1. Definition and purpose

    An operating system is difficult to define, but has been called "the layer of software that manages a computer's resources for … See more

    Operating system - Wikipedia

    • An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of processor time, mass storage, perip… See more

    Types of operating systems

    With multiprocessors multiple CPUs share memory. A multicomputer or cluster computer has multiple CPUs, each of which has its own memory. Multicomputers were developed because large multiprocessors are difficult … See more

    History

    The first computers in the late 1940s and 1950s were directly programmed either with plugboards or with machine code inputted on media such as punch cards, without programming languages or operating systems. Af… See more

    Components

    The components of an operating system are designed to ensure that various parts of a computer function cohesively. All user software must interact with the operating system to access hardware.
    The kernel … See more

    Operating system development as a hobby

    A hobby operating system may be classified as one whose code has not been directly derived from an existing operating system, and has few users and active developers.
    In some ca… See more

    Diversity of operating systems and portability

    If an application is written for use on a specific operating system, and is ported to another OS, the functionality required by that application may be implemented differently by that OS (the names of functions, … See more

    Popular operating systems

    In the personal computer market, as of September 2023 , Microsoft Windows has the highest market share, around 68%. macOS by Apple Inc. is in second place (20%), and the varieties of Linux, including ChromeOS, … See more

     
  1. The operating system provides an interface between an application program and the computer hardware, so that an application program can interact with the hardware only by obeying rules and procedures programmed into the operating system.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system
    An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources and provides common services for computer programs. All computer programs, excluding firmware, require an operating system to function.
    computersciencewiki.org/index.php/Operating_syst…
    The operating system (OS) is specialized computer software that allocates memory and manages system resources. When a computer is turned on, the OS is loaded into memory and works as an abstraction layer between the physical hardware and the software.
    en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Operating_System
  2. People also ask
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    WEBLinux is a kernel first released in 1991 by Linus Torvalds, typically packaged as a Linux distribution with GNU software and other components. Linux is widely used on servers, embedded devices, …

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