The purpose of an operating system

A operating system is a collection of software that manages computer hardware resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is an essential component of the systems software in a computer system. An application programs usually require an operating system to function. These are some operating systems: Linux, windows 7 and windows 8.

The functions of a operating system are :

• controls the backing store and peripherals such as scanners and printers
• deals with the transfer of programs in and out of memory
• organises the use of memory between programs
• organises processing time between programs and users
• maintains security and access rights of users
• deals with errors and user instructions
• allows the user to save files to a backing store

Applications- Application software is all the computer software that causes a computer to perform useful tasks beyond the running of the computer itself. A specific instance of such software is called a software application.  

Linux- A freely-distributed open source operating system that runs on a number of hardware platforms. The Linux was developed mainly by Linus Torvalds. It runs on many platforms, including PCs and Mac , Linux has become an extremely popular alternative to proprietary operating systems

Mac OS X-The latest operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Mac OS X is a development platform that supports multiple development technologies including UNIX, Java and Carbon run time environments, and a host of open source, Web, scripting, database and development technologies.


Windows OS- Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces.Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS,