Operating System

In our daily life, we are using a computer and discuss Windows XP, 7, 10, etc. so many times. Have you ever wonder what is this Windows? This window is nothing but an operating system. In today's article, we are going to discuss a different type of computer operating systems.

As a user, you ask your computer to work on several tasks and the computer does it for you. In our earlier article, we have already discussed the basics of computer and if you remember that, the computer is made of nothing but different hardware. If you want to refresh the basic of computer click here. Now any computer CPU can understand only binary language ( we will discuss it in our other article) that means 1 and 0. As a user, you never provide your instruction in the form of binary language. You mostly give it with either some keyboard command or with some mouse clicks. Ever wonder how your instruction gets converted to binary language for the computer to work. This where the operating system comes into play. So a computer operating system works as an Interface between you (User) and the Computer Hardware. But Operating system not just work as an Interface it handles a lot of other tasks too, keep reading and I will share with you all those.

The earlier operating system was mostly command-based, that means you will have a command prompt or terminal, where you have to write different commands for any task. Some of the Command based operating systems are DOS, UNIX(Some older version) like AIX, etc. Modern Days operating systems are much easier and mostly GUI based (Graphical User Interface) e.g. Windows XP, 7, 10, UBUNTU, Fedora, Red-HAT Linux, Android, Mac-OS, I-OS. Some of the above mentioned operating systems are used in Mobile phones like Android and I-OS.

Some of the most important tasks performed by the Operating System are:

1. Memory Management.
2. Processor Management.
3. Device Management.
4. File Management.
5. Security.
6. Job Management.
7. System Performance Management.
8. Error Handling

Let's discuss some of the above-mentioned tasks in detail now.

• Memory Management: An Operating system manages primary memory (Main Memory). If you want to learn about Computer memory check our other article here. Primary memory is made up of an array of bytes, where every byte has one address allocated to it. Just like our Society or Colony, where each house has an address. Operating System (OS) keeps track of all these memory addresses like which program is using which address and what are the available address. Whenever any program asks for some memory for calculation, it sends the request to the OS and OS assigned the program appropriate address to the available memory. Once the program is over OS makes sure to clean up the memory so that it can get used by another program.

• Process Management: In a multiprogramming environment, OS is responsible for the allocation of the processor (CPU) to a different program, so that multiple tasks can be completed in a short time. OS decides which program will get the processor for how long thus maintain the multiprogramming environment.  

• Device Management: OS manages different devices through their drivers in the Computer. For example, if you connect any speaker to the computer, and play any song in your computer OS manage your speaker through the sound driver install in your computer. If you have multiple music players installed on your computer and you play songs in those, your OS will manage the speaker for different music player program.

• File Management: Every OS has its own File System, a File System is nothing but the way of organizing files inside your computer like Folders, text file, etc. OS is responsible to maintain the Files like the location, size, status, etc. OS save your file to the secondary memory and decides who get the resources.

• Security: OS maintain the security of the computer using user id and password. It also prevents unauthorized access to the computer by providing with different level of security.

Apart from the above-discussed tasks, OS is responsible for a lot of other tasks too like Error Handling, Performance management, etc. With every update in the Operating system, the life of a User is getting easier. We cannot imagine working on the computer without an operating system.

Hope you find this article helpful!

If you have any question regarding this topic then please leave your query in the comment section below.