Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest and most influential companies in the personal computer industry founded in 1975 by Paul Allen and Bill Gates (Beal, 2021). It is a corporation that develops operating systems for laptops or personal desktop computers. Operating systems are needed by laptops or desktop computers to operate.
There are two basic purposes of operating systems. First, managing hardware and software resources for computers. Second, providing a consistent way for applications to interact with the hardware without knowing all the details of the hardware. In the past years, there were twelve (12) operating systems were released.
These are the five latest operating systems that were released:
| WINDOWS OS | YEAR RELEASED | SOFTWARE PRICE | WHERE TO BUY? |
| WINDOWS VISTA | 2007 | Price: $99.00 | Amazon |
| WINDOWS 7 | 2009 | Price: $12.99 | Amazon |
| WINDOWS 8 | 2012 | Price: $139.99 | Amazon |
| WINDOWS 10 | 2015 | Price: $94.99 | Amazon |
| WINDOWS 11 | 2021 | Price: $199.99 | Amazon |
WINDOWS VISTA
It was launched in January 2007, the new operating software overhauled the interface and introduced a redesigned search function and a visual style called Aero. There were five editions of Vista: Windows Vista Starter Edition, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, and Windows Vista Ultimate. It can be bought on Amazon for 99 dollars.
WINDOWS 7
Windows 7 was launched in 2009 and became one of its most popular Operating Systems. This came with a revamped taskbar, improvements to media options, alerts for system updates that were less disruptive, and support for multitouch options. Windows 7 had six editions: Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Enterprise, and Windows 7 Home Basic. It can be bought on Amazon for 12.99 dollars only.
WINDOWS 8
It was launched in 2012. Microsoft made the start menu full screen. Instead of icons on the start screen, there were live tiles and a clock on the start screen. Also, they got rid of the start button in the taskbar. There were four editions of Windows 8: one just called Windows 8, Windows 8 Professional, Windows 8 Enterprise, and Windows RT. The price is 139.99 dollars.
WINDOWS 10
Windows 10 was released in 2015. The start menu got its life back with this operating system. Moreover, Cortana and Microsoft Edge are added. It can be bought on Amazon for 94.99 dollars.
WINDOWS 11
It was launched in 2021. There are new features of this operating system that includes support for Android apps in the new Microsoft Store. With that, you can use your favorite Android apps on Windows now. The price is 199.99 dollars.
NET MARKET SHARE
As of May 2022, this was the net market share of the five Windows Operating Systems based on GS Statistic. The percents are as follows:
- Windows Vista: less than 0.66%
- Windows 7: 13.06%
- Windows 8: 4.45%
- Windows 10: 71.76%
- Windows 11: 10.07%
Windows 10 has the highest while Windows Vista has the lowest net market share. This can be attributed to the year of their release. Since Windows 11 is still new, the prior was mostly used as of now which is Windows 10. On the other hand, Windows Vista is the oldest among them, so it has the lowest net market share.
REFERENCES:
https://techrafiki.com/windows-operating-system-timeline/
https://www.webopedia.com/definitions/microsoft/
https://www.desktopclass.com/computer-it/what-is-the-purpose-of-operating-system.html
https://www.minitool.com/news/windows-11-release-date.html
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide/
