Before our beloved operating systems we know today from Microsoft and Apple, the world was introduced to arguably the first operating system when Robert L. Patrick implemented a very primitive operating system for General Motors Research in 1956. His operating system design, labeled GM-NAA I/O (General Motors – North American Aviation Input/Output), consisted of three parts. It received an input, made a computation, and submitted an output. This early operating system allowed each of the (approximately) 40 IBM 704 mainframes to process jobs simultaneously one after another. This was the start of a beautiful component that would give computers a much needed brain and allow man and machine to communicate. Since the time of GM-NAA I/O in 1956, operating systems have quickly, and continuously, evolved to handle the wants and needs of businesses and consumers with little disappointment (The History of Operating Systems).

The type of operating system Robert L. Patrick helped develop is called a Batch Operating System, because it runs one job after another in succession without interruption from users. In that time, and with this particular type of operating system, an entire corporate office might utilize a single computer which would be managed by an operator. Anyone requesting a job from the computer would take a punch card to the operator and return later to receive the results of their card. These punch cards were physical cards with holes strategically punched into them arranged in columns and rows. When inserted into the computer, it was used as a way to communicate with the computer and run a job or program. Using this method was not exactly efficient.

As operating systems began to emerge, issues were bound to arise. One such issue that came about early on was time-sharing, or the lack of. Time-sharing is the ability for multiple users to utilize a