Computer science · Curated list

Operating systems: the 25 most written about

Linux, Ubuntu, Microsoft Windows and 22 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.

Entries: 25
Photographed: 20
Fetched: 2026-09-25

Operating systems, ranked

Most written-about first. Each description summarises the operating system's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.

1

Linux

Family of Unix-like operating systems that use the Linux kernel

A family of Unix-like operating systems, free and open-source, built on the Linux kernel, which Linus Torvalds first released on 17 September 1991. Some are usually packaged as a distribution, which combines the kernel with supporting system software and libraries from third parties, such as X.Org, Red Hat and GNU, into a complete operating system; but not every Linux-based system counts as a distro, Android being one example.

Wikidata
2

Ubuntu

Linux distribution developed by Canonical

A Linux distribution, based on Debian and made mostly of free and open-source software. Developed by Canonical, a British company, together with a community of contributors under a meritocratic model of governance, it comes in several official editions: Desktop, Server, and Core for robots and IoT devices.

Wikidata · Photo: Canonical Ltd., GPL
3

Microsoft Windows

Computer operating system

A proprietary operating system from Microsoft, grouped into families aimed at different parts of the computing industry: plain Windows on personal computers, Windows Server on servers and Windows IoT on embedded systems.

Wikidata
4

Android

Operating system for mobile devices

An operating system from Google, designed mainly for tablets and smartphones and based on a modified Linux kernel and other open-source software. First released in 2008, it has 3.9 billion users, making it the most widely used operating system in the world and the most used on smartphones.

Wikidata · Photo: Addonian1123, Apache License 2.0
5

Unix

Family of computer operating systems

A family of multi-user, multitasking operating systems descended from the original AT&T Unix, whose development Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson and others began at the Bell Labs research center in 1969. First meant for use within the Bell System, it was licensed by AT&T to outside parties in the late 1970s, which led to a variety of academic and commercial variants from vendors such as IBM (AIX), HP (HP-UX), Sun Microsystems (SunOS/Solaris), Microsoft (Xenix) and the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD).

Wikidata · Photo: Rwoodsmall, CC BY-SA 4.0
6

macOS

Operating system for Apple computers

A proprietary Unix operating system that Apple has developed and marketed since 2001, derived from FreeBSD and OPENSTEP for Mach. It is the operating system currently used on Apple's Mac computers.

Wikidata · Photo: Ildar Sagdejev ( Specious ), CC BY-SA 4.0
7

Debian

Free general-purpose operating system

A free operating system for general use, developed by the Debian Project, a worldwide association of volunteers that Ian Murdock founded on August 16, 1993. Only one Linux distribution still in development is older, and many others are built on it.

Wikidata · Photo: The Debian Project, GPL
8

iOS

Mobile operating system by Apple

An operating system for mobile devices that Apple created and develops for its iPhone smartphones. Unveiled together with the first iPhone in January 2007, it was released in June 2007.

Wikidata
9

MS-DOS

Microsoft computer operating system

An operating system for personal computers based on x86, developed mostly by Microsoft. MS-DOS, the version branded IBM PC DOS, and a few systems trying to be compatible with it are sometimes called "DOS" as a group.

Wikidata · Photo: The original uploader was Andrewpmk at English Wikipedia ., Public domain
10

GNU

Free software collection

A large collection of free software that can serve as an operating system or be used piece by piece with other operating systems. Most of it is licensed under the GNU Project's own General Public License (GPL).

Wikidata · Photo: PavelSayekat, CC BY-SA 4.0
11

Windows 95

1995 Microsoft operating system version

An operating system for consumers from Microsoft, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and to shops on August 24, 1995. The first of the Windows 9x line, replacing Windows 3.1, it brought MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows together in one product and changed the system's core components considerably, moving from its predecessor's mostly cooperatively multitasked 16-bit design to a preemptive multitasking design of 32 bits.

Wikidata · Photo: Department of Energy (DOE), Public domain
12

FreeBSD

Free and open-source Unix-like operating system

A free and open-source operating system, Unix-like, descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Its first version came out in 1993, built from 386BSD, an early free Unix clone that worked fully on affordable home hardware, and it has been the most widely used BSD-derived operating system ever since.

Wikidata · Photo: Software: The FreeBSD Project Screenshot: VulcanSphere, GPL
13

Berkeley Software Distribution

Unix operating system

Also called BSD or Berkeley UNIX, an operating system based on Unix, developed and distributed by the University of California, Berkeley's Computer Systems Research Group.

Wikidata
14

Symbian

Discontinued mobile operating system

A mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform for smartphones and feature phones, now discontinued. The Symbian Ltd. consortium first developed it on June 5, 1997, as a proprietary OS for personal digital assistants.

