Introduction & Feature of OS

Operating System

History :

• • The first operating system used for real work was GM-NAA I/O, produced in 1956 by General Motors’ Research division for its IBM 704.

Introduction :

• • All computers need some sort of hardware platform to run the software; these platforms are called Operating System (OS).

Definition :

• • An operating system commonly called OS, is system software which acts as an interface between a user and computer hardware. It also acts as a bridge between application programs and the computer hardware.
  • Operating system is a program that acts as an interface between user of computer and the computer hardware.
  • Operating System is the software that manages all the computers‘ resources to optimize its performance provides common services for efficient execution of various application software and acts as an interpreter between the hardware, application programs and the user.

Features :

• • The purpose of an operating system is to provide an environment in which user can execute program in a convenient and efficient manner.
  • Operating system is an important part of almost every computer system i.e. operating system is must in order to operate a computer. Without operating system computer is of no use.
  • An operating system is essential for any computer to be useful to us.
  • Examples are – Microsoft Windows, UNIX, LINUX, OS/360, OS/2 etc are some of the famous examples of an Operating system.
  • Operating system is one of the most important example of system software.
  • An Operating System is one of the most important components of the computer software which is essential to operate a computer.
  • When a user or a program wants the hardware to do something, the request is always communicated to and processed by the operating system.
  • Operating system is installed in secondary memory permanently, while it’s some part are stored permanently in read only memory during starting/loading of computer system.
  • For large systems, the operating system has even greater responsibilities and powers.
  • Some part of the operating system resides in random access memory and the computer begins to execute this part of the system.
  • The majority of modern home computers use some form of Microsoft’s operating systems.
  • Operating systems performs basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk and controlling peripheral devices.
  • The original & initial Microsoft operating system was called DOS (Disk Operating System) though most computers use Windows. Windows comes in various versions beginning with version 3.x then 95, 98, XP and currently Windows 7/8/10.
  • A few computers use IBM’s O/S2.
  • Apple’s Mac use their own operating system beginning with OS 1 though most modern Macs use version 8.x or 9.x. Apple’s latest version is OS 10.1.x.
  • Some computer professionals, Internet Service Providers (ISP) and mainframe computer users use an operating system such as UNIX/Linux, Windows NT or 2000 or server based operating systems.
  • In short, when computer is turned on, it first needs to load some main components of operating system into RAM sometimes referred to a booting up. It checks all its components and will usually display a message if there is a problem. It is also known as Power on Self Test (POST). Loading the system is usually automatic. Once the system is loaded, the user can start the application or program that he/she going to use.

Functions :

• • It manages all resources of computer system.
  • The operating system controls the input and output or directs the flow of information to and from the CPU. Much of this is done automatically by the system.
  • A OS controls and manages all the hardware components of a computer as well as it also controls input and output, memory and files. In other word a OS can be seen as a manager of the system.
  • It optimizes and utilizes various kinds of resources like I/O devices, Memory, CPU etc. 

Examples :

(i) MS Windows Operating System (Such as Windows 10, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Window 98, Window 95, Window 3.11/3.1, MS DOS etc.) 

(ii) Apple’s Macintosh/OS X/MAC Operating System

(iii) Linux( such as Fedora, Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, Kali etc.)/Unix Operating System

(iv) Chrome OS

(v) BlackBerry Tablet OS

(vi) Solaris OS

(vii) Free BSD[Berkeley Software Distribution] OS

(viii) CentOS

(ix) Android

(x) iOS