operating system

operating system (OS) The low-level software which handles

the interface to peripheral hardware, schedules tasks,

allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the

user when no application program is running.

The OS may be split into a kernel which is always present

and various system programs which use facilities provided by

the kernel to perform higher-level house-keeping tasks,

often acting as servers in a client-server relationship.

Some would include a graphical user interface and windowsystem as part of the OS, others would not. The operatingsystem loader, BIOS, or other firmware required at boottime or when installing the operating system would generally

not be considered part of the operating system, though this

distinction is unclear in the case of a rommable operatingsystem such as RISC OS.

The facilities an operating system provides and its general

design philosophy exert an extremely strong influence on

programming style and on the technical cultures that grow up

around the machines on which it runs.

Example operating systems include 386BSD, AIX, AOS,

Amoeba, Angel, Artemis microkernel, BeOS, Brazil,

COS, CP/M, CTSS, Chorus, DACNOS, DOSEXEC 2,

GCOS, GEORGE 3, GEOS, ITS, KAOS, Linux, LynxOS,

MPV, MS-DOS, MVS, Mach, Macintosh operating system,

Microsoft Windows, MINIX, Multics, Multipop-68,

Novell NetWare, OS-9, OS/2, Pick, Plan 9, QNX,

RISC OS, STING, System V, System/360, TOPS-10,

TOPS-20, TRUSIX, TWENEX, TYMCOM-X, Thoth, Unix,

VM/CMS, VMS, VRTX, VSTa, VxWorks, WAITS.

FAQ.

Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.os.research.

[Jargon File]

(1999-06-09)