Wikidata · Photo: en:Nokia, Public domain
15

Arch Linux

Rolling release Linux distribution

An open-source Linux distribution on a rolling release model, kept current by regular updates to each of the pieces of software it is made of.

Wikidata · Photo: Software: Arch Linux developers Screenshot: VulcanSphere, GPL
16

Gentoo Linux

Linux distribution

A Linux distribution built with the Portage system for managing packages. Unlike a binary distribution, it compiles the source code locally, to the user's preferences, often tuned to the particular kind of computer.

Wikidata · Photo: Gentoo and KDE Developers, CC BY-SA 3.0
17

ChromeOS

Linux-based operating system developed by Google

A proprietary operating system that Google designs and develops. Derived from the open-source ChromiumOS, it uses the Google Chrome web browser as its main user interface.

Wikidata
18

Windows NT

Microsoft operating system family

A proprietary graphical operating system in Microsoft's Windows range, first released for workstations, offices and servers as Windows NT 3.1 on July 27, 1993, and available to consumers since Windows XP came out in 2001. Its underlying technology survives today, gradually changed and improved; the latest Windows built on it is Windows Server 2025, announced in 2024.

Wikidata · Photo: Microsoft, Public domain
19

Slackware

Linux distribution

A Linux distribution that Patrick Volkerding created in 1993. First based on the Softlanding Linux System (SLS), it has been the basis of many other distributions, most notably the first versions of SUSE Linux, and no older distribution is still maintained.

Wikidata · Photo: Software: The Slackware Linux Project Screenshot: VulcanSphere, GPL
20

BeOS

Operating system for personal computers

A discontinued operating system for personal computers developed by Be Inc., conceived for the company's BeBox computer, released in 1995. It was designed for a graphical user interface, multithreading and multitasking.

Wikidata · Photo: The original uploader was Tullius at Norwegian Wikipedia ., CC BY-SA 3.0
21

openSUSE

Community-supported Linux distribution

A free and open-source Linux distribution from the openSUSE Project. It comes in two main forms: Tumbleweed, a rolling release distribution close to upstream, and Leap, a stable release drawn from SUSE Linux Enterprise.

Wikidata · Photo: Software: openSUSE and KDE developers Wallpaper: openSUSE Screenshot: DistroWatch, uploaded by VulcanSphere, GPL
22

Minix

Unix-like operating system

A Unix-like operating system built on a microkernel design, written by the American-Dutch computer scientist Andrew S. Tanenbaum and first released in 1987. Designed as a Unix clone that could run on affordable home computers built on the Intel 8086, it was meant for computer science students to use in university classrooms.

Wikidata · Photo: Software: Minix developers Screenshot: VulcanSphere, BSD
23

Windows Mobile

Family of mobile operating systems by Microsoft (2000–2013)

A discontinued mobile operating system from Microsoft for personal digital assistants (PDA) and smartphones. Meant as the portable counterpart of the Windows desktop OS in the new mobile/portable field, it was built on Windows CE and first released as Pocket PC 2000.

Wikidata · Photo: Sainath Parkar, the original uploader is English Wikipedia user Sainath468, CC BY-SA 3.0
24

NetBSD

Free and open-source Unix-like operating system

A Unix-like operating system, free and open-source, built on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source descendant of BSD to be officially released after 386BSD was forked.

Wikidata · Photo: Software: The NetBSD Project Screenshot: VulcanSphere, BSD
25

Haiku

Computer operating system

An operating system for PCs, free and open-source, first called OpenBeOS. It carries on BeOS as a community project and tries to run BeOS binaries unchanged, yet most of it has been written afresh, apart from a few components such as the Deskbar.

Wikidata · Photo: Software: Haiku, Inc. Wallpaper: Haiku, Inc. Screenshot: VulcanSphere, MIT

How this list was made

Every Wikidata item that is an operating system that is not one release in a series — so Windows is listed, and Windows 7, XP and Vista are not, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 25 are shown.

Removed by hand

Wikidata files these under this list's query, but they are not what the list is about:

Windows Server 2003 — A release of Windows NT, which is listed.
Windows NT 4.0 — A release of Windows NT, which is listed.
Kubuntu — An official flavour of Ubuntu, which is listed.
Lubuntu — An official flavour of Ubuntu, which is listed.
Xubuntu — An official flavour of Ubuntu, which is listed.

Kept by hand

These belong on the list but Wikidata does not file them where the query looks:

macOS — Wikidata files it as part of the Unix and BSD series, which the rule against single releases would otherwise catch.
Linux — Wikidata files it as software in general rather than as an operating system.
Unix — Wikidata files it as a family of systems rather than as an operating system.

Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-25. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.

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