Introduction to Operating Systems

The Operating System

The operating system (OS) is system software that manages the basic functionalities of a computer and is responsible for tasks such as process management, memory management, file system management, IO management, networking, security, and providing a user interface.

Main Functions of a Computer

There are four main functions of a computer that make user interaction possible:

Input
Processing
Memory
Output

- Input is data we give to our computers through interactions
- Processing is comprised of the translation of input and the instructions given for output
- Memory is used to store either temporary or permanent information
- Output is the information that gets returned by the computer