System Infrastructure

Operating System

An operating system (OS) is software that manages computer hardware resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is an essential component of the system software in a computer system. Application programs usually require an operating system to function.

Examples of popular modern operating systems include Android, BSD, iOS, Linux, OS X, QNX, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, and IBM z/OS. All these, except Windows, Windows Phone and z/OS, share roots in UNIX.

The main benefit of using an operating system is that it enables users to run their own computer without any knowledge of coding. Without an operating system, your hardware would not work at all, until you wrote your own code for the hardware telling it what to do.

An operating system (OS) is software, consisting of programs and data that runs on computers, managing computer hardware resources and providing services for various application software.

A multi-user operating system allows multiple users to access a computer system at the same time. Time-sharing systems and Internet servers can be classified as multi-user systems as they enable multiple-user access to a computer through the sharing of time. Single-user operating systems have only one user but may allow multiple programs to run at the same time.