Your Computer Operating System

Most new pcs that are sold today have an operating system put in. But what the majority of new computer users do not realize, is that without an operating system, that computer would be a simple shell, useless for the most part. A pc missing a operating system would not display anything more than a bunch of perplexing text messages that describe the pc's boot process.

Earlier computers didn't have an operating system and if you have experience with the computers of the early eighties, you may remember that the majority of of them did not even have a hard drive. These old pcs booted an MS-DOS type operating system from drivers saved onto a floppy disk. To make matters worse, in order to run programs, you needed to remove the boot floppy and then insert a new floppy that contained the software application. The floppy not only stored the application such as a (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.), it also stored the drivers that the program required to connect with the pc's hardware. As you are able imagine, the awkward process of switching from floppy to floppy prompted the birth of the OS.

An operating system is, for the most part, a software program that controls how the pc's hardware and software works. It manages the activity of every element and then displays that activity as a user-friendly interface known as a Graphical User Interface(GUI). It keeps track of where things exist on a computer's hard drive as well. But perhaps the most importantly for the end-user, the operating system is accountable for translating commands issued with a keyboard,mouse or any other user input device and translate it into computer language known as binary code (010110101 stuff) that can communicate with a set of speakers, a printer, a scanner and so on.

With an operating system put in onto a pc's hard disk, users no longer have to boot a computer together with a floppy disk, nor do they have to run programs from a floppy disk. All of the drivers of a program are saved onto the computer and used whenever a application is started.

Apple's Macintosh computer was among the first of a couple systems to establish a user-to-hardware connection through a user-friendly interface. Nowadays, we| have quite a few operating systems available, many of them free. A number of the more well-liked ones are Windows Vista, Mac OS X, IBM, Unix, Linux among others. But even still, operating systems have extended onto to non-computer devices such as game consoles, portable music players, and PDAs. Regardless of the device, the OS installed onto it serves the identical reason across the board, to enable user-to-hardware interaction.

Nowadays, you don't often need to concern yourself with how Computer Operating Systems work, because for the most part, they have become very hands off. That said, it is always a excellent initiative to get familiar with your OS, so that if something were to go wrong, you will be better proficient at resolving your computer Operating System Issues. Once you have familiarized yourself with this cool technology, you'll see that it is easier to fix your own PC issues, and therefore save money.