Sunday, 8 September 2013

SCL 3 : OPERATING SYSTEM AND FILE MANAGEMENT

Question 1 : List down all the operating system used in a desktop/laptop today and find good descriptions of how operating system works? Hence, state their advantages and disadvantages.

These are some of the operating system used in desktops/laptops :

  • Microsoft Windows
    • Advantages
      • easy to use
      • Many selection of software available
      • Compatible with (supports) new hardware
      • Compatible with MS driven websites
    • Disadvantages
      • high resource requirements
      • low security protection
      • has closed source
      • additional expenses
      • has to deal with many license agreements
  • Mac OS
    • Advantages
      • highly protected from viruses
      • high performance at high speed
      • user-friendly
    • Disadvantages
      • expensive
      • less hardware choices
      • less compatibility with softwares
  • UNIX 
    • Advantages
      • efficient virtual memory
      • can multitask with protected memory
      • available on wide variety of machines
    • Disadvantages
      • not user-friendly
      • commands has to be detail
      • user has to understand main features to use UNIX
  • Linux
    • Advantages
      • Easy to install
      • System rarely crash (stable)
      • Less vulnerable to computer malware
    • Disadvantages
      • most Windows program cannot run in Linux
      • smaller selection of peripheral hardware drivers
      • less user-friendly (especially to newbies)

An operating system works in the middle of software and hardware. The instruction or command given by a user through a software is passed to the operating system. The operating system allocates memory from the RAM and gives that instruction to the CPU for executing it. In a computer, programs are divided into high, medium and low priority. The instructions are executed according to these priorities. In example, in Microsoft Windows operating system, Task Manager is given a high priority and that is why it opens even when explorer is crashed.


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