An
operating system (OS) is the software component of a
computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer. The operating system acts as a host for application programs that are run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating system is to handle the details of the operation of the
hardware. This relieves application programs from having to manage these details and makes it easier to write applications. Almost all computers, including hand-held computers, desktop computers, supercomputers, and even modern video game consoles, use an operating system of some type.
Article ID: 20, Created On: 6/16/2008, Modified: 11/1/2013