Unit 2 Operating Systems P2

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P2 Explain the purpose of operating systems
Without an operating system the computer cannot function. An operating system is described as the system software that represents the essential layer between the BIOS and the applications software such as word processor, presentation, database etc. Operating system manages use of the system’s hardware and software such as time sharing and multi-tasking. It provides a consistent way for applications to interact with the hardware and for users to interact with the software and hardware.

Operating system is important because it allows the computer to serve a variety of tasks instead of just one. It allows the user to interact with the computer in a sophisticated way such as managing files. …show more content…

CLI stands for Command Line Interface and GUI stands for Graphical User Interface. CLI is the oldest version of user interface where the user type in their commands, telling the computer what to do. The most famous CLI is represented by MS-DOS. CLI requires less memory and it use a low resolution. GUI is based on WIMP (Windows, Icon, Menus and Pointer). GUI is a user friendly interface where it allows the user to resize the windows, control the mouse. They provide wide-ranging input device support. Some of the differences of CLI and GUI are as follows:

Peripheral is any device that can be added to improve the functionality of a computer. For example an input device which is used to put data into the computer such as keyboard, an output device which is used to get data from the computer such as monitor and a storage device which is used to store data into the computer such as hard disks. Windows is compatible with these peripherals. Windows handle the drivers which is used to manage the internal machine devices such as RAM and ROM. RAM stands for Random Access Memory which is known as ‘volatile memory’. When the computer switches off automatically, the RAM stores all the work that the user was using. Sometimes the RAM get full up. This is due to a lot of applications running at the same time so the RAM decides what to keep stored in memory and what to release. On the other hand, ROM stands for Read Only Memory. The computer uses ROM to ‘boot up’ the BIOS. ROM is a type of memory that maintains its data even without the power so when the computer id switched off, it will not lose its

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