TIL ELI5 What an Operating system is
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I really like this ELI5 of what a Operating System is.
Explaining complex things in simple words is an art, and I really like this metaphor.
Take this scenario: if you were to travel to a place that you had never been to before, where they speak a different language that you don't know, what would you need to help communicate with the local people?
Well, you guessed it right – you’d need a translator. Now that’s what an OS does in your computer. It converts the binary input into a human understandable language.
Without an OS, every program would need a means to handle all computer components and hardware. This means that it would need a method to accept user input using a keyboard and mouse, print documents, read and write on storage devices, keep track of time, send output to other screens and even communicate across a network. This would cause every single program to be very complex and heavy.
That’s why one of the main purpose of an OS is to organize and control hardware and software so that the device it lives in behaves in a flexible but predictable way.
In other words, it's a system that provides key tools for all the other things to work.
The article goes to list what those key tools are in more detail.
- Processor Management - Ensuring that each process and application receives enough of the processor’s time. Keeping track of the status of processes.
- Memory Management - Keeping track of memory and allocating memory to others
- Device Management - Managing all the devices.
- File Management - Tracks where information is stored, settings, statuses, ownership.
- Job Scheduling - Determines the jobs/tasks that need to be processed. Also keeps track of the time and resources used by various tasks and users.
- Error Handling - Dealing with errors.
via What Is An OS ? Operating System Definition For Beginners
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Tagged: os