System Software: Operating System (OS) and It’s Functions

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Computer Operating Systems (OS) were originally developed to handle & control one of the most complex input/output operations: communication with a variety of disk drives. This is evidenced by the names given to early operating systems, which can often contain the acronym DOS, for disk operating system.

Without an operating system in computer, such as Windows or Linux each programmer would have to invent the way a program displays text or graphics onscreen, how it sends data to the attached printer, how it reads & writes disk files, and how it implements other functions. An Operating System (OS) is more than a way to make life easier for programmers & users.

An Operating system (OS) creates a common platform for all the software you are using. Without an operating system, you not be able to save files created by two different programs to the same disk drive because each might have its own storage format. An Operating System (OS) also gives you a lot of tool for all the tasks you want to perform outside an application program just like deleting and copying files to disk drive and so many tasks.

The computer Operating System (OS) doesn’t work alone. It depends not only on the cooperation of other application & programs, but also on meshing smoothly with the BIOS and software drivers. The BIOS (basic input/output system) is made of code contained on chips in a motherboard of PC. It acts as an intermediary among the hardware, processor, and operating systems. System Drivers translate commands from the operating system and the BIOS into instructions for a hardware, such as a printer, scanner, or DVD-ROM drive. When some parts of the Operating System (OS) are loaded from the disk, they are added to the BIOS (basic input/output system) and then joined by device drivers, and all of them carry out routine hardware functions.