Prior to the widespread inter-networking that led to the Internet, most communication networks were limited by their nature to only allow communications between the stations on the network, and the prevalent computer networking method was based on the central mainframe method. In the 1960s, computer researchers, J. C. R. Licklider and Robert W. Taylor pioneered calls for a joined-up global network to address interoperability problems. Concurrently, several research programs began to research principles of networking between separate physical networks, and this led to the development of Packet switching. These included Donald Davies (NPL), Paul Baran (RAND Corporation), and Leonard Kleinrock (MIT)'s research programs.

This led to the development of several packet switched networking solutions in the late 1960s and 1970s, including ARPANET, and X.25. Additionally, public access and hobbyist networking systems grew in popularity, including UUCP. They were however still disjointed separate networks, served only by limited gateways between networks. This led to the application of packet switching to develop a protocol for inter-networking, where multiple different networks could by joined together into a super-framework of networks. By defining a simple common network system, the Internet protocol suite, the concept of the network could be separated from its physical implementation. This spread of inter-network began to form into the idea of a global inter-network that would be called 'The Internet', and this began to quickly spread as existing networks were converted to become compatible with this. This spread quickly across the advanced telecommunication networks of the western world, and then began to penetrate into the rest of the world as it became the de-facto international standard and global network. However, the disparity of growth led to a Digital divide that is still a concern today.

Following commercialisation and introduction of privately run Internet Service Providers in the 1980s, and its expansion into popular use in the 1990s, the Internet has had a drastic impact on culture and commerce. This includes the rise of near instant communication by e-mail, text based discussion forums, the World Wide Web. Investor speculation in new markets provided by these innovations would also lead to the inflation and collapse of the Dot-com bubble, a major market collapse. But despite this, growth of the Internet continued, and still does.

An operating system (OS) is software that manages computer resources and provides programmers/users with an interface used to access those resources. An operating system processes system data and user input, and responds by allocating and managing tasks and internal system resources as a service to users and programs of the system. An operating system performs basic tasks such as controlling and allocating memory, prioritizing system requests, controlling input and output devices, facilitating computer networking and managing files. Operating systems can be found on almost anything made with integrated circuits, such as personal computers, internet servers, cellphones, music players, routers, switches, wireless access points, network storage, game consoles, digital cameras, sewing machines and telescopes.

In most cases, the operating system is not the first code to run on the computer at startup (boot) time. The initial code executing on the computer is usually loaded from firmware, which is stored in Flash ROM. This is sometimes called the BIOS or boot ROM. The firmware loads and executes the operating system kernel (usually from disk, sometimes over the network), and is usually responsible for the first graphics or text output the user sees on screen.

Common contemporary operating systems include Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Solaris. Microsoft Windows is has a significant majority of market share in the desktop and notebook computer markets, while the server and embedded device markets are split amongst several operating systems. With the exception of Microsoft Windows, the designs of each of the aforementioned operating systems were inspired by, or directly inherited from, the Unix operating system. Unix was developed at Bell Labs beginning in the late 1960s and spawned the development of numerous free and proprietary operating systems.