Most new computers that are sold nowadays have an operating system put in. But what nearly all new pc users do not notice, is that without an operating system, that PC would be a simple shell, useless for the most part. A pc lacking an operating system would not show anything more than just a bunch of perplexing text messages that describe the computer’s boot process.

Past computers did not have an OS and if you have got experience with the computers of the early eighties, you may recall   that nearly all of them didn’t even have a hard drive. These ancient pcs booted an MS-DOS sort operating system from drivers stored 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 program such as a (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.), it also stored the drivers that the program needed 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 operating system.

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 each part 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 must 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 stored onto the pc and used whenever a application is started.

Apple’s Macintosh computer was among the first of a couple systems to institute 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 favored ones are Windows Vista, Mac OS X, IBM, Unix, Linux among others. But even still, operating systems have extended onto to non-pc devices such as game consoles, portable music players, as well as PDAs. Regardless of the device, the OS installed onto it serves the identical purpose across the board, to enable user-to-hardware interaction.

Nowadays, you don’t regularly need to worry yourself with how Computer Operating Systems function, for the reason that for the most part, they have become very hands off. That said, it is always a good idea to become familiar with your Operating System, so that if something were to go wrong, you will be better proficient at resolving your computer OS Issues.

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