What is Operating System ? Characteristics of Operating System

Operating System

Manages all these parts of computer given below.

• Moniter
• Printer
• Mouse
• Keyboard
• Hard drive
• Application

What is An Operating System ?

• The operating system is a program with the following feature.
• An operating system is a program that acts as an interface between the software and the computer hardware.
• It is an integrated of specialized programs used to manage overall reasoures and operations of the computer.
• It is a specialized software that controls and monitor the execution of all other programs that reside in the computer,including application programs and othersystem sooftware.
• As the name suggest, an operating system is a type of software without which you cannot operate or run a computer. It acts as an intermediary or translation system between computer hardware and appliocation programs installed in the computer. In other words, You cannot directly use computer programs with computer hardware without having a medium to establish a connection between them.
• It is also an intermediary b/w the computer user and the computer hardware as it provides a standard user interface that you see on your computer screen after you switch on your computer. for example:- The windows and the mac os are also operating system that provides a graphical interface with icons and picture to enable users to access multiple files and applicatio simultaneously.
• Although, the operating system is itself a program or software, it allows users to run other programs or applications on the system. we can say that it worked behind the screen to run your computer.

Objective of Operating system

The objective of computer system are:

1. To make computer system convenient to use in an efficient manner.
2. To hide the details of the hardware reasource from the users.
3. To provide users a convenient interface to use the computer system.
4. To acts as an intermidary b/w the hardware and its users, making it easier for the users to access and use other resources.
5. To manages the resources of a computer system.
6. To keep track of who is using which resources granting resources requests and mediating conflicying requests from different programs and users.
7. To provide efficient and fair sharing of resources among users and programs.

Characteristic of Operating system:

1) Memory management :- keeps track of the primary memory i.e. what part of it is in used by whom, what part is not in use etc. and allocates the memory when a process on requests it.

2) Processor management :- allocates the processor (CPU) to process and deallocates the processor when it is no longer required.

2)Device management :- keeps track of all the devices.This is also called I/O controller that decides which process gets the device, when and for how much time.

2)File managenent :- allocates and de- allocates the resources and decides who gets the resources.

2) Security :- prevents unauthorized access to programs and data means of password and other similar technique.