What is an Operating System?
Have you ever wondered what the window logo or the half-eaten apple or the cute penguin thing that appears on your desktop every time you switch on your device is?
Well, that is what we call an operating system and believe it or not, it is the most important piece of software for running any device.
An operating system is a software that acts as an interface between the user and computer hardware meaning it allows the user to control the hardware like keyboard, printer, monitor, storage devices etc.
What does any software need to have, to be called an operating system?
Kernel :
It is the core of the OS and has complete control over the system and facilitates interaction between the software and the hardware.
File System :
Method or a Data Structure that the OS uses to store and retrieve data in the memory.
User Interface :
Command Line Interface(CLI) or a Graphical User Interface(GUI)
Data Manipulation :
Should be able to manipulate data based on commands given by the user.
Main Functions of Operating System:
1)Load and manage Processes
An Os manages processes such that it prevents running software from interfering with one another even when they run on the same system at the same time.
For a Program to be executed first it has to be allocated some space in the main memory(RAM), and every program can only access the memory it has been allocated so that it does not interfere with the other programs that are running simultaneously in the system.
2)Provide an interface to the hardware
An Os provides an interface to the hardware via system calls which are provided by the operating system.
3)Provide a File system
An Operating System Provides a File system so that the Processes can read and write data without having the concern that how precisely the data is going to be stored.
4) Provide a basic user interface
An Operating system provides an interface for the user to interact with the system, run programs, and manage File systems.
5)Resource management
Input Output device management :
It is an operating system's job to allocate the I/O devices to the Processes when they make a request. When an I/O device is allocated to a Process , It cannot be allocated to any other process. So, it is the responsibility of the operating system to decide which process to allocate the I/O device to and for how long.
Memory Management :
When the Program is in a ready state, it has to be allocated some space in the main memory for it to move into the running state and start executing. The main memory is limited, So it is the operating system's job to decide which process to allocate memory to and how much, rest of the processes that are in the ready state are sent into the Suspend ready state while the other more important processes complete their execution.
Process management :
When a Program goes into the running state, it is called a Process. Only one process can be allocated to a processor and at a time only one processor can run, so the operating system has to decide when to switch to which processor and for how long.
Storage manangement :
How data is to be stored and accessed from the secondary memory is also managed by the operating system.
Conclusion :
In this article, we briefly discussed what is an operating system and some of its functions. If you want to connect with me :
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