Overview: Operating Systems of Modern Terminal Devices Siniša Husnjak, Ivan Jovović, Ivan Cvitić Department of Information and Communication Traffic Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences University of Zagreb Zagreb, Croatia shusnjak@fpz.hr, ijovovic@fpz.hr, icvitic@fpz.hr Josip Štefanac, post-graduate Department of Information and Communication Traffic Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences University of Zagreb Zagreb, Croatia jostefanac@gmail.com Abstract—Development of technology and expansion of different types of sophisticated terminal devices resulted in an increase of the variety of operating systems. Besides classical devices like personal computers or smartphones driven by conventional operating systems, a number of modern categories of devices with built-in newly developed unconventional operating systems emerged. A classification of terminal devices followed by a comprehensive overview of all the types of OS and an analysis of the trends in their further development were required. This paper provide an overview of the operating systems of smart vehicles, smartwatches, smart TVs and smart home speakers, as well as their global market shares. Keywords - unconventional operating systems; classification of terminal devices; history of operating systems; smart assistants I. INTRODUCTION The offering of different operating systems passed the past half a century through various states and in moments was very complex with the availability of a large number of different platforms, and in other periods very simple with the offer of two or three systems. Until recently the term Operating System (OS) referred to a small number of possible software solutions. Microsoft Windows dominated most of the world markets, followed by Linux and Mac OS. The list of terminal devices (TD) requiring an OS for their functioning was limited to personal computers, laptops, servers and some gaming consoles. However, in the recent past the number of devices driven by their own OS has been gradually growing, causing a diversification in the field of OSs. New OSs are being developed by either modifying the existing OSs like Android, iOS or Linux, or by creating new software solutions for specific types of devices. Operating systems that can be categorised as “Conventional” (MS Windows, Mac OS and Linux for computers and Android and iOS for smartphones) are very well covered in a large number of publications. However, a comprehensive overview of other OSs that may be categorised as “Unconventional” is not that easy to come by. Unconventional are all the OSs developed for modern TDs which traditionally did not require an OS. This paper offers a general overview of the current situation in the field of OSs of TDs, with an emphasis on Unconventional OSs. II. OPERATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL A. Terms and Definitions According to [1], Operating System can be defined as software that acts as the connection between computer users and computer hardware; or as a set of programs that control how computer resources are used and how programs are executed. Casting is a service that enables the delivery of multimedia from a computer, tablet or smartphone to the screen of a TV or other type of TD without using a physical connection. There are two types of casting: mirroring and streaming [2]. Virtual Assistant (VA, also called Digital Personal Assistant, or Voice Assistant) is a cloud-based software service that uses artificial intelligence (AI) platforms in order to respond to users' requests or queries. The most common functions performed by VAs include voice recognition and text-to-speech, which allows users to dictate their queries or listen to their e- mails while driving [3]. VAs are being used in almost all of the TDs that are considered “smart”, which means that most of the OSs in use today have at least one VA application integrated. VA services may even be considered to be a simple kind of an OS, due to the ever-increasing range of functions that they perform and due to the fact that some of them also manage and control other devices. As a consequence, it may seem that to some software companies the main priority isn’t so much if a TD is running their OS, just as long as it has their VA integrated. Recently TDs have appeared with more than one VA installed, taking advantage of the most successful function of each of the VAs [4]. The most significant limitation of the VAs is still the small range of supported control languages. However, the number of languages effectively used keeps growing and it’s safe to believe that rather soon voice controlled VAs will be common in homes and vehicles worldwide. B. Classification of Terminal Devices TDs are defined as devices located at the ends of the communication channel, which convert various forms of information into electrical signals suitable for transfer through the channel, and vice-versa [1]. TDs may be classified in many different ways, but for this paper the most suitable classification is to “Classical” and “Modern” devices. Classical TDs with OSs are personal computers, servers, smartphones and tablets. The 6 th International Virtual Research Conference In Technical Disciplines November, 5. - 11. 2018, www.rcitd.com Information and Communication Networks and Services eISSN: 2453-6571, cdISSN: 1339-5076 10.18638/rcitd.2018.6.1.124 - 8 - ISBN: 978-80-554-1495-9