What does an Operating System do, What is an Operating System Really
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What does an Operating System do?
• Silerschatz and Gavin:
“An OS is Similar to a government”
– Begs the question: does a government do anything useful by itself?
• Coordinator and Traffic Cop:
– Manages all resources
– Settles conflicting requests for resources
– Prevent errors and improper use of the computer
• Facilitator:
– Provides facilities that everyone needs
– Standard Libraries, Windowing systems
– Make application programming easier, faster, less error-prone
• Some features reflect both tasks:
– E.g. File system is needed by everyone (Facilitator)
– But File system must be Protected (Traffic Cop)
What is an Operating System,… Really?
• Most Likely:
– Memory Management
– I/O Management
– CPU Scheduling
– Communications? (Does Email belong in OS?)
– Multitasking/multiprogramming?
• What about?
– File System?
– Multimedia Support?
– User Interface?
– Internet Browser?
• Is this only interesting to Academics??