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Operating Systems: Timeline and Family Tree

Includes about 1,130 operating systems so far

Last updated: April 2023

In this post you'll find a family tree and timeline of operating systems. I have tried to include all operating systems, no matter how old or obscure. Of course, a complete list is virtually impossible, as there is no way to catalogue all the tiny hobby and embedded systems that may exist somewhere.

Please also note that I only included a few selected Linux/BSD/Solaris distributions (it is arguable whether these should count as an OS on their own or not).

Currently, the family tree includes between around 1,120 different operating systems (including some renamings). Tip: use Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) to search for a system.

Click here to open the picture in a new tab

If anyone would like to make corrections, please feel tell me.
Big Update August 2021: Thank you for everyone e-mailing me with suggestions after this webpage got posted on Hackernews by someone. I have added most of the suggestions, such as missing operating systems and a few mistakes.
Big Update February 2023: I added another 200 or so operating systems and made some corrections.

Colour guide: