Different Operating Systems
Every contemporary computer, including desktop and laptop computers, smartphones, and video gaming systems, need an operating system. This is the computer’s core software, which lies between application software and hardware, allocating memory and computational resources to programs, managing files, and enforcing security standards.
What Do Operating Systems Do?
Operating systems control how a computer saves data, switches between programs, manages memory, secures itself, and interacts with peripherals such as printers and cameras. Different operating systems tackle all of these in different ways, which is why you can’t usually execute a Windows software on a Macintosh computer and why permissions seem differently on an Android phone than on an iPhone.
Some operating systems are created by groups of individuals all over the globe, such as the open source, publicly accessible operating system Linux, whilst others are commercial products created by a single business, such as Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS.
Different operating systems operate on different hardware and are intended for different uses. For example, iOS is developed for iPhones and iPad tablets, but macOS is used on Mac desktops and laptops. Although your computer or smartphone comes with an operating system, you may sometimes install another one.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows has been around in some form or another since 1985, and it is still the most popular operating system for personal and business computers. certain tablets run its most recent versions, including Windows 10, and the operating system is also used on certain online and number-crunching server machines. Windows is compatible with computers made by a broad range of manufacturers.
Early versions of Windows used an older Microsoft operating system called MS-DOS, which provided a contemporary graphical interface on top of DOS’s conventional text-based instructions. Signature characteristics of Microsoft Windows’ user interface includes windows, which are rectangle-shaped on-panel panels that display different programs. The Windows Start menu has helped generations of users locate apps and data on their computers.
Attempts to employ smartphone-specific versions of the Windows operating system have been less successful.
Apple’s iOS
Apple’s iOS is one of the most widely used smartphone operating systems, second only to Android. It operates on Apple devices, including as iPhones, iPad tablets, and iPod Touch media players.
iOS’s defining characteristics include the App Store, where users can purchase applications and download free software, a focus on security, including strong encryption to restrict what unauthorized users may extract from the phone, and a clean, streamlined interface with few physical buttons.
Google’s Android OS
Android is the most popular operating system in the world, based on the number of devices installed. It was mostly created by Google and is primarily used on smartphones and tablets. Unlike iOS, it may be used on devices built by a number of manufacturers, and those manufacturers can customize aspects of the interface to meet their own requirements.
Users may download bespoke versions of the operating system since many of its components are open source, which means that anybody can legally change and publish their own. However, most individuals prefer to use the version that came with their device.
Android, like iOS, has an application and media store called the Play Store, which was developed by Google. Some phone makers and other organizations also provide in-store software and media installation services.
Apple’s macOS
Apple’s macOS, the successor to the popular OS X operating system, is used on Apple laptops and desktops. macOS is based in part on the historic family of Unix operating systems developed in the 1960s at AT&T’s Bell Labs, and it shares several characteristics with other Unix-related operating systems such as Linux. Although the graphical interfaces alter, many of the underlying programming interfaces and command line functionality remain the same.
MacOS’s signature characteristics include the dock, which is used to discover apps and frequently used files, distinctive keyboard keys like as the Command key, and stoplight-colored buttons for resizing active program windows. MacOS is well-known for its user-friendly features, which include Siri, a natural-voice personal assistant, and FaceTime, Apple’s video-calling program.
Linux Operating System
Unlike many other operating systems, work on Linux is not spearheaded by a single corporation. Linus Torvalds, a Finnish programmer, designed the operating system in 1991. Nowadays, programmers from all around the globe work together on the open source code, submitting changes to the core kernel software and other applications.
There is a large range of commercial and open source software available for Linux, and several Linux distributions provide distinct user interfaces and tools for installing applications on workstations running the OS. Linux, a favorite among programmers, is extensively used on business and research servers, as well as in cloud computing settings. Linux can operate on a broad range of devices and is freely accessible over the internet.
Types of Operating system
- Batch Operating System
- Multitasking/Time Sharing OS
- Multiprocessing OS
- Real Time OS
- Distributed OS
- Network OS
- Mobile OS
- Batch Operating System
Some computer processes are very lengthy and time-consuming. To speed the same process, a job with a similar type of needs are batched together and run as a group.
The user of a batch operating system never directly interacts with the computer. In this type of OS, every user prepares his or her job on an offline device like a punch card and submit it to the computer operator.
- Multi-Tasking/Time-sharing Operating systems
Time-sharing operating system enables people located at a different terminal(shell) to use a single computer system at the same time. The processor time (CPU) which is shared among multiple users is termed as time sharing.
- Real time OS
A real time operating system time interval to process and respond to inputs is very small. Examples: Military Software Systems, Space Software Systems.
- Distributed Operating System
Distributed systems use many processors located in different machines to provide very fast computation to its users.
- Network Operating System
Network Operating System runs on a server. It provides the capability to serve to manage data, user, groups, security, application, and other networking functions.
- Mobile OS
Mobile operating systems are those OS which is especially that are designed to power smartphones, tablets, and wearables devices.
Some most famous mobile operating systems are Android and iOS, but others include BlackBerry, Web, and watchOS.
The advantage of using Operating System
- Allows you to hide details of hardware by creating an abstraction
- Easy to use with a GUI
- Offers an environment in which a user may execute programs/applications
- The operating system must make sure that the computer system convenient to use
- Operating System acts as an intermediary among applications and the hardware components
- It provides the computer system resources with easy to use format
- Acts as an intermediator between all hardware’s and software’s of the system
Disadvantages of using Operating System
- If any issue occurs in OS, you may lose all the contents which have been stored in your system
- Operating system’s software is quite expensive for small size organization which adds burden on them. Example Windows
- It is never entirely secure as a threat can occur at any time