Imido complexes of osmium tetroxide are versatile compounds for olefin functionalisation. This tutorial review offers a brief historical overview on these compounds and discusses the electronic properties and reactivities of isolated imido osmium compounds in what had been the original stoichiometric aminohydroxylation reaction. The recently emerging catalytic Sharpless aminohydroxylation is discussed with special emphasis on mechanistic details. The final section deals with diamination of olefins, which relies on the chemistry of bisimido and trisimido osmium complexes.