed in the form of chemical and physical stimuli and attended to with various levels of focus. Working memory serves as an encoding and retrieval processor, information in the form of stimuli is encoded in accordance with explicit or implicit functions by the working memory processor. The working memory also retrieves information from previously stored material, finally, the function of long-term memory is to store data through various categorical models or systems. Explicit and implicit functions of memory are known as declarative and non-declarative systems. These systems involve the purposeful intention of memory retrieval and storage, declarative, or explicit, memory is the conscious storage and recollection of data. Under declarative memory resides semantic and episodic memory, semantic memory refers to memory that is encoded with specific meaning, while episodic memory refers to information that is encoded along a spatial and temporal plane. Declarative memory is usually the primary process thought of when referencing memory, non-declarative, or implicit, memory is the unconscious storage and recollection of information. An example of a process would be the unconscious learning or retrieval of information by way of procedural memory. Memory is not a processor, and is affected by many factors. The manner information is encoded, stored, and retrieved can all be corrupted, the amount of attention given new stimuli can diminish the amount of information that becomes encoded for storage. Also, the process can become corrupted by physical damage to areas of the brain that are associated with memory storage. Finally, the retrieval of information from long-term memory can be disrupted because of decay within long-term memory, normal functioning, decay over time, and brain damage all affect the accuracy and capacity of memory. Sensory memory holds sensory information less than one second after an item is perceived, the ability to look at an item and remember what it looked like with just a split second of observation, or memorization, is the example of sensory memory. It is out of control and is an automatic response. With very short presentations, participants often report that they seem to see more than they can actually report, the first experiments exploring this form of sensory memory were precisely conducted by George Sperling using the partial report paradigm
9.
Kernel (operating system)
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The kernel is a computer program that is the core of a computers operating system, with complete control over everything in the system. It is the first program loaded on start-up and it handles the rest of start-up as well as input/output requests from software, translating them into data-processing instructions for the central processing unit. It handles memory and peripherals like keyboards, monitors, printers, the critical code of the kernel is usually loaded into a protected area of memory, which prevents it from being overwritten by applications or other, more minor parts of the operating system. The kernel performs its tasks, such as running processes and handling interrupts, in contrast, everything a user does is in user space, writing text in a text editor, running programs in a GUI, etc. This separation prevents user data and kernel data from interfering with other and causing instability. The kernels interface is an abstraction layer. When a process makes requests of the kernel, it is called a system call, Kernel designs differ in how they manage these system calls and resources. A monolithic kernel runs all the operating instructions in the same address space. A microkernel runs most processes in space, for modularity. The kernel takes responsibility for deciding at any time which of the running programs should be allocated to the processor or processors. Random-access memory Random-access memory is used to both program instructions and data. Typically, both need to be present in memory in order for a program to execute, often multiple programs will want access to memory, frequently demanding more memory than the computer has available. The kernel is responsible for deciding which memory each process can use, input/output devices I/O devices include such peripherals as keyboards, mice, disk drives, printers, network adapters, and display devices. The kernel allocates requests from applications to perform I/O to an appropriate device, key aspects necessary in resource management are the definition of an execution domain and the protection mechanism used to mediate the accesses to the resources within a domain. Kernels also usually provide methods for synchronization and communication between processes called inter-process communication, finally, a kernel must provide running programs with a method to make requests to access these facilities. The kernel has full access to the memory and must allow processes to safely access this memory as they require it. Often the first step in doing this is virtual addressing, usually achieved by paging and/or segmentation, virtual addressing allows the kernel to make a given physical address appear to be another address, the virtual address. This allows every program to behave as if it is the one running
10.
