Among the many types and categories of software at the highest level of the hierarchy are operating systems. These are large-scale and complex types of programs that act directly as a layer between the hardware of a computer or any other device and individual applications that help the user to perform specific tasks.
The operating system must take control of all the basic actions of the computer, as well as all peripheral devices. However, one cannot say that the OS exists only for PCs as such. Any complex electronic device that performs and calculates operations using a processor will need an operating system. Now there are special types of operating systems for smartphones and tablet computers, etc.
An operating system is necessary so that the user can manage all processes. This is a kind of shell that provides quick and convenient access to the basic functions of a computer or device. It acts as an environment for launching other applications and programs. Types of operating systems are divided, first of all, according to their properties and capabilities, as well as the type of device for which they are intended.
OS features
As already mentioned, any operating system takes control of the hardware of the computer or any other device, controls the memory allocation and processor performance. One of the main tasks is the input and output of information, since any computer must work with new data.
There are types of operating systems with different types of file systems, as well as methods of processing processes, interacting with other machines, using RAM. First of all, the interface is noticeable for the user himself, the popularity of a particular OS, as well as the methods implemented, depends on how convenient it is.
Do not forget that the OS itself also takes some available resources - RAM, processor power and disk space. Accordingly, the best operating system is one that has high functionality, but at the same time remains undemanding to resources.
Types of OS
There are many types of operating systems, each of which has certain features that depend on the tasks. For example, some types of operating systems are designed to work in multi-user networks, others are designed for one user and one computer (OS Windows).
In relation to the user, one can distinguish such categories as convenience, interface, ease of administration, openness, cost, capacity, etc.
Using his authority, the user can both remove the operating system and install a new one. However, it will be more difficult to do this, since additional features will need to be used. The operating system cannot delete itself.
In the current situation, we can distinguish varieties of OS for a home computer and for mobile devices. In the first case, the leader is OS Windows from Microsoft. In the second case, the situation is somewhat different, for a long time there was no specific leader, but now it is a product from Google OC Android. This is a fairly convenient operating system, with free code, and supported by a large number of content and software developers. In addition, the popularity of Apple devices is explained by the fact that the percentage of iOS is quite high. However, there are a huge number of other operating systems for computers and mobile devices that simply have not won such a high popularity or, for some reason, their development has been suspended.