Operating System

							     Gujarat Technological University
                   Study Material




Operating Systems
                    Prepared by:
                  T. B. Parmar
                     M.Pharm
                     Asst. Prof.
 Shri Sarvajanik Pharmacy College, Mehsana (245)
            Topics to be covered
•   Definition
•   Functions of an operating system
•   Types of operating systems
•   Characteristics.
                            Definition
•   An operating system is software, consisting of programs and data, that
    runs on computers, manages computer hardware resources, and provides
    common services for execution of various application software. The
    operating system is the most important type of system software in a
    computer system. Without an operating system, a user cannot run an
    application program on their computer, unless the application program is
    self booting.
•   Operating systems provide a software platform on top of which other
    programs, called application programs, can run. The application programs
    must be written to run on top of a particular operating system. Your
    choice of operating system, therefore, determines to a great extent the
    applications you can run. For PCs, the most popular operating systems are
    DOS, OS/2, and Windows, but others are available, such as Linux.
        Types of Operating System
•   Embedded
•   Multi-user v/s Single-user
•   Multi-tasking v/s Single-tasking
•   Distributed
•   Real-time
        Real-time operating system
• A real-time operating system is a multitasking operating system that
  aims at executing real-time applications.
• Real-time operating systems often use specialized scheduling
  algorithms so that they can achieve a deterministic nature of
  behaviour.
• The main object of real-time operating systems is their quick and
  predictable response to events.
• They have an event-driven or time-sharing design and often aspects
  of both.
• An event-driven system switches between tasks based on their
  priorities or external events while time-sharing operating systems
  switch tasks based on clock interrupts.
       Multi-user v/s Single-user OS
•   A multi-user operating system allows multiple users to access a computer
    system concurrently
•   Time-sharing system can be classified as multi-user systems as they enable
    a multiple user access to a computer through the sharing of time.
•   Single-user operating systems, as opposed to a multi-user operating
    system, are usable by a single user at a time.
•   Being able to have multiple accounts on a Windows operating system does
    not make it a multi-user system. Rather, only the network administrator is
    the real user, but for a Unix-like operating system, it is possible for two
    users to login at a time and this capability of the OS makes it a multi-user
    operating system.
    Multi-tasking v/s Single-tasking OS
•   When a single program is allowed to run at a time, the system is grouped
    under a single-tasking system, while in case the operating system allows
    the execution of multiple tasks at one time, it is classified as a multi-
    tasking operating system.
•   Multi-tasking can be of two types namely, pre-emptive or co-operative. In
    pre-emptive multitasking, the operating system slices the CPU time and
    dedicates one slot to each of the programs.
•   Unix-like operating systems such as Solaris and Linux support pre-emptive
    multitasking. Cooperative multitasking is achieved by relying on each
    process to give time to the other processes in a defined manner. MS
    Windows prior to Windows 95 used to support cooperative multitasking.
                     Microsoft Windows
•   Microsoft Windows is a family of proprietary operating systems designed by Microsoft
    Corporation and primarily targeted to Intel architecture based computers, with an estimated
    88.9 percent total usage share on Web connected computers. Currently, the most widely
    used version of the Windows family is Windows XP released on October 25, 2001. The
    newest version is Windows 7 for workstations and Windows Server 2008 R2 for servers.
•   Microsoft Windows originated in 1985 as an application running on top of MS-DOS, which
    was the standard operating system shipped on most Intel architecture personal computers at
    the time. In 1995, Windows 95 was released, combining MS-DOS 7.0 with Windows on the
    same medium, removing the need of getting a separate MS-DOS license. Keeping much
    legacy, it could run real-mode MS-DOS and 16 bits Windows 3.x drivers. Windows Me,
    released in 2000, was the latest version of Windows of the Windows 95 family. Later versions
    have all been based on the Windows NT kernel. Current versions of Windows run on IA-32
    and x86-64 microprocessors, although Windows 8 will support ARM architecture. In the past,
    Windows NT supported a few non-Intel architectures.
•   Server editions of Windows are widely used. In recent years, Microsoft has expended
    significant capital in an effort to promote the use of Windows as a server operating
    environment. However, Windows' usage on servers is not as widespread as on personal
    computers, as Windows competes against Linux and BSD for market share
        Using Microsoft Windows
•   Start Menu
•   Taskbar
•   Desktop
•   Control Panel
•   Program shortcuts
•   Run
•   Search option
•   My computer and its components
•   Network and its components
             Using other OSs
• Apple Mac
• Linux
• Various Servers
                          DOS
• basic DOS commands
  –   creating directory
  –   copying
  –   creating files
  –   backup
  –   restore
  –   autoexec.bat file
  –   config.sys file,
  –   internal and external commands for file and directory
      management