There are many different coding languages but they all share a common trait: It's relatively easy for humans to understand it (assuming that human has studied the language). Developers write software in source code. Unlike compiled OSes, an open-source operating system includes the source code for the OS. That means it's not easy for the average user to see how Microsoft or Apple put their operating systems together. But compiled code is difficult for humans to understand - it's extremely complex.

That covers what an operating system is, but what about open source? Operating systems like Windows and Mac OS X are compiled. Operating systems make it easy for program developers to write software - without an OS, the programmer would have to create software to work directly from the hardware itself. When you execute a program, the OS acts like a supervisor and makes sure the program has the processing power, memory and any other resources it might need to function. It's the OS's job to monitor computer resources and allocate those resources to programs that need them. An operating system is a layer of software on a computer that acts as a foundation for computer programs. To really understand what that means, we need to define some terms. Linux is an open-source operating system.

Their OS of choice is Linux and they back a very different philosophy than the one followed by the big companies. But there's a small group of rebels out there who know better. Numerous ad campaigns give the impression that these are the only two choices out there for anyone looking to buy a computer.

In that war, the two superpowers are Microsoft and Apple. There's a kind of war going on and we're all caught in the middle.

Resources used by ubuntu vs mac os x