Operating System

Operating system is a unit of computer program that act as an intermediate between user of the computer and computer harware. A computing system has 4 components, namely harware, operating system, application programs, and user. Operating system helps user to interact with user, using various application programs. Thus OS provides an environment in which a user can execute programs.

The major functions of operating system are :

1) Manages system resources ( memory, processor, devices, and information). When more than one process is being executed in a system, it is OS which decides which process gets memory, processor, devices and information, and keep track of these resources. It also allocate these resources when requested, and deallocate it after use.

2) It provides priority system, which help to decide which job is to be executed when more than one job arrives.

3) It helps in interpreting commands and instructions.

4) It provides security and integrity.

5) It makes sure that all resources are used efficiently, and solve competition among various users.

6) It makes sure that data is stored in proper place, and programs are loaded properly.

7) It helps software to interact with hardware by translating the program into language understandable by hardware.

8) It also converts the processed data in machine language into a language understandable by the user.

   Though operating system doesn't perform any  function by itself, and provides only an environment within which other programs can do useful tasks, a computing system without OS is like land without language.

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