What Is An Operating System
You may have heard of UNIX, Windows and Mac OS, but what is an operating system and what does it do? The operating system is like the backbone of the computer. An operating system is the primary software that organizes and controls all the hardware, functions, operations and software programs of a computer.
A computer usually comes with an operating system preinstalled. The type of operating system depends on the computer that has been purchased. Generally most computers come with a Microsoft Windows operating system. There are two other operating systems that compete on the market, Apple’s OS X and the various Linux distributions. Unix and Linux dominate the server market on the other hand.
While operating systems are usually associated with computers they can be found in many other electronic devices from cell phones over video game consoles to PDAs.
The operating system has control over all the functions of the computer and manages how software programs work and their communication and interactions with each other. The operating system is responsible for making sure everything runs smoothly during the operation of your computer and that the programs that are running do not interfere with each other.
It is also responsible for effectively managing the usage of the various hardware components in your computer such as memory and storage.
The operating system provides the software programs with hardware information which means that the applications do not have to add their own routines to work with the hardware. The operating system manages all hardware of a computer system.
The operating system is the core component. It recognizes input from computer hardware or software and sends the requests to software or hardware that is running or connected to the computer. It is basically moving data from one piece to another on the computer. Moving the computer mouse sends the information about the speed and direction to the operating system which transfers the information to the video card which outputs the result on the computer monitor.
Operating systems make use of user groups and users. This is being used to give users access to specific parts of the operating system. It can also prevent certain users and user groups from accessing parts of the operating system, software or hardware.
Filed under: Computers & Technology