Comparing Microsoft DOS with UNIX

Comparing Microsoft DOS with UNIX

As is suggestive of its name, an operating system (OS) is a collection of programs that operate the personal computer (PC). Its primary purpose is to support programs that actually do the work one is interested in, and to allow competing programs to share the resources of the computer. However, the OS also controls the inner workings of the computer, acting as a traffic manager which controls the flow of data through the system and initiates the starting and stopping processes, and as a means through which software can access the hardware and system software. In addition, it provides routines for device control, provides for the management, scheduling and interaction of tasks, and maintains system integrity. It also provides a facility called the user interface which issues commands to the system software. Utilities are provided for managing files and documents created by users, development of programs and software, communicating between users with other computer systems and managing user requirements for programs, storage space and priority. There are a number of different types of operating systems with varying degrees of complexity. A system such as DOS can be relatively simple and minimalistic, while others, like UNIX, can be somewhat more complicated. Some systems run only a single process at a time (DOS), while other systems run multiple processes at once (UNIX). In reality, it is not possible for a single processor to run multiple processes simultaneously. The processor of the computer runs one process for a short period of time, then is switched to the next process and so on. As the processor executes millions of instructions per second, this gives the appearance of many processes r...

... middle of paper ...

...to 300 Mb (Osiris, 1). WORKS CITED Benson, Alex. Client/Server Architecture. Gainesville: U P of Florida, 1992. Comelford, Richard. "Operating Systems go Head to Head", IEEE Spectrum. Dec 1993, pp 23-25. Flynn, Ida M., and Ann M. McHoes. Understanding Operating Systems. Second ed. Boston: PWS, 1997. Greenfield, Larry. UNIX: The User's Guide. University of Deuselldorf. [Accessed 3 September 1998]. *http://www. Theochem.uni-duesseldorf.de/docu/user-guide* Introduction to UNIX. University of Guadalajara. [Accessed 3 September 1998]. http://osiris.staff.udg.mx/man/ingles/introduccion.html " Microsoft Corporation" Brittanica Online [Accessed 20 September 1998]. *http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/711/22.html* Operating Systems Introduction, v 3.2. Central Institute of Technology. [Accessed 5 September 1998]. *http://www.cit.ac.nz/smac/os100/unix01.html* Randall,