Process (computing)
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In computing, a process is an instance of a computer program that is being executed. It contains the code and its current activity. Depending on the system, a process may be made up of multiple threads of execution that execute instructions concurrently. A computer program is a collection of instructions, while a process is the actual execution of those instructions. Several processes may be associated with the program, for example. Multitasking is a method to allow processes to share processors. Each CPU executes a task at a time. However, multitasking allows each processor to switch between tasks that are being executed without having to wait for each task to finish. Depending on the system implementation, switches could be performed when tasks perform input/output operations. A common form of multitasking is time-sharing, time-sharing is a method to allow fast response for interactive user applications. In time-sharing systems, context switches are performed rapidly, which makes it seem like multiple processes are being executed simultaneously on the same processor and this seeming execution of multiple processes simultaneously is called concurrency. In general, a system process consists of the following resources. Memory, which includes the code, process-specific data, a call stack. Operating system descriptors of resources that are allocated to the process, such as file descriptors or handles, security attributes, such as the process owner and the process set of permissions. Processor state, such as the content of registers and physical memory addressing, the state is typically stored in computer registers when the process is executing, and in memory otherwise. The operating system holds most of this information about processes in data structures called process control blocks. Any subset of the resources, typically at least the processor state, the operating system keeps its processes separate and allocates the resources they need, so that they are less likely to interfere with each other and cause system failures. The operating system may also provide mechanisms for communication to enable processes to interact in safe
11.
DOS
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None of these systems were officially named DOS, and indeed DOS is a general term for disk operating system. MS-DOS dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, and Microsoft Windows, still ran on top of it until about 2001, dozens of other operating systems also use the acronym DOS, including DOS/360 from 1966. Others are Apple DOS, Apple ProDOS, Atari DOS, Commodore DOS, TRSDOS, see List of DOS operating systems § Other operating systems. IBM PC DOS and its predecessor, 86-DOS, resembled Digital Researchs CP/M—the dominant disk operating system for 8-bit Intel 8080, DOS instead ran on Intel 8086 16-bit processors. Starting with MS-DOS1.28 and PC DOS2.0 the operating system incorporated various features inspired by Xenix, when IBM introduced the IBM PC, built with the Intel 8088 microprocessor, they needed an operating system. Seeking an 8088-compatible build of CP/M, IBM initially approached Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, IBM was sent to Digital Research, and a meeting was set up. However, the negotiations for the use of CP/M broke down, Digital Research wished to sell CP/M on a royalty basis, while IBM sought a single license. Digital Research founder Gary Kildall refused, and IBM withdrew, Gates in turn approached Seattle Computer Products. There, programmer Tim Paterson had developed a variant of CP/M-80, the system was initially named QDOS, before being made commercially available as 86-DOS. Microsoft purchased 86-DOS, allegedly for $50,000 and this became Microsoft Disk Operating System, MS-DOS, introduced in 1981. Within a year Microsoft licensed MS-DOS to over 70 other companies, Microsoft later required the use of the MS-DOS name, with the exception of the IBM variant. IBM continued to develop their version, PC DOS, for the IBM PC, Digital Research became aware that an operating system similar to CP/M was being sold by IBM, and threatened legal action. IBM responded by offering an agreement, they would give PC consumers a choice of PC DOS or CP/M-86, side-by-side, CP/M cost almost $200 more than PC DOS, and sales were low. CP/M faded, with MS-DOS and PC DOS becoming the operating system for PCs. Microsoft originally sold MS-DOS only to original equipment manufacturers, one major reason for this was that not all early PCs were 100% IBM PC compatible. DOS was structured such that there was a separation between the specific device driver code and the DOS kernel. Microsoft provided an OEM Adaptation Kit which allowed OEMs to customize the device driver code to their particular system, by the early 1990s, most PCs adhered to IBM PC standards so Microsoft began selling MS-DOS in retail with MS-DOS5.0. In the mid-1980s Microsoft developed a version of DOS
12.
