Operating system
Operating system
The operating system is a complex program that controls the entire operation of the computer and allows people and applications
to communicate with the hardware. It accepts commands and data from the user via input devices, interprets commands,
transfers data to memory, retrieves data from memory and sends it to the output devices.
Typical functions of the operating system are:
- running programs
- organizing files on disks
- handling input and output operations
- allocating memory for storing programs and data
- giving access to networks
- multitasking (a user can run several programs at a time), jobs with different
priorities are dealt with in the correct order
- system security (a user can access a certain function only by entering a unique password)
The most popular operating systems are:
- The WINDOWS family designed by Microsoft and used on most PCs. The most recent version is Windows 8
- Mac OS created by Apple and used in Macintosh computers
- Unix is a multi-user system, found in mainframes and workstations
- Linux was developed under the General Public Licence – anybody can copy its source code, modify and redistribute it
It is used on PCs, appliances and small devices
- Windows mobile - used in most PDAs and smartphones (PDAs incorporating mobile phones)
- Palm OS used on Palm handheld devices
- History of Windows
A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to work with file systems.
The most common operations performed on files or groups of files are: create, open, edit, view, print, play, rename, move, copy,
delete, search/find, and modify file attributes, properties and file permissions. Files are typically displayed in a hierarchy.
