Operating System Definition of Operating System Operating system can be referred to as Os, it is the software that controls the basic internal operations of a computer system, and coordinates the hardware activities. The operating system is the first program that is loaded whenever the computer is turned on; it provides the platform on which other applications programs will run. It is sometimes regarded as the supervisor. The operating system usually resides insides the computer (memory and hard disk) and is very important to the computer system such that without it, the computer will not work.
Examples of Operating System
* Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) * Graphic User Interface Operating System (GUI) e.g. Window 98, Window 2000, Window Xp etc. * Macintosh Operating System (Mac Os) * Linux – Examples of an operating system that allows multiple users to use the computer at the same time or different time. * UNIX – This is a version of the Unix Operating System.
Functions of Operating System
* It tells the computer processor how to operate. * It co-ordinates hardware and software activities. * It controls the input and output such as keyboard, mouse, joystick, monitor, and printer function etc. * It supervises the smooth running of the application software such as typing of documents using Ms-Word. * It passes control from one program to the other; for example, when working on two programs at the same time such as Ms Word and Ms Excel. * Resource Sharing: e.g. sharing of printer on a network. * Memory management: The Operating System allocates adequate memory for running a particular program. * Storage/File management Operating System manages how files are stored in floppy disk, hard disk, flash disk, compact disk.