Microsoft Windows
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Microsoft Windows is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. It consists of families of operating systems, each of which cater to a certain sector of the computing industry with the OS typically associated with IBM PC compatible architecture. Active Windows families include Windows NT, Windows Embedded and Windows Phone, defunct Windows families include Windows 9x, Windows 10 Mobile is an active product, unrelated to the defunct family Windows Mobile. Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20,1985, Microsoft Windows came to dominate the worlds personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984. Apple came to see Windows as an encroachment on their innovation in GUI development as implemented on products such as the Lisa. On PCs, Windows is still the most popular operating system, however, in 2014, Microsoft admitted losing the majority of the overall operating system market to Android, because of the massive growth in sales of Android smartphones. In 2014, the number of Windows devices sold was less than 25% that of Android devices sold and this comparison however may not be fully relevant, as the two operating systems traditionally target different platforms. As of September 2016, the most recent version of Windows for PCs, tablets, smartphones, the most recent versions for server computers is Windows Server 2016. A specialized version of Windows runs on the Xbox One game console, Microsoft, the developer of Windows, has registered several trademarks each of which denote a family of Windows operating systems that target a specific sector of the computing industry. It now consists of three operating system subfamilies that are released almost at the time and share the same kernel. Windows, The operating system for personal computers, tablets. The latest version is Windows 10, the main competitor of this family is macOS by Apple Inc. for personal computers and Android for mobile devices. Windows Server, The operating system for server computers, the latest version is Windows Server 2016. Unlike its clients sibling, it has adopted a strong naming scheme, the main competitor of this family is Linux. Windows PE, A lightweight version of its Windows sibling meant to operate as an operating system, used for installing Windows on bare-metal computers. The latest version is Windows PE10.0.10586.0, Windows Embedded, Initially, Microsoft developed Windows CE as a general-purpose operating system for every device that was too resource-limited to be called a full-fledged computer. The following Windows families are no longer being developed, Windows 9x, Microsoft now caters to the consumers market with Windows NT. Windows Mobile, The predecessor to Windows Phone, it was a mobile operating system
13.
Windows NT
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Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing, multi-user operating system, the first version of Windows NT was Windows NT3.1 and was produced for workstations and server computers. It was intended to complement consumer versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS, gradually, the Windows NT family was expanded into Microsofts general-purpose operating system product line for all personal computers, deprecating the Windows 9x family. NT was formerly expanded to New Technology but no longer carries any specific meaning, starting with Windows 2000, NT was removed from the product name and is only included in the product version string. NT was the first purely 32-bit version of Windows, whereas its consumer-oriented counterparts, Windows 3. 1x and it is a multi-architecture operating system. Initially, it supported several CPU architectures, including IA-32, MIPS, DEC Alpha, PowerPC, the latest versions support x86 and ARM. This lineage is made clear in Cutlers foreword to Inside Windows NT by Helen Custer and it has been suggested that Dave Cutler intended the initialism WNT as a play on VMS, incrementing each letter by one. However, the project was intended as a follow-on to OS/2 and was referred to as NT OS/2 before receiving the Windows brand. One of the original NT developers, Mark Lucovsky, states that the name was taken from the original target processor—the Intel i860, the letters were dropped from the names of releases from Windows 2000 onwards, though Microsoft described that product as being Built on NT Technology. A main design goal of NT was hardware and software portability, the idea was to have a common code base with a custom Hardware Abstraction Layer for each platform. However, support for MIPS, Alpha, and PowerPC was later dropped in Windows 2000, broad software compatibility was achieved with support for several API personalities, including Windows API, POSIX, and OS/2 APIs – the latter two were phased out starting with Windows XP. Partial MS-DOS compatibility was achieved via an integrated DOS Virtual Machine – although this feature is being phased out in the x86-64 architecture, NT supported per-object access control lists allowing a rich set of security permissions to be applied to systems and services. NT supported Windows network protocols, inheriting the previous OS/2 LAN Manager networking, Windows NT3.1 was the first version of Windows to use 32-bit flat virtual memory addressing on 32-bit processors. Its companion product, Windows 3.1, used segmented addressing, notably, in Windows NT3. x, several I/O driver subsystems, such as video and printing, were user-mode subsystems. In Windows NT4, the video, server, and printer spooler subsystems were moved into kernel mode, NTFS, a journaled, secure file system, was created for NT. Windows NT also allows for other file systems, starting with versions 3.1. Windows NT introduced its own model, the Windows NT driver model. With Windows 2000, the Windows NT driver model was enhanced to become the Windows Driver Model, which was first introduced with Windows 98, but was based on the NT driver model
14.
