"What is an Operating System?"

Questions:

1. What is an operating system and what is its purpose?

• is a program made to run other programs on a computer. it is the most important program because it manages both hardware and software resourvers.

2.What operating system do most computers come preloaded with?

• ­Most desktop or laptop PCs come pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows. Macintosh computers come pre-loaded with Mac OS X. Many corporate servers use the Linux or UNIX operating systems

3. Besides personal computers, what other devices have operating systems?

• telephones, cell phones and more

4. Do all computers have operating systems? Explain

• Yes, the operating system is basically the backbone of a computer, without the operating system the computer is useless

5. What are the three most common operating systems? Are there other operating systems? Explain.

• Microsoft Windows,Macintosh, and UNIX. Yes, there are many others like RTOS, Single-user, single task and more

6. What is one reason why operating systems are coded rather than physical circuits?

• so that they can be changed or modified without having to scrap the whole device.

7. What are the two main functions of an operating system?

• It manages the hardware and software resources of the system. In a desktop computer, these resources include things like the processor, memory, disk space and more (On a cell phone, they include the keypad, the screen, the address book, the phone dialer, the battery and the network connection).
• It provides a stable, consistent way for applications to deal with the hardware without having to know all the details of the hardware.

8. What are the four types of operating systems?

• Real-time operating system (RTOS), Single-user, single task, Single-user, multi-tasking, Multi-user
  

9. What are the first actions the computer takes when you power it on?

• the first program that runs is a set of instructions kept in the computer's read-only memory (ROM).
  

10. What is the bootstrap loader? What is its function?

• the bootstrap loader is a small program that has a single function: It loads the operating system into memory and allows it to begin operation. In the most basic form, the bootstrap loader sets up the small driver programs that interface with and control the various hardware subsystems of the computer. It sets up the divisions of memory that hold the operating system, user information and applications. It establishes the data structures that will hold the myriad signals, flags and semaphores that are used to communicate within and between the subsystems and applications of the computer. Then it turns control of the computer over to the operating system.

11. How does the OS manage the processor?

• Ensuring that each process and application receives enough of the processor's time to function properly
• Using as many processor cycles as possible for real work
  

12. What does an operating system do when two processes are multi-tasking?

• the operating system must arrange the execution of applications so that you believe that there are several things happening at once. This is hard because the CPU can only do one thing at a time. Today's multi-core processors and multi-processor machines can handle more work, but each processor core is still capable of managing one task at a time.

13. What is thrashing?

• Thrashing occurs when a hard drive has to move its heads over the swap area many times because of the high number of page faults. This happens when memory accesses are causing page faults as the memory is not located in main memory.

14. What is virtual memory management?

• Virtual memory is a computer system technique which gives an application program the impression that it has contiguous working memory but acuallt it may be physically fragmented and may even overflow on to disk storage.

15. What is a driver?

• is software that allows your computer to communicate with hardware or devices.
  

16. How can input/output capabilities of a system be enhanced?

• by installing new drivers.
  

17. How do application program interfaces make it easier for programmers?

• It is similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. you can acually see what's happening on the screen infront of you.

18. What is a UI and GUI?

• User Interface is the system by which people interact with a machine. The user interface includes hardware (physical) and software (logical) components.
• Graphical User Interface is where the user clicks on a visual screen that has icons, windows and menus, by using a pointing device, such as a mouse.
  

19. Why is Linux being open source significant?

• The primary difference between Linux and many other popular contemporary operating systems is that the Linux kernel and other components are free and open source software.
  

20. What are some other devices that run on Linux?

• AppleTV,Browser,GameCube,Dreamcast, ipod, etc
  

21. What are 3 things you found interesting about operating systems that you did not know before?

• i learned that operating systems are found in so many different devices such as my ipod. operating systems are also didnt know that every computer had an operating system. i also learned that microwaves have a computer that doesnt have an operating system.
  

22. What is a question that you still have about operating systems?

• how long does it take for a driver to translate the electrical signals to the operating systems language?