Operating Systems Essays

Operating Systems Essays Operating Systems Essay Operating Systems Essay Now how many people know the importance of having an operating system for their computers? Well to put it briefly, without one you would be switching on your computer to communicate with a blank screen. The operating system acts like a translator between the user and the hardware and vice versa. It converts computer binary code into information we would understand, and every time we input data like pressing keys the data we see as letters is entered as codes the computer will understand. There is 2 types of software, the O/S(operating system) and application software. The application software is designed to perform multiple or specific tasks for the user. It comes in all sorts of forms from games too Microsoft office. In order to run the application software you need an O/S. like mentioned above its the translator between the user and hardware. So if you want to instruct the hardware to do something from the application software, it will go through the O/S which will then make te hardware perform the task. Here is 4 of some the most popular O/Ss in use:- 1.Windows: this is most used O/S world wide, it has a graphical user interface hence very user friendly. The O/S has its own help it offers new users which is very useful. This O/S is quite expensive compared to others. But one of the main reasons is because of its popularity, use worldwide, and demand. 2.Macintosh: this O/S also has a GUI (graphical user interface) but is faraway from being as popular as windows. Therefore you would expect this O/S to be cheaper. Although it may as good as Windows it lacks popularity hence it would take a long time before people decided to switch to it over Windows. 3.UNIX: this O/S is designed or more technical users and programmers. It is gaining popularity but it is not very user friendly for new users. That might hamper its popularity growing. Another problem with this O/S is that there are 3 different versions which are not compatible with each other. Hence when software is written for one of the types, it wont work with the other 2 unless the code is rewritten for each. Unix is also popular for large networks in business among other organisations. 4.Linux: this program is gaining popularity for several reasons. First of all its probably one of the very few free O/Ss. It also can have its code altered by the user to suit his/her desires. But thats Linux downfall, it is designed by programmers for programmers, hence not very user friendly. As you can see all the programs have points in different areas. Now it up to you to choose which one is right for you. Here is a table comparing the 4 O/Ss.