Introduction to Operating Systems

 Introduction to Operating Systems

• An operating system is a program that acts as an intermediary between a user of a computer and the computer hardware.

• The purpose of an operating system is to provide an environment in which a user can execute programs. The primary goal of an operating system is thus to make the computer system convenient to use. 

• A secondary goal is to use the computer hardware in an efficient manner.

In brief, an operating system is the set of programs that controls a computer. Some examples of operating systems are UNIX, Mach, MS-DOS, MSWindows, Windows/NT, OS/2 and MacOS.

An operating system is an important part of almost every computer system.

A computer system can be divided roughly into four components: the hardware, the operating system, the application programs and the users
Objectives of Operating Systems

• To hide details of hardware by creating abstraction.

• To allocate resources to processes (Manage resources).

• Provide a pleasant and effective user interface.