What is an Operating System? – GeeksforGeeks
What is an Operating System?
Introduction :
Operating System lies in the category of system software. It basically manages all the resources of the computer. An operating system acts as an interface between the software and different parts of the computer or the computer hardware. The operating system is designed in such a way that it can manage the overall resources and operations of the computer. It is a fully integrated set of specialized programs that handle all the operations of the computer. It controls and monitors the execution of all other programs that reside in the computer, which also includes application programs and other system software of the computer.
Examples of operating system are Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc.
An operating system (OS) is a collection of software that manages computer hardware resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system.
The primary functions of an operating system include:
- Resource management: The operating system manages and allocates memory, CPU time, and other hardware resources among the various programs and processes running on the computer.
- Process management: The operating system is responsible for starting, stopping, and managing processes and programs. It also controls the scheduling of processes and allocates resources to them.
- Memory management: The operating system manages the computer’s primary memory and provides mechanisms for optimizing memory usage.
- Security: The operating system provides a secure environment for the user, applications, and data by implementing security policies and mechanisms such as access controls and encryption.
- File management: The operating system is responsible for organizing and managing the file system, including the creation, deletion, and manipulation of files and directories.
- Device management: The operating system manages input/output devices such as printers, keyboards, mice, and displays. It provides the necessary drivers and interfaces to enable communication between the devices and the computer.
- Networking: The operating system provides networking capabilities such as establishing and managing network connections, handling network protocols, and sharing resources such as printers and files over a network.
- User interface: The operating system provides a user interface that enables users to interact with the computer system. This can be a graphical user interface (GUI), a command-line interface (CLI), or a combination of both.
- Backup and recovery: The operating system provides mechanisms for backing up data and recovering it in case of system failures, errors, or disasters.
- Virtualization: The operating system provides virtualization capabilities that allow multiple operating systems or applications to run on a single physical machine. This can enable efficient use of resources and flexibility in managing workloads.
- Performance monitoring: The operating system provides tools for monitoring and optimizing system performance, including identifying bottlenecks, optimizing resource usage, and analyzing system logs and metrics.
- Time-sharing: The operating system enables multiple users to share a computer system and its resources simultaneously by providing time-sharing mechanisms that allocate resources fairly and efficiently.
- System calls: The operating system provides a set of system calls that enable applications to interact with the operating system and access its resources. System calls provide a standardized interface between applications and the operating system, enabling portability and compatibility across different hardware and software platforms.
There are several types of operating systems, including single-user, multi-user, and distributed systems. Some of the most popular operating systems in use today are Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, and Linux.
Diagram of the operating system:
Objectives:
Let us now see some of the objectives of the operating system, which are:
- Convenient to use: One of the objectives is to make the computer system more convenient to use in an efficient manner.
- User Friendly: To make the computer system more interactive with a more convenient interface for the users.
- To provide easy access to users for using resources by acting as an intermediary between the hardware and its users.
- For managing the resources of a computer.
- Controls and Monitoring: By keeping the track of who is using which resource, granting resource requests, and mediating conflicting requests from different programs and users.
- Providing efficient and fair sharing of resources between the users and programs.
Characteristics:
Let us now discuss some of the important characteristic features of operating systems:
- Device Management: The operating system keeps track of all the devices. So, it is also called the Input / Output controller that decides which process gets the device, when, and for how much time.
- File Management: It allocates and de-allocates the resources and also decides who gets the resource.
- Job Accounting: It keeps the track of time and resources used by various jobs or users.
- Error-detecting Aids: It contains methods that include the production of dumps, traces, error messages, and other debugging and error-detecting methods.
- Memory Management: It keeps track of the primary memory, like what part of it is i
- n use by whom, or what part is not in use, etc. and It also allocates the memory when a process or program requests it.
- Processor Management: It allocates the processor to a process and then de-allocates the processor when it is no longer required or the job is done.
- Control on System Performance: It records the delays between the request for a service and from the system.
- Security: It prevents unauthorized access to programs and data by means of passwords or some kind of protection technique.
Types of the operating system:
- Batch Operating System: This type of operating system does not interact with the computer directly. There is an operator which takes similar jobs having the same requirements and groups them into batches.
- Time-sharing operating System: This type of operating system allows many users to share computer resources. (Max utilization of the resources).
- Distributed operating System: This type of operating system manages a group of different computers and makes appear to be a single computer. These operating systems are designed to operate on a network of computers. They allow multiple users to access shared resources and communicate with each other over the network. Examples include Microsoft Windows Server and various distributions of Linux designed for servers.
- Network operating system: This type of operating system running on a server and provides the capability to manage data, users, groups, security, applications, and other networking functions.
- Real-time operating system: This type of operating system serves real time system and the time interval required to process and respond to inputs is very small. These operating systems are designed to respond to events in real-time. They are used in applications that require quick and deterministic responses, such as embedded systems, industrial control systems, and robotics.
- Multiprocessing operating system: Multiprocessor operating systems are used in operating systems to boost the performance of multiple CPUs within a single computer system. Multiple CPUs are linked together so that a job can be divided and executed more quickly.
- Single-User Operating Systems: These operating systems are designed to support a single user at a time. Examples include Microsoft Windows for personal computers and Apple macOS.
- Multi-User Operating Systems: These operating systems are designed to support multiple users simultaneously. Examples include Linux and Unix.
- Embedded Operating Systems: These operating systems are designed to run on devices with limited resources, such as smartphones, wearable devices, and household appliances. Examples include Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
- Cluster Operating Systems: These operating systems are designed to run on a group of computers, or a cluster, to work together as a single system. They are used for high-performance computing and for applications that require high availability and reliability. Examples include Rocks Cluster Distribution and OpenMPI.
Mục lục bài viết
Sample Questions
Question 1. Operating system is which type of software?
(A) System software
(B) Application software
(C) Both a and b
(D) None of the above
Solution:
The correct option is A, i.e., System software
Question 2. Which of the following is not an example of operating system?
(A) Windows
(B) Linux
(C) Mac OS
(D) MS-Word
Solution:
The correct option is D, i.e., MS-Word
Windows, Linux, Mac OS, all 3 are examples of operating system whereas MS-Word is an example of application software.
Question 3. Which characteristic property prevents unauthorized access to programs and data?
(A) Security
(B) Data Management
(C) Device management
(D) Control on system performance
Solution:
The correct option is A, i.e, Security
Security prevents unauthorized access to programs and data by means of passwords or some kind of protection technique.
Question 4. Which characteristic property allocates and de-allocates the resources and also decides who gets the resource.
(A) Security
(B) File Management
(C) Device management
(D) Control of System performance
Solution:
The correct option is B, i.e., File management
File Management allocates and de-allocates the resources and also decides who gets the resource.
Question 5. _____________ is designed in such a way that it can manage overall resources and operations of the computer.
(A) Operating System
(B) File Management
(C) Device management
(D) None of the above
Solution:
The correct option is A, i.e, Operating System
The operating system is designed in such a way that it can manage overall resources and operations of the computer.
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