Operating System
Operating System
Operating System (OS) is an important part of a computer. OS intermediates between the user of a computer and the computer hardware. Different kinds of application software use specific hardware resources of a computer like CPU, I/O devices and memory, as needed by the application software. OS controls and coordinates the use of hardware among the different application software and the users. It provides an interface that is convenient for the user to use, and facilitates efficient operations of the computer system resources.
The key functions of OS are —
» It provides an environment in which users and application software can do work.
» It manages different resources of the computer like the CPU time, memory space, file storage, I/O devices etc. During the use of computer by other programs or users, operating system manages various resources and allocates them whenever required, efficiently.
» It controls the execution of different programs to prevent occurrence of error.
» It provides a convenient interface to the user in the form of commands and graphical interface, which facilitates the use of computer.
Some available operating systems are Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS), Windows 7, Windows XP, Linux, UNIX, and Mac OS X, Snow Leopard.