How Operating Systems Function
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.
When consumers buy computers they usually come with an operating system. The kind of operating system depends on the computer that has been purchased. Most desktop computers come with a Microsoft Windows operating system while Apple computers usually run a Macintosh operating system. Servers on the other hand are still dominated by Unix and Linux but Windows is common there as well.
Not only computers make use of operating systems. They come in many electronic devices like cell phones, video game consoles and even in high tech fridges and coffee machines.
The operating system is the core of a computer system. It manages how the hardware and software interacts – some would say communicates – with each other. It is responsible for the smooth operation of the system and has to ensure that software and hardware will not interfere with each others operations.
The operating system manages all the computer’s hardware by loading so called drivers which are used to interact with the hardware.
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.
As the central component of a computer system the operating system manages data transfer between hardware and software. Pressing a key on the keyboard is for instance directed to several hardware components like the processor and video card so that the result can be outputted on the computer screen.
The operating system also plays a vital role in security. It prevents unauthorized users, programs and websites from accessing the computer system. This could be over a network, over the internet, or on the computer itself. Some operating systems allow you to set up more than one user and require a logon to that user account. This allows you to set different levels of permissions for each user and can help secure your data.
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