Operating System
According to Brinch (99), an Operating System, also referred to simply as an OS, is typical system software that is designed to manage the computer software resources and hardware thus providing a common service for all computer programs. Essentially, it is an essential program enabling people to run various programs on a computer successfully. To run the computer as designed, the Operating System has a duty of managing the hardware, software, processes, as well as memory of the computer thus allowing the user to communicate directly with the computer without necessarily mastering the computer’s language. According to Palmer (219), a computer would be actually useless if it does not have an Operating System.
An Operating System has a very long history passing through different phase of technological developments and innovations. Because of this, there have been many different variations and types of Operating Systems designed for different situations. For instance, the initial computers did not have Operating System so people using them had to rely on several switches operated at different states. In essence, before 1960s, all computers were manually operated by users – with these manually run computers, every function of the system output, input, processing, as well as storage required an operator intervention and supervision to coordinate them. These early computers could only process jobs on a serial fashion of one task or program at a time. General Motors OS and FORTRAN Monitor system were some of the early-developed computer OS.
Since 1960s, many different types of computer operating systems have been developed: the development of new operating systems such as Windows has enabled computers easier to user by any person without necessarily requiring the knowledge of programing language. It allows a person using a computer to easily find programs, control settings, as well as delete, copy and paste information without necessarily understanding specific directions or coding (Stuart 78). At the moment, users have different options to consider when choosing an Operating System for their computers. One important consideration to make when choosing an Operating System is the filing system – user can choose between FAT32 and NTFS filing system. Another important consideration to make is the compatibility of the Operating System to the computer: some operating systems are not compatible with other computer hardware, for instance, Windows cannot work on Macintosh computers.
The primary advantage of modern computer Operating Systems is that they remove the hard use-line command systems. Such systems made computing very difficult and could easily make errors during the process. The modern Operating Systems are advantageous and efficient because they are designed to allow users to control the computer by simply clicking on various programs and functions. The evolution and development of modern OS such as Windows has greatly improved the efficiency of operating a computer.
Computer Operating Systems are designed to undertake basic tasks such as feeding the display with output signals, identifying and interpreting input set by the keyboard, controlling peripheral devices such as printers and disk drives as well as tracking both the directories and files among other duties. In a bigger picture, computer Operating Systems have greater powers and responsibilities of making sure that different users and programs do not interfere with it each while running at the same time. According to Haldar and Alex (109), OS is also responsible for maintaining security of the computer by prohibiting unauthorized users from accessing the system.
Work Cited
Brinch, Hansen P. Classic Operating Systems: From Batch Processing to Distributed Systems. New York, NY: Springer, 2001. Print.
Haldar, Sibsankar, and Alex A. Aravind. Operating Systems. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2010. Print.
Palmer, Michael J. Guide to Operating Systems. Florence: Cengage Learning, Inc, 2012. Print.
Stuart, Brian L. Principles of Operating Systems: Design & Applications. Boston, Mass.: Course Technology, 2008. Print.