4.Operating System In Computer(Level-1)

The best way to learn anything is to learn by doing. Do you think you can learn riding a bicycle without touching the bicycle? The answer is plain No. Can you learn cooking by just reading recipes book but without going into the kitchen and making dishes with uncooked ingredients, over-salty, over-spicy, fickle or same applies in computer also. The best way to learn the concepts of computer science including programming is by operating a computer. However, I don’t say that you should stop learning if you don’t have a computer. You will still learn things provided you don’t lose your enthusiasm and common sense.

When you open a computer, the first software which runs on your computer is Operating System (OS). So yes, it is a software & not hardware. As we are progressing through the course, we will slowly move from basic to advanced. You will keep on getting introduced to new terminologies and concepts.

So yes, Windows is an Operating System. Most of the computers in the world, especially those users who don’t belong to computer industry, have one or other flavour (version) of Windows installed on their computers. This is a marvellous thing that Windowswhich is a product of Microsoft Corporation which was founded by one of the revolutionary person in IT industry and became the most popular Operating System among the common masses. We saw in the previous chapters that machine language and assembly language is too difficult to understand by common masses. I’ll give the credit to Windows (MS) to provide such a beautiful interface between us and computer that interacting with computer & getting things done was never so easy & convenient. The user did not have to remember commands. All the tasks to be ordered was available at the click of a button.

Having said that, Windows is not the only operating system in the world. Apple computers have macOS installed. Linux is another open source OS which is widely used in graduate school & top-notch IT companies for their software development. Android is also an operating system which is installed on smartphones nowadays. Remember the time of 2000s when Nokia mobiles were ruling many markets. They had Symbian Operating System installed.

Enough introduction of OS! Now, we should discuss why OS is required?

★ In 2000s, I was reading a magazine when I saw an ad of Windows. There was a dustbin on the place of CPU. Monitor, keyboard were as it is. The tagline was — “Your computer is dustbin without an Windows Operating System.”

Think & a comment your answer. ★

ANALOGY 4.1 — Suppose you are working in an MNC & you are transferred to a small town in China where people know only Mandarin. You have to shift with your family & stay there. You know only English.

• Your family needs vegetables. You go to vegetable market. You find hard time buying vegetables because of language barrier.
• Your family needs dress. You go to clothes market. You find hard time buying clothes because of language barrier.

But what if you come to know there is a supermarket in your locality where it is all self-service where you go & see the things before you add into your basket. All the staff over there know English so you can communicate with them regarding any doubts on any product. You get all the items whether groceries, fruits & vegetables,appples & anything under a single roof. You need not to bother about getting into different markets to gather your essentials. Supermarket staff are local & they have good communication with local suppliers.

Doesn’t this supermarket make your life easier than in that small town of China? Yes it does. This supermarket is equivalent to Operating System.

The machine language is really difficult to understand for a common man/person. We cannot will not be able to give instruction to computer to do our task. There is a lot of coordination & communication required among different parts in the computer that we have read so far i.e. CPU, primary memory, secondary memory, o/p devices, i/p devices etc. CPU is not smart. It can work fast but it is not smart. We have to give each & every instruction to CPU for all the above coordination & communication. Operating system is packed with all those instructions that should be given to CPU for coordination & communication of all hardware devices & software (includes all the software including compilers/interpreters & the program we write).

The program we are going to write in upcoming chapters we will write within Operating System. In fact everything we will do will be done within Operating System.

In fact the first thing OS does is to authenticate the user. You switch on your computer & the first thing your OS asks is to enter your Username & password. Once successfully authenticated then only you will be able to access other features of O/S.

So now our diagram of understanding looks like this —

operating system is also a software mostly developed high level language like c or assembly language. The program we are going to write will be written within o/s. we can enlarge this component like this

To have clear understanding of programming, knowledge of OS is must. Here, we have provided a basic understanding of OS. We are expecting to cover more advanced concepts of OS. First gain mastery at this level.

Application Software — are the software which are used by user directly to meet his demand or fulfill his tasks. It can be pre-installed by the company who sold OS to you or you install it later at any point of time.
Eg: MS Paint is one software shipped by Microsoft with Windows. You install Camtasia Studio in your computer after purchasing it. Both are application software.

System Software — are the software other than application software which are essential to run the computer properly. Compilers, interpreters & other internal files are system software.

In short:
OS is a software which is responsible for coordination & communication among various hardware & software components in the computer.

OS can be said to be comprised of application software & system software.

We will write our program within OS environment. Environment is the state of computer when OS is running.