Operating Systems

Operating Systems

1. A collection of programs that manages the hardware and software of a computer system including sharing the computers times, memory, hardware and other resources.

2. File Management

   • Creates a file system to organise files and directories - a hierarchy of directories

3. Hardware Management

   • Manages memory - transfers programs into and out of memory, allocates free space between programs, and keeps track of memory usage.
   • Opens, closes and writes to peripheral devices such as storage attached to the computer.
   • Drivers are software that allows us to use the actual hardware components.

4. User management

   • The OS on most computers and smartphones provides an environment with tiles, icons and/or menus. This type of interface is called the graphical user interface (GUI) because the user interacts with images through a mouse, keyboard or touchscreen.
   • An OS also provides a method of interaction that is non-graphical, called the command line interface (CLI). This is a text-only service with feedback from the OS appearing in text. Using a CLI requires knowledge of the commands available on a particular machine

5. Utilities

   • provides tools for managing and organising hardware

Images and files in the map