What is Operating System? | Principles of Operating Systems
Operating System (OS)
In order to store a document on the hard disk, to print a document on printer, to execute a command, operating system is needed. Operating system objectives, functions and its need are explained in this lecture.
Operating system is defined as a collection of programs which controls and co-ordinates resources of a computer system. Resource can be a hardware or software. Resources refer to peripheral devices (such as input, output devices, memory etc). The term peripheral refer to Input/output devices.
Need of Operating System (OS)
Computer is a machine and it can do nothing without software. Software is required for functioning of computer. Operating system is an important part of a computer and any computer system we use has an OS. Without OS, computer equipment would be useless. OS supervises and manages the operations of a computer and hides all unnecessary details of hardware. It intermediates between user and computer hardware. When computer is turned ON, operating system will first load into main memory (RAM).
