A few words about the earliest operating systems
Here are some references about the earliest operating systems:
- According to this article, it looks like that MIT made the first operating system in 1954.
- General Motors Research Laboratories made GM operating system in 1955.
- Bob Patrick (General Motors Research Laboratories) and Owen Mock (North American Aviation) made GM-NAA I/O in 1956 (see also year 1956 at the Computer History Museum). This one is based on the previous, GM operating system.
If we say that running jobs from queue without operators is something which qualifies some software as an operating system, then, according to my knowledge, those three are the first.
If you have some more data about the earliest operating systems, please let me know. Also, if you have some better, different etc. definitions of the minimums for one operating system, please let me know that, too.
Update (2008-12-16): See Robert L. Patrick’s document Operating Systems at Conception.
~ by millosh on September 20, 2007.
Posted in history of computing, operating systems, wikimedia

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