Ms technology vocabulary operating system
Elliot Cheung
January 2009
Computer 7-3
What an Operating System is
An operating system, abbreviated as o/s or OS, is a software that all computers must have. The operating system manages file locations on the computer, runs the interface for the user, is the environment in which a program runs in, mediates between hardware and software, and also manages the hardware. Some examples of an operating system would be the Windows operating systems, the Macintosh operating systems, or Lynx operating system, which are programmed into the computer.
What the o/s Does
When a user performs an operation with an application, the application interacts with the OS which translates the operation into binary code for the hardware to perform. The user can also interact directly with the OS through the Graphical User Interface(GUI) or other user interface, such as the command prompt. The OS helps writing programs easier, because the OS translates the user's language into binary code for the hardware, and also translates any binary code from the hardware into the user's language so that people can read it easily.
