What is An Operating System ? Explain Different Types of Operating Systems
An Operating System :
"An Operating System is a program that acts as an interface between the user and the computer Hardware and controls the execution of all kind of programs". An Operating System controls the allocation of resources and services such as memory , processors , devices and information .A computer without An Operating System is just like an empy dump of metal. To run application programs on a computer , It must have an operating system installed on it.Operating system perform basic operation , such as getting input from the input devices , transferring data from main memory to the processor for processing and then sending output to the output devices. It also keeps track of files and directories on the hard disk , and controls perpheral devices.
Operating system operates on top of hardware and acts as a virtual machine that hides the hardware level complexities from the users and provides them a convenient way of using the system.
Explained Different Types of Operating System :
The development of operating system has started since 1950's and different types of operating systems have been developed so far by different companies. The most commonly used operating systems are : DOS , Windows ,Unix and Macintosh .
DOS ( Disk Operating System ) :
(DOS) Disk Operating System was developed in 1980 by microsoft when , in july 1980 , the IBM assigned a project to microsoft for the development of a 16-bit Operating System for their Personal computer. Microsoft developed the first version of DOS for personal computer and named it PC-DOS . After this Microsoft developed a Microsoft version of the same PC-DOS Operating system and named it MS-DOS. Both PC-DOS and MS-DOS are almost similar and now users refer them with only DOS (Disk Operating System) .
The Most Commonly used DOS Command :
CD >> Change the current directory
COPY >> Copies a file
DEL >> Deletes a file
DIR >> Lists directory contents
EDIT >> Starts an editor to create or edit plain text files
FORMAT >> Formats a disk to accept DOS files
HELLP >> Displays information about a command
MKDIR >> Creates a new directory
RD >> Removes a directory
REN >> Renames a file
TYPE >> Displays contents of a file on the screen .
Windows Operating System :
Windows Operating systems are the most commonly used operating systems thatv are based on Graphical User Interfaces ( GUI ) .
Brief history of Windows operating System
The history of windows operating system
goes back to 1983 .
The first windows operating system " Windows 1.0 " was launched on November 20 , 1985 . The Graphical support with desktop icons was introduced in " windows 2.0 " that was launched on December 9 , 1987 .
On August 24 , 1995 , " windows 95 " was launched . Windows 98 , XP and Vista were released on June 25 , 1998 , October 25 , 2001 and 2006 respectively . In October 2009 windows 7 was released and Windows 8 was released on October 2012 .
The first windows operating system " Windows 1.0 " was launched on November 20 , 1985 . The Graphical support with desktop icons was introduced in " windows 2.0 " that was launched on December 9 , 1987 .
On August 24 , 1995 , " windows 95 " was launched . Windows 98 , XP and Vista were released on June 25 , 1998 , October 25 , 2001 and 2006 respectively . In October 2009 windows 7 was released and Windows 8 was released on October 2012 .
Features of windows operating system
Windows operating system has improved graphical user interface that can be easily used by every type of user .
Windows operating system are user friendly .
These are the best operating systems running on PCs .
Windows series of operating systems are not very expensive for home user .
Windows operating systems are supported by most of the software .
UNIX Operating system :
Unix operating system is a multitasking and multi-user operating system that was developed by Ken Thomson , Dennis Ritchie and their group members at Bell Labs in 1969 . It was first developed in assembly language . Later on , in 1973 it was re-developed in C language . This version of Unix has facilitated its further development and support to other hardware .Unix operating systems also have a graphical user interface ( GUI ) similar to Microsoft Windows which provides an easy to use environment for naiv users .
Different version of
Unix operating system have been developed so far which have some feature in common . The most popular types of operating system are Sun Solaris , GNU / Linux and Mac Os X .
Mac OS
Mac os stand for Macintosh operating system . It is a series of operatings having graphical user interfaces that have been developed by apple Inc . On january 24 , 1984 , Apple computer Inc . Manufactured its first Macintosh personal computer and developed a system software for it which was later on renamed to Mac OS .Mac OS can be divided into two groups which are : Mac OS classic family and the Mac OS X family . So far , Mac OS has ten versions with the names Mac OS 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 and X .
