important characteristic of an operating system
Answers
Here is a list commonly found important features of an Operating System:
Protected and supervisor mode.Allows disk access and file systems Device drivers Networking Security.Program Execution.Memory management Virtual Memory Multitasking.Handling I/O operations.
Operating System (OS) is one of the core software programs that runs on the hardware and makes it usable for the user to interact with the hardware so that they can send commands (input) and receive results (output). It provides a consistent environment for other software to execute commands. So we can say that the OS acts at the center through which the system hardware, other software, and the user communicate. The following figure shows the basic working of the operating system and how it utilizes different hardware or resources.
Basic Functions of the Operating system
1.Interface between the user and the hardware : An OS provides an interface between user and machine. This interface can be a graphical user interface (GUI) in which users click onscreen elements to interact with the OS or a command-line interface (CLI) in which users type commands at the command-line interface (CLI) to tell the OS to do things.
2.Coordinate hardware components :An OS enables coordination of hardware components. Each hardware device speaks a different language, but the operating system can talk to them through the specific transnational software's called device drivers. Every hardware component has different drivers for Operating systems. These drivers make the communication successful between the other software's and the hardware.
3. Provide environment for software to function: An OS provides an environment for software applications to function. An application software is a specific software which is used to perform specific task. In GUI operating systems such as Windows and macOS, applications run within a consistent, graphical desktop environment.
4. Provide structure for data management : An OS displays structure/directories for data management. We can view file and folder listings and manipulate on those files and folders like (move, copy, rename, delete, and many others).
5. Monitor system health and functionality: OS monitors the health of our system’s hardware, giving us an idea of how well (or not) it’s performing. We can see how busy our CPU is, or how quickly our hard drives retrieve data, or how much data our network card is sending etc. and it also monitors system activity for malware.