What is the importance of operating systems?


The operating system (OS) acts as a manager for all the I/O device, memory, CPU, file storage resources and allocates them to specific programs and users, whenever necessary to perform a particular task. Therefore, the operating system is the resource manager that means it can manage the resources of a computer system internally.

The operating systems are important and should be correctly used when writing the user applications. Large and complex systems have high economic impact and this result in interesting problems of management.

Few systems are involved in the design and implementation of OS but, nevertheless many general techniques have to be learnt and applied.

Operating systems combine concepts from many other areas of Computer Science: Architecture, Languages, Data Structures, Algorithms, etc.

So finally, we can say that an operating system is the most important software that runs on any system. It manages a computer's resources like memory, processes involved, software and hardware.

Operating systems provide an interface to communicate with the computer without learning the computer's language i.e. machine language. Basically, an operating system provides a layer between the program and hardware to enable a program to use a standard interface irrespective of what hardware is used.

Operating System does the following

An operating system provides a user interface by which we can run our applications on computer hardware. It depends on the point of view.

Users always think about convenience, ease of use and good performance and do not care about resource utilization.

OS shared computers like mainframe or minicomputer making all users happy.

OS dedicated system users such as workstations have dedicated resources but frequently use shared resources from servers.

There is little or no user interface for some computer systems, such as embedded computers in devices and automobiles.

Functions of operating system

The functions of an operating system are as follows−

  • Provide a user interface

  • Resource Management − An OS manages a computer's resources like memory, processes involved, etc very efficiently.

  • Handles I/O operations

  • Security − Operating system protects the data and resources of computer

  • Helps in coordination between software and users.

Operating System Goals

The operating system has mainly three goals which are convenience, efficiency, and capability of evolution. A more complete explanation is as follows −

  • Convenience makes computer use more comfortable.

  • We can efficiently use the resources of a computer system with the help of an operating system.

  • There is a capability of evolution, in building an operating system it is possible to make it easier to develop, test, and use new systems.

Updated on: 25-Nov-2021

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