Both Network OS, Operating System, and Distributed OS, Operating System works on multiple systems/nodes. The major difference between the two OS is that in the case of Network OS, each system can have its own Operating System whereas, in the case of distributed OS, each machine have a single operating system as the common operating system.
The following are some of the important differences between Network OS and Distributed OS.
Sr. No. | Key | Network OS | Distributed OS |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Objective | Network OS provides local services to remote clients. | Distributed OS manages the hardware resources. |
2 | Communication | Communication is file-based, shared folder based. | Communication is message-based or shared memory-based. |
3 | Scalability | Network OS is highly scalable. A new machine can be added very easily. | Distributed OS is less scalable. The process to add new hardware is complex. |
4 | Fault tolerance | Less fault tolerance as compared to distributed OS. | Distributed OS has very high fault tolerance. |
5 | Autonomy | Each machine can acts on its own thus autonomy is high. | Distributed OS has a poor rate of autonomy. |
6 | Implementation | Network OS-based systems are easy to built and maintain. | Distributed OS implementation is difficult. |
7 | Operating System | Network OS-based systems have their own copy of operating systems. | Distributed OS-based nodes have the same copy of the operating system. |