【My Study Note】Components of an Operating System
Components of an Operating System
What is OS?
An operating system is a whole package that manages the resources of our computer and lets us interact with it. Also, when we say operating system, we’re talking about 2 main parts of an OS.
Two main parts of an OS
Common OS
Kernel Space
The kernel is the central core of an operating system. It talks directly to our hardware and manages our systems resources.
Functions
File Manager
The kernel does file storage in file management. A file system is how we manage these files, and we use a system to store our files. We don’t just put all our files in one cabinet, that would be seriously messy.
Instead, we organize those files in folders or directories to make them easier to find. Also, just note that there are lots of different types of file systems.
Process Manager
We have many programs that we want to run on our system. To run them, we manage the order they run, how many resources they take up, how long they run, etc. Our kernel helps us do this with its process management capabilities.
For example, you’ve probably used your computer to do several tasks at once. Maybe you write in a text document while listening to music or playing a video. The process scheduler is part of the kernel that makes this multitasking possible.
It switches the execution of each different process on the CPU faster than you can blink, and it gives you the illusion that things are happening simultaneously.
Memory Manager
Our kernel optimizes memory usage and makes sure our applications have enough memory to run.
I/O Manager
This is how our kernel talks to external devices like disks, keyboards, networks, connections, audio devices, and more. I/O management is anything that can give us input or that we can use for the output of data.
User Space
As users, we don’t interact with the kernel directly. Instead, we interact with user space. The user space is basically made up of everything outside the kernel.
These are the things that we interact with directly like programs, such as text editors, music players, system settings, user interfaces, etcetera.
Windows OS
The Windows OS is developed by Microsoft and used widely in the business and consumer space.
Most PCs you buy come with windows as the default operating system. PC means a personal computer, which technically means a computer that one person uses. But today’s PC is more commonly referred to as a Windows computer.
Mac OS
The Mac OS by Apple is mainly used in the consumer space. If you buy an Apple computer, it’ll come with Mac OS preloaded.
Linux OS
Linux is an open source operating system, which means its software is free to share, modify, and distribute. Linux is used heavily in business infrastructure and in the consumer space. Linux itself is actually a kernel developed by Linus Torvalds. Because of the way it evolved, we call the Linux kernel the Linux operating system.
Today, Linux has become a huge community effort with developers all over the world contributing to its success. Because Linux is open source, lots of different organizations package their own version of it. Operating systems like Windows or Macintosh on the other hand, are solely developed by their respective companies.
We call these different Linux OSes distributions. Some common Linux distributions are Ubuntu, Debian, and Red Hat.