Operating Systems

Every one using a computer or a mobile phone uses an operating system and even advanced cars and machines have a special purpose operating system built into them. But the question arises “How many of us actually know what an operating system is?”. Here goes a layman version of definition of operating system.

Operating System

Operating system is a software that controls the hardware and its communication and utilization with the application programs used by an end user.

Off course there are many details about the operating but in this I am going to discuss why there was a need to program an operating system. Every individual program could have been made to communicate with hardware it self. Just imagine, If people were left on their own to look for resources to fulfill their need and there was no government to manage them and law enforcement to correct them, what a havoc would it be. In the same way an operating system is made to manage the limited resources of a computer that are memory, storage, cpu time and so on and more over an operating system distributes these resources efficiently to multiple application programs and input/output devices.

One more reason to build an operating system is that if operating systems were not developed, every application program would have to be made to communicate to hardware. It is a wise choice to use operating system as interpreter between hardware and application programs instead of teaching each program to communicate to hardware itself.

Operating system have made the work of programmers easier because they now have to only focus on the functionality of their programs rather than going in the details of how to make it communicate with hardware.

Most common operating systems used by common people are

Microsoft Windows
Linux
Apple’s Macintosh

Most common operating systems used in mobile phones

 IOS - used in Apple smart phones
Symbian - used in Nokia

Android - Used in HTC, New Samsung sets etc