An operating system is a program that controls the execution of application programs which are normal programs such as word processing, database programs, drawing, paint, and image editing programs. The operating system, or you can called it “OS” for short, acts as an interface between applications and the computer hardware. Also, the operating system makes a computer more convenience to use for users. An example is when you run many programs at the same time, the operating system will manage which program should be executed first, which should be next and finish all of those for you. Besides, to give you a clearer understanding, I would like to introduce you three interesting examples of the operating system which are Windows, Mac OS and Linux.
Windows is a major example of the microcomputer, which are small computers including PC and operating system. Windows is intended to support multitasking of a single interactive user on personal computers. For instance, you can use a word processing, a drawing program and a spreadsheet (excel) at the same time to produce a document. Without multitasking, if you want to create a drawing and paste it into the word processing document, so what you have to do first is open the drawing program, and then create the drawing and save it in a file. After that you have to close the drawing program and open the word processing program. Finally, insert the drawing in the location that you want. The point is that if any changes are desired, you must close the word processing program first and reopen the drawing program, edit the image, save it and close the drawing program, after closing the drawing program you then reopen the word processing program again, and insert the updated image. This single-task becomes time consuming, tedious and unfriendly. Whereas, with multitasking that Windows provided, you can open as many applications as you needed and leave them open. Information can be moved around among number of applications easily like if you want to make any changes in the drawing program, it is not necessary to close the word processing first which means you can open both and many more programs at the same time. As you can see, with the feature of multitasking from Windows, it is much easier for users to perform their work.
Mac OS is another interesting example of the operating system. Recently, Mac OS becomes more and more popular. Moreover, most people switch from Windows to Mac OS for many reasons. One of the reasons is that Mac OS has less problem of virus invasion than those of Windows. One illustration of this idea is that less than 30 percent of Mac OS users claim about the attacking of virus compared to more than 60 percent Windows users encountering virus infecting, that is because Mac OS is still new and still not yet widespread, so most viruses then design mainly to attack Windows. In the same way as other operating system, Mac OS provides users many versions such as Mac OS 7.6, Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X and many others. In addition Mac OS provides users a very wonderful user interface with some tactics. Let’s take a few examples, one is that you can display as many windows as you want on your desktop screen, by just pressing F9 all of the opening windows will be shown as a separate window for you to click on. Another one is that you can change a shortcut icon such as my computer, recycle bin and many more into your own favorite icon, also you can highlight the names of the files to be the color that you wanted or make them easier to recognize, for instance, you may highlight all names of your word files with blue color to separate them from your power point files. Accordingly, Mac OS has many attractive features coupled with great ability to perform work. That’s why more and more people prefer it.
The last example of the operating system that I would like to share you is Linux. Linux is known as an open-source software which means a software created and updated by programmers around the world, yet more appealing point is that it is available for free. A case in point is that if you want to try Linux and want to install it on your computer, you can just go to the website such as www.thaiopenlinux.com, www.softpedia.com, www.linux.com and so on, then choose a version that you are interested in to download for free by not having to pay for anything including license. In fact, Linux provides users plenty of versions, examples of them are Red Hat, Ubantu, Linux Mint, eyeOS and many more. Likewise, Linux is such a flexible operating system which allows users to adjust source code themselves very easily. As for this case, if you do not prefer the style of the given desktop, you can write code yourself to adjust and make your own style. How cool it is!!! Indeed, in the United States, the research show that now more than 85 percent of the companies use Linux operating system due to its robustness and affordability.
In summary, the operating system plays an important role in the computer world, it acts as a helper to help users arrange and deal with the resources and activities of the computer. Furthermore, with operating system, users can perform their work better and more efficiently. Furthermore, from those previous three examples, all of them are provided to help users on managing things on their computer although their features or designs are somehow different. Now it is your turn to choose which kind of operating system will you try next!!!
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