John Wiley & Sons
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Founded in 1807, Wiley is also known for publishing For Dummies. As of 2015, the company had 4,900 employees, Wiley was established in 1807 when Charles Wiley opened a print shop in Manhattan. Wiley later shifted its focus to scientific, technical, and engineering subject areas, Charles Wileys son John took over the business when his father died in 1826. The firm was successively named Wiley, Lane & Co. then Wiley & Putnam, the company acquired its present name in 1876, when Johns second son William H. Wiley joined his brother Charles in the business. Through the 20th century, the company expanded its activities, the sciences. Since the establishment of the Nobel Prize in 1901, Wiley and its companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel Laureates. Wiley in December 2010 opened an office in Dubai, to build on its business in the Middle East more effectively, the company has had an office in Beijing, China, since 2001, and China is now its sixth-largest market for STEM content. Wiley established publishing operations in India in 2006, and has established a presence in North Africa through sales contracts with academic institutions in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. On April 16,2012, the announced the establishment of Wiley Brasil Editora LTDA in São Paulo, Brazil. Wileys scientific, technical, and medical business was expanded by the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing in February 2007. Through a backfile initiative completed in 2007,8.2 million pages of content have been made available online. Other major journals published include Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials, Hepatology, International Finance, launched commercially in 1999, Wiley InterScience provided online access to Wiley journals, major reference works, and books, including backfile content. Journals previously from Blackwell Publishing were available online from Blackwell Synergy until they were integrated into Wiley InterScience on June 30,2008, in December 2007, Wiley also began distributing its technical titles through the Safari Books Online e-reference service. On February 17,2012, Wiley announced the acquisition of Inscape Holdings Inc. which provides DISC assessments and training for interpersonal business skills. On August 13,2012, Wiley announced it entered into an agreement to sell all of its travel assets, including all of its interests in the Frommers brand. On October 2,2012, Wiley announced it would acquire Deltak edu, LLC, Deltak is expected to contribute solid growth to both Wileys Global Education business and Wiley overall. Seventh-generation members Jesse and Nate Wiley work in the companys Professional/Trade and Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly businesses, respectively. Wiley has been owned since 1962, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 1995, its stock is traded under the symbols NYSE, JW. A and NYSE
15.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
16.
Reading, Massachusetts
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Reading is a small New England town with a vibrant history in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States,10 miles north of central Boston. The population was 24,747 at the 2010 census, many of the Massachusetts Bay Colonys original settlers arrived from England in the 1630s through the ports of Lynn and Salem. In 1639 some citizens of Lynn petitioned the government of the colony for a place for an inland plantation and they were initially granted six square miles, followed by an additional four. The first settlement in this grant was at first called Lynn Village and was located on the shore of the Great Pond. On June 10,1644 the settlement was incorporated as the town of Reading, taking its name from the town of Reading in England. The first church was organized soon after the settlement, and the first parish separated and became the town of South Reading in 1812, thomas Parker was one of the founders of Reading. He also was a founder of the 12th Congregational Church, and he was a selectman of Reading and was appointed a judicial commissioner. There is evidence that Parker was conspicuous in naming the town and that he was related to the Parker family of Little Norton, England, a special grant in 1651 added land north of the Ipswich River to the town of Reading. In 1853 this area became the town of North Reading. The area which comprises the town of Reading was originally known as Wood End. The town of Reading was initially governed by a town meeting and a board of selectmen. In 1769, the house was constructed, in the area which is now the Common in Reading. A stone marker commemorates the site, Reading played an active role in the American Revolutionary War. It was prominently involved in the engagements pursuing the retreating British Army after the battles of Lexington, john Brooks, later to become Governor of Massachusetts, was captain of the Fourth Company of Minute and subsequently served at the Battle of White Plains and at Valley Forge. Only one Reading soldier was killed in action during the Revolution, in 1791, sixty members started the Federal Library. This was a subscription Library with each member paying $1.00 to join, the towns public library was created in 1868. The Andover-Medford Turnpike was built by a corporation in 1806-7. This road, now known as Massachusetts Route 28, provided the citizens of Reading with a means of travel to the Boston area
17.
Addison-Wesley
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Addison-Wesley is a publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson PLC, a global publishing, in addition to publishing books, Addison-Wesley also distributes its technical titles through the Safari Books Online e-reference service. Addison-Wesleys majority of sales derive from the United States and Europe, the Addison-Wesley Professional Imprint produces content including books, eBooks, and video for the professional IT worker including developers, programmers, managers, system administrators. Classic titles include The Art of Computer Programming, The C++ Programming Language, The Mythical Man-Month, Addison-Wesley Professional is also a partner with Safari Books Online. Its first computer book was Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer, by Wilkes, Wheeler, in 1977, Addison-Wesley acquired W. A. Benjamin Company, and merged it with the Cummings division of the company to form Benjamin Cummings. It was purchased by the publishing and education company, Pearson PLC in 1988. The trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley was sold to Perseus Books Group in 1997, Pearson acquired the educational division of Simon & Schuster in 1998, and merged it with Addison Wesley Longman to form Pearson Education and subsequently rebranded to Pearson in 2011. Pearson moved the former Addison Wesley Longman offices from Reading, Massachusetts to Boston in 2004 and its current executives hail from the original Addison-Wesley with a storied history of their own. Addison-Wesley Secondary Math, An Integrated Approach, Focus on Algebra The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands Concrete Mathematics, A Foundation For Computer Science by Ronald Graham, Donald Knuth, exploratory data analysis by John W. Tukey, based on a course taught at Princeton. The Mythical Man-Month by Fred P. Brooks
18.
Desktop Window Manager
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Desktop Window Manager is the window manager in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 that enables the use of hardware acceleration to render the graphical user interface of Windows. It was originally created to enable portions of the new Windows Aero user experience and it is also included with Windows Server 2008, but requires the Desktop Experience feature and compatible graphics drivers to be installed. The Desktop Window Manager is a window manager. This means that program has a buffer that it writes data to. By comparison, the window manager in Windows XP and earlier comprises a single display buffer to which all programs write. DWM works in different ways depending on the system and on the version of the graphics drivers it uses. Under Windows 7 and with WDDM1.1 drivers, DWM only writes the programs buffer to the video RAM, even if it is a graphics device interface program. This is because Windows 7 supports hardware acceleration for GDI and in doing so does not need to keep a copy of the buffer in system RAM so that the CPU can write to it. Because the compositor has access to the graphics of all applications, it easily allows visual effects that string together visuals from multiple applications, such as transparency. DWM uses DirectX9 to perform the function of compositing and rendering in the GPU, however, it does not affect applications painting to the off-screen buffers – depending on the technologies used for that, this might still be CPU-bound. DWM-agnostic rendering techniques like GDI are redirected to the buffers by rendering the user interface as bitmaps, DWM-aware rendering technologies like WPF directly make the internal data structures available in a DWM-compatible format. The window contents in the buffers are then converted to DirectX textures, the desktop itself is a full-screen Direct3D surface, with windows being represented as a mesh consisting of two adjacent triangles, which are transformed to represent a 2D rectangle. The texture, representing the UI chrome, is mapped onto these rectangles. Window transitions are implemented as transformations of the meshes, using shader programs, with Windows Vista, the transitions are limited to the set of built-in shaders that implement the transformations. Greg Schechter, a developer at Microsoft has suggested that this might be opened up for developers and users to plug in their own effects in a future release. DWM only maps the primary desktop object as a 3D surface, other desktop objects, because all applications render to an off-screen buffer, they can be read off the buffer embedded in other applications as well. Since the off-screen buffer is constantly updated by the application, the embedded rendering will be a representation of the application window. This is how the live previews and Windows Flip work in Windows Vista
19.
Direct3D
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Direct3D is a graphics application programming interface for Microsoft Windows. Part of DirectX, Direct3D is used to render graphics in applications where performance is important. Direct3D uses hardware acceleration if it is available on the graphics card, Microsoft strives to continually update Direct3D to support the latest technology available on 3D graphics cards. Direct3D offers full vertex software emulation but no pixel software emulation for features not available in hardware. The API does include a Reference Rasterizer, which emulates a generic graphics card in software, as part of DirectX, Direct3D is available for Windows 95 and above, and is the base for the vector graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems. The Wine compatibility layer, a free software reimplementation of several Windows APIs, direct3Ds main competitor is Khronos OpenGL and its follow-on Vulkan. Fahrenheit was an attempt by Microsoft and SGI to unify OpenGL and Direct3D in the 1990s, in 1992, Servan Keondjian and Doug Rabson started a company named RenderMorphics, which developed a 3D graphics API named Reality Lab, which was used in medical imaging and CAD software. Two versions of this API were released, Microsoft bought RenderMorphics in February 1995, bringing Keondjian on board to implement a 3D graphics engine for Windows 95. The first version of Direct3D shipped in DirectX2.0, Direct3D initially implemented both retained mode and immediate mode 3D APIs. Like other DirectX APIs, such as DirectDraw, both were based on COM, the retained mode was a scene graph API that attained little adoption. Game developers clamored for more control of the hardwares activities than the Direct3D retained mode could provide. Only two games sold a significant volume, Lego Island and Lego Rock Raiders, were based on the Direct3D retained mode. For DirectX2.0 and 3.0, the Direct3D immediate mode used an execute buffer programming model that Microsoft hoped hardware vendors would support directly, execute buffers were intended to be allocated in hardware memory and parsed by the hardware to perform the 3D rendering. From the beginning, the mode also supported Talismans tiled rendering with the BeginScene/EndScene methods of the IDirect3DDevice interface. No substantive changes were planned to Direct3D for DirectX4.0, in December 1996, a team in Redmond took over development of the Direct3D Immediate Mode, while the London-based RenderMorphics team continued work on the Retained Mode. The first beta of DrawPrimitive shipped in February 1997, and the version shipped with DirectX5.0 in August 1997. Besides introducing an easier-to-use immediate mode API, DirectX5.0 added the SetRenderTarget method that enabled Direct3D devices to write their graphical output to a variety of DirectDraw surfaces. DirectX6.0 introduced numerous features to cover contemporary hardware as well as optimized geometry pipelines for x87, SSE and 3DNow. s3 texture compression support was one such feature, renamed as DXTC for purposes of inclusion in the API
20.
