Introduction to Operating Systems

Ankur Kulhari February 7, 2017

What is an operating system?

Before moving ahead, I would like to ask you “what comes in your mind regarding Operating System?”

some of them can be:

Windows
Ubuntu
A complected software
Buttons and icons
Desktop
Folders
Media player and so on…..

Operating system

An operating system is a program which provides you:

An interface through which you can use hardware like, CPU/RAM/HDD/CD-ROM etc
The capability to install an application
The capability to start any application
Hides complexity of system (underlying hardware) from end user
While writing a high level program (like in C/C++/JAVA/python), we never concerned about which type of CPU is installed in the system, how much and which type of RAM is installed, Which controller is installed for DMA (Direct memory access) module.
But as we know that ultimately, programs will be executed in the CPU
The capability to write applications in easy way
We like to do multiple tasks simultaneously like: surf websites while listening music, downloading some file, writing report in word etc. We noticed that no two applications interfere with each other. This facility is also provided by Operating System program.
etc.

So in short we can say that Operating System is:
A program that controls the execution of application programs and implements an interface between the user of a computer and the computer hardware
Now day’s operating systems are not limited to computers/mobile phones/laptops but they are also used in almost all electronic devices like: automatic washing machine, microwave oven etc.