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Operating systems

What an operating system does

The operating system is software, an operating system makes a computer come alive. When a computer is first built it is effectively cut-off from the world as it cannot receive input or provide output. Without an operating system a computer cannot work efficiently. The operating system has three main tasks to do:

 Manage the computer resources: Input and output functions of the computer are controlled by the operating system. The operating system has to manage the CPU, how memory is allocation , access to disk drives, and many other tasks.
 Interact with the user: All computers need someone to interact with it, to control it . It is the operating system's task to provide a means of doing this which is easy, consistent, flexible and structured. An operating system also allows the user of the computer to make changes as well.
 Run applications: Application packages, such as word processors or spreadsheets, are what most users use on their computers, for most it is essential for their daily use of computers . The operating system provides a means of executing them, and provides the programs with tools and services. These include commands from retrieving data from a hard disk, or even to send data to a printer.

LINUX

The history of Linux began in 1991 with the commencement of a personal project by a student who was called Linus Torvalds. He studied at the University or Helsinki and this is where he created the new operating system. Linux is based on Unix, Unix was first released in 1971, it was entirely written in assembly language (which is a low level programming language). Linux is free, as it does not aim to make a profit through this operating

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