Graphics Device Interface
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GDI is responsible for tasks such as drawing lines and curves, rendering fonts and handling palettes. It is not directly responsible for drawing windows, menus, etc. that task is reserved for the user subsystem, other systems have components that are similar to GDI, for example macOS Quartz and X Window Systems Xlib/XCB. GDIs most significant advantages over more direct methods of accessing the hardware are perhaps its scaling capabilities, using GDI, it is very easy to draw on multiple devices, such as a screen and a printer, and expect proper reproduction in each case. This capability is at the center of most What You See Is What You Get applications for Microsoft Windows, simple games that do not require fast graphics rendering may use GDI. However, GDI is relatively hard to use for advanced animation, modern games usually use DirectX or OpenGL instead, which let programmers exploit the features of modern hardware. A Device Context is used to define the attributes of text, the actual context is maintained by GDI. A handle to the Device Context is obtained before output is written and then released after elements have been written, GDI uses Bresenhams line drawing algorithm to draw aliased lines. GDI was present in the release of Windows. MSDOS programs had hitherto manipulated the graphics hardware using software interrupts, BYTE in December 1983 discussed Microsofts plans for a system to output graphics to both printers and monitors with the same code in the forthcoming first release of Windows. With the introduction of Windows XP, GDI was complemented by the C++-based GDI+ subsystem, GDI+ uses ARGB values to represent color. GDI+ is included with all versions of Windows from Windows XP, the GDI+ dynamic library can also be shipped with an application and used under older versions of Windows from Windows 98 and Windows NT4.0 onwards. The Microsoft. NET class library provides an interface for GDI+ via the System. Drawing namespace. GDI+ is similar to Apples QuickDraw GX subsystem, and the open-source libart, in Windows Vista, all Windows applications including GDI and GDI+ applications run in the new compositing engine, Desktop Window Manager which is built atop the Windows Display Driver Model. However, due to the nature of desktop composition, operations like window moves can be faster or more responsive because underlying content does not need to be re-rendered by the application, Windows 7 includes GDI hardware acceleration for blitting operations in the Windows Display Driver Model v1.1. Most primitive GDI operations are still not hardware-accelerated, unlike Direct2D, as of November 2009, both AMD and Nvidia have released WDDM v1.1 compatible video drivers. GDI+ continues to rely on software rendering in Windows 7, a GDI printer or Winprinter is a printer designed to accept output from a host computer running the GDI under Windows. The combination of the GDI and the driver is bidirectional, they receive information from the printer such as whether it is ready to print, if it is out of paper or ink, and so on. Non-GDI printers require hardware, firmware, and memory for page rendering, some manufacturers produce essentially the same printer in a version compatible with a printer control language such as PCL or PostScript, and a cheaper GDI-only version
21.
