What is an Operating System?
In simply terms, an operating system is a unique program that allows application software & hardware components to interact with each other.
Examples include: DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 9.x, Windows NT, Windows XP, UNIX, IBM O/S2, IBM AS400.
An operating system remains active continuously until the computer is powered off.
This program provides a hardware "services" to other programs.
For instance, when a word processor needs to save a document, it simply hands it over to the operating system and requests that the operating system save it to disk under a specified name. The program can later "ask" the operating system to fetch the document by simply specifying its name. It really doesn't matter to the word processing program where the document is located on the disk, or even whether it is in a single piece or scattered over the disk, so long as the operating system knows how to retrieve it.
APPLICATION SOFTWARE
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Word Processors
(WORD, WP, Note Pad) |
Web Browsers
(Internet Explorer, Netscape) |
E-Mail Programs
(Webmail, Hotmail, Pegasus) |
Internet Programs
(FTP, Terminal) |
Spread Sheet
(Excel, Quatro Pro, Lotus) |
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Requests for Services
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Operating System |
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Device Access
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| Keyboard |
Mouse |
Monitor |
Hard/Floppy Disk |
Printer |
HARDWARE COMPONENTS
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©Copyright 2005 Dean K. Anderson. All rights reserved.
Web Author: Dean K. Anderson.
Last modified: December 4, 2005.
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