Operating System is an interface between Humans and computer Hardware. It performs different tasks like managing resources, file systems, services, etc.
What is an Operating System?
An Operating system is a collection of programs that allows the interface between different components of the computer from hardware to other third-party software. Whenever you use a computer it means you are interacting with the operating system in order to get the required information from the hardware and other resources. It breaks the gap between hardware and user. Every PC or laptop or even Phone you use needs to have at least one operating system from windows to mac and Android to Linux. There is a wide variety of them.
Basically, the Operating system consists of all the codes and programs which are executed from the starting of the computer. When a computer starts it needs to boot. Booting is the process of starting a computer. At this point, there is a running process in that main memory. So some software must be loaded into it. Main Memory or the RAM is another important hardware of the computer. Only the processes in the main memory can be executed others before execution needs to be loaded into the main memory. In the same way, the Operating system also needs to be loaded in the Main memory so it can take care of the rest of the process.
Note: The first program executed as soon as a computer or device is switched on is called a Bootstrap Program. The Entire operating system is loaded into the memory by the bootstrap program Bootstrap program doesn't require any input are instruction to start it automatically starts as the Computer turns on.
What is the Need for Operating System
As today computers and devices solve problems at a tremendous speed and accuracy we should also remember that they are still dumb. They need to be told something in order to do something. This gap is filled by writing program codes so the computer executes the codes and understands what it needs to do and what are its task. They are so dumb that They don't even know how to load a program into main memory Which is done by another code called bootstrap.
So to solve this there needs to some supervisor which monitors the proper working of the hardware efficiently. The operating system Gives instructions to the hardware to perform necessary tasks for the user.
As a higher level of abstraction Operating system takes information from the user and gives it to the required hardware and tells it what it needs to perform. That's why it's called an interface between user and hardware. It performs various operations like Memory Management, Resources Allocation, File system management, Device Management, Security to data, Input-Output interactions with the users and devices.
The Components of an Operating System
In order to the proper functioning of the Operating system, there needs to be some coordination between the different components of it. It performs various operations and tasks so there needs to be different components and functionalities of it. Some of the important Components are
Kernel
A Kernel is the most important component of the operating system. It is a core component. There are many misunderstandings of the kernel lets actually see what is kernel and what are its functionalities.
The kernel is the first program of the operating system which is loaded in the main memory. It is the Interface between hardware and the Operating system. The kernel has full control of the Operating system. It provides control over the hardware and peripherals. The program which needs to be executed with more rights is needed to be loaded into the kernel because the kernel has the highest permissions. The kernel performs tasks or requests in the form of system calls. As long as the Computer runs kernel needs to be maintained in the main memory
System calls are nothing codes written in order to perform particular tasks like printing some value on the I/O devices or Managing files etc. System calls provide support to the kernel in order to interact with the hardware and use its resources. As we have read Kernel has the highest permission so it needs to be protected from other programs because if someone gets control of the kernel he actually gets control over the entire device. So the kernel needs to be isolated and protected from other programs of the operating system.
API's and Device Drivers
Every Hardware or Device has it own set of codes and every device operates in its own way. Suppose the device program is written in python and the Operating system works in some other language. Or if there is some communication problem between the components and it cannot properly communicate with the device it might be a serious issue. This problem is solved by apis and Device drivers.
API's or Application Program Interface is software which acts like a translator which allows the different application to talk to each other. And every time we plug in a new device to the computer how can it recognize the device. This is done by Drivers. Every component has its own driver Driver tells the information about the devices and acts as an interface between the device and operating system. Drivers need to be updated regularly. When a program wants some information from the hardware it calls the required driver then the driver interacts with the hardware and gets the required information in the form of calls, etc then it returns it to the operating system.
File system
File System how the operating system manages the data and how to retrieve it efficiently. If there is no proper file system data has no proper placement and performing operations on it will be hard. If there are large amount of data there needs to be some mechanism to store it properly so we can retrieve it fast.
The file system stores the data in the hardware such as HDD SSD etc. And also there are different types of data and every information needs to be stored differently not only data but also the other information related to it also needs to be stored such as the file description, file name, file permissions, and other related information that needs to be also stored.
Some used file systems are File Allocation Table (FAT) or New Technology File System (NTFS) .
Security To Resources and Data
Security is another concerned topic which needs to be managed properly or else there will be some serious issues. As there is an enormous of information stored in the device there needs to be some proper protection to it so other users cant able to access the unauthorized data. Not only information but also resources are nowadays needed to be protected so others cannot access your resource like switching on the webcam or mic etc.
The operating system needs to provide the resources only to the authorized users and others need to be limited resources. And it also needs to monitor the activities which are done on the system and identify anonymous or illegal activities. As we talked about earlier kernel needs to be protected and it's our highest level of security because once the kernel gets exploited the system might go into the wrong hands. The operating system must have proper security and privacy mechanisms for its resources both online and offline. Such as Firewalls Virus protection, Anti Spyware protection, Malware protection. It also needs to save information from getting lost or corrupted. Nowadays all of the operating systems comes preinstalled with security software such as Anti Virus software, Firewall Protection, etc.
Don't forget to comment about the article in the comment section.