It just blows my mind every time I think about it. Side comment: Do you ever stop and think about the work of a programmer back in those days? Programs were written in punch cards! =O There was no layer of abstraction between the running program and the actual hardware. If you wanted to execute the same program on a different computer model, programmers would need to write the whole program again because the hardware was configured in a different way. That means a program could run on one and only one computer model. In the old days (1940's-50's) programs were written to run on specific machines. Nowadays any given program can worry only about executing its core features and leave all basic system functionalities to the OS. OSs were created to simplify the use of computers. It will manage crucial basic tasks such as file management, memory management, process management, input-output management, and controlling peripheral devices. You can think about an OS as an 'intermediary' program that stands between your computer and all other programs you run on it.

'An operating system (OS) is software system that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs'. Windows vs Mac vs Linux – OS ComparisonĪDVERTISEMENT What is an Operating System?.Without further ado, let's go! Table of Contents I'll also provide a lot of additional articles/videos you can take a look at in case you'd like to dive into a particular subject. So keep in mind some of the things I mention here will be based on my own experience and analysis of the topic. I'm going to share facts as well as my personal opinions about this subject. This will give you a better idea of how they work and which one to choose. The idea here is to explore their history, how and by whom they were developed, their business models, and their pros and cons.

Then, we'll review the main features and differences of the most popular operating systems (Windows, Mac, and GNU/Linux). Hi everyone! In this handbook I'm going to give a brief introduction to operating systems and compare the three main OSs that are out there nowadays.įirst we're going to review what an OS is and little history about them.

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