Windows Presentation Foundation
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Windows Presentation Foundation is a graphical subsystem by Microsoft for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications. WPF, previously known as Avalon, was released as part of. NET Framework 3.0. Rather than relying on the older GDI subsystem, WPF uses DirectX, WPF attempts to provide a consistent programming model for building applications and separates the user interface from business logic. It resembles similar XML-oriented object models, such as those implemented in XUL, WPF employs XAML, an XML-based language, to define and link various interface elements. WPF applications can be deployed as standalone programs or hosted as an embedded object in a website. WPF aims to unify a number of user interface elements, such as 2D/3D rendering, fixed and adaptive documents, typography, vector graphics, runtime animation. These elements can then be linked and manipulated based on events, user interactions. WPF runtime libraries are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows Vista, users of Windows XP SP2/SP3 and Windows Server 2003 can optionally install the necessary libraries. Microsoft Silverlight provides functionality that is mostly a subset of WPF to provide embedded web controls comparable to Adobe Flash, 3D runtime rendering has been supported in Silverlight since Silverlight 5. Graphics, including items like windows, are rendered using Direct3D. This allows the display of complex graphics and custom themes, at the cost of GDIs wider range of support. It allows Windows to offload graphics tasks to the GPU. This reduces the workload on the computers CPU, GPUs are optimized for parallel pixel computations. This tends to speed up screen refreshes at the cost of decreased compatibility in markets where GPUs are not necessarily as powerful, the Windows Presentation Foundation is Microsofts UI framework to create applications with a rich user experience. It is part of the. NET framework 3.0, wPFs emphasis on vector graphics allows most controls and elements to be scaled without loss in quality or pixelization, thus increasing accessibility. With the exception of Silverlight, Direct3D integration allows for streamlined 3D rendering, in addition, interactive 2D content can be overlaid on 3D surfaces natively. WPF has a set of data services to enable application developers to bind. It supports four types of binding, one time, where the client ignores updates on the server
22.
Microsoft Silverlight
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Microsoft Silverlight is a deprecated application framework for writing and running rich Internet applications, similar to Adobe Flash. A plugin for Silverlight is available for some browsers, while early versions of Silverlight focused on streaming media, later versions supported multimedia, graphics, and animation and gave developers support for CLI languages and development tools. Microsoft announced the end of life of Silverlight 5 in 2012, in 2013, Microsoft announced that they had ceased development of Silverlight except for patches and bugfixes. Microsoft has set the end date for Silverlight 5 to be October 2021. Silverlight is no longer supported in Google Chrome since September 2015, since Microsoft Edge does not support plugins, it also does not support Silverlight. Silverlight provides a retained mode graphics system similar to Windows Presentation Foundation, and integrates multimedia, graphics, animations, in Silverlight applications, user interfaces are declared in Extensible Application Markup Language and programmed using a subset of the. NET Framework. XAML can be used for marking up the graphics and animations. Silverlight can also be used to create Windows Sidebar gadgets for Windows Vista, because Windows Media Video 9 is an implementation of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers VC-1 standard, Silverlight also supports VC-1 video. According to the end user license agreement VC-1 and H.264 are only licensed for the personal and non-commercial use of a consumer. Silverlight exposes a Downloader object which can be used to download content, like scripts, media assets, or other data, with version 2, the programming logic can be written in any. NET language, including some derivatives of common dynamic programming languages like IronRuby and IronPython. However, in May 2012, Moonlight was abandoned because of its lack of popularity, according to statowl. com, Microsoft Silverlight had a penetration of 64. 16% on May 2011. Usage on July 2010 was 53. 54%, whereas as of May 2011 market leader Adobe Flash was installed on 95. 26% of browsers, support of these plugins is not mutually exclusive, one system can support all three. Some users complained that Microsoft presented Silverlight repeatedly as a Windows Update even if the user had not it installed before. Over the course of five years Microsoft released five versions with varying platform support, The first version was released in 2007. Silverlight requires an x86 processor with Streaming SIMD Extensions support, supported processors include the Intel Pentium III and up, the AMD Athlon XP and up, and newer AMD Durons. The following table presents an availability and compatibility matrix of Silverlight versions for various operating systems, however, Opera was never officially supported by Silverlight. On Linux and FreeBSD, the functionality is available via Moonlight, Moonlight is available for the major Linux distributions, with support for Firefox, Konqueror, and Opera browsers, provided it was obtained through Novell. Miguel de Icaza has expressed an interest in working with developers from other operating systems, availability of Moonlight version 1.0 for FreeBSD was announced in March 2009, but has since been reported not to actually work
