What are the goals of an operating system?
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the goals of an operating system is to operate the computers
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as always, there can be very different goals…an OS for embedded systems is very different than a multi user OS on main frames.
But, in a general sense, operating systems usually try to
provide hardware abstraction of a machine
(at least if they are written for different kinds of machines).
So “applications” can run on different machines and do not need to know all the complicated parts of using the hardware. This also enables developers with no knowledge of the hardware to write “applications” that run on it.
manage resources.
Multiple “applications” usually want to use the same things (storage, devices, etc.), the operating system manages access to them.
provide common services for “applications”, infrastructure.
This is partly about reuse. A more important part is about communication among “applications” and between applications and the outside world (e.g. networking). Another big part is maintaining persistence (e.g. data storage).
There are a lot of other services. Most services are also an abstraction of some real things (e.g. network packets). Resource management and hardware abstraction are also abstracted by such services.
But, in a general sense, operating systems usually try to
provide hardware abