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Windows is one of the most versatile and flexible operating systems out there, running on a variety of machine architectures and available in multiple SKUs. Li

by SEJeff 8y ago

Windows is one of the most versatile and flexible operating systems out there, running on a variety of machine architectures and available in multiple SKUs. Linux, BSD, Darwin... You support a dozen architectures? How adorable. condescendingly pats head

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
cyphar 8y ago
> You support a dozen architectures? And they only support four (x86, amd64, ARM, ARM64)! This is quite a cute thing to mention after saying you're "one of the most versatile and flexible operating systems". Ignoring the obviously qualifying language of "one of the most", I would argue it is still false -- virtually every mainstream operating system I can think of supports more architectures than this. Here is my quickly-put-together list: * Linux: 25. * MINIX: 15. * OpenBSD: 13. * FreeBSD: 7. * Windows: 4. * illumos: 3 (with arm* in development). * Darwin: 2. What an achievement. Now -- don't get me wrong, Windows has done a lot of things, but they have set the parameters of this comparison and they don't fare well in it (even if you get past the qualifying language over a comparison that they decided to make).
- SEJeff 8y ago
  NetBSD: 57!
- cestith 8y ago
  Certain whole Linux distros would be high upon that list, not to mention NetBSD. * NetBSD: 8 in Tier I, another 49 in Tier 2, total of 57. * Gentoo Linux: 10 to 12, as they target i[456]86 separately within IA-32 * Debian Linux: 11 * Fedora Linux: 4 primary, 7 secondary, total of 11 * L4: 9 * Red Hat EL: 8 * Ubuntu Linux: 8 * QNX OS: 8 * OpenSuSe Linux: 7 * Alpine Linux: 6 * CentOS (Linux): 5 * Illumos: 4 * Kali Linux: 4 * Q4OS (Linux): 4 * Android: 4 * Arch Linux: 1 official, 2 unofficial * Parabola Linux: 3 * Slackware Linux: 3 * ChromeOS: 3 * QNX Neutrino RTOS: 2 * Haiku: 2, with 3 more ports underway RiscOS runs across four or five generations of ARM. Darwin used to run on three more platforms but newer versions don't. Illumos is the kernel and libraries underlying OpenIndiana, Dyson, and many other systems based off the old OpenSolaris effort.
- kccqzy 8y ago
  Darwin supports 4, I thought. In fact the same four as Windows.
  - cyphar 8y ago
    My very quick googling said that Darwin doesn't currently support 32-bit ARM (or 32-bit x86 -- but this is a bit hard to separate since the architectures are quite similar). But I could very well be incorrect.
- gaius 8y ago
  they only support four (x86, amd64, ARM, ARM64) To be fair, NT shipped on x86, PPC, Alpha and MIPS. There was a never-released version for SPARC. It was originally developed on the i860. Wasn’t later Windows also available on Itanium too? MS cut down on their list of supported CPUs for commercial, not technical reasons.
  - cyphar 8y ago
    Linux also supported more architectures in the past that I haven't included in my count (same for the BSDs too). If you updated the count with all architectures ever supported by the platform then I have doubts that it would change the ordering significantly.

by SEJeff 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

cyphar 8y ago

> You support a dozen architectures? And they only support four (x86, amd64, ARM, ARM64)! This is quite a cute thing to mention after saying you're "one of the most versatile and flexible operating systems". Ignoring the obviously qualifying language of "one of the most", I would argue it is still false -- virtually every mainstream operating system I can think of supports more architectures than this. Here is my quickly-put-together list: * Linux: 25. * MINIX: 15. * OpenBSD: 13. * FreeBSD: 7. * Windows: 4. * illumos: 3 (with arm* in development). * Darwin: 2. What an achievement. Now -- don't get me wrong, Windows has done a lot of things, but they have set the parameters of this comparison and they don't fare well in it (even if you get past the qualifying language over a comparison that they decided to make).

SEJeff 8y ago
NetBSD: 57!
cestith 8y ago
Certain whole Linux distros would be high upon that list, not to mention NetBSD. * NetBSD: 8 in Tier I, another 49 in Tier 2, total of 57. * Gentoo Linux: 10 to 12, as they target i[456]86 separately within IA-32 * Debian Linux: 11 * Fedora Linux: 4 primary, 7 secondary, total of 11 * L4: 9 * Red Hat EL: 8 * Ubuntu Linux: 8 * QNX OS: 8 * OpenSuSe Linux: 7 * Alpine Linux: 6 * CentOS (Linux): 5 * Illumos: 4 * Kali Linux: 4 * Q4OS (Linux): 4 * Android: 4 * Arch Linux: 1 official, 2 unofficial * Parabola Linux: 3 * Slackware Linux: 3 * ChromeOS: 3 * QNX Neutrino RTOS: 2 * Haiku: 2, with 3 more ports underway RiscOS runs across four or five generations of ARM. Darwin used to run on three more platforms but newer versions don't. Illumos is the kernel and libraries underlying OpenIndiana, Dyson, and many other systems based off the old OpenSolaris effort.
kccqzy 8y ago
Darwin supports 4, I thought. In fact the same four as Windows.
- cyphar 8y ago
  My very quick googling said that Darwin doesn't currently support 32-bit ARM (or 32-bit x86 -- but this is a bit hard to separate since the architectures are quite similar). But I could very well be incorrect.
gaius 8y ago
they only support four (x86, amd64, ARM, ARM64) To be fair, NT shipped on x86, PPC, Alpha and MIPS. There was a never-released version for SPARC. It was originally developed on the i860. Wasn’t later Windows also available on Itanium too? MS cut down on their list of supported CPUs for commercial, not technical reasons.
- cyphar 8y ago
  Linux also supported more architectures in the past that I haven't included in my count (same for the BSDs too). If you updated the count with all architectures ever supported by the platform then I have doubts that it would change the ordering significantly.