Intorduction to Computer Systems

1.0 Introduction

An operating system (OS) is a software program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. The operating system is an essential component of the system software in a computer system. The operating system programs make system resources available to user(s), the user’s application programs and to other application programs running on the computer. (From Silberschatz and Gagne et al., 2010)

Some operating systems are designed to be convenient, others to be efficient and some combination of the two (From Silberschatz and Gagne et al., 2010). Operating system can be found on almost on any device that contains a computer – from cellular phones and video game consoles to supercomputers and servers. Examples of modern operating systems include Android, iOS, Linux, Microsoft windows, Windows Phone and IBM z/OS. All these, except windows, windows phone and IBM z/OS share roots in Unix.

1.1 Windows Introduction

Microsoft Windows is a series of graphical interface operating systems developed, traded and sold by Microsoft. Microsoft introduced an operating environment named windows as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUI). Microsoft now controls the world’s personal computer market with over 90% of market share, over taking Mac OS. (From windows.microsoft.com, 2013)

1.2 Unix Introduction

Unix is a multi-user multitasking operating system. Unix is an operating system which was developed in the 1960s, and since then it has been under constant development. It is a stable multi-user, multi-tasking system for servers, desktops and laptops.Unix systems also have a graphical user interface (GUI) similar to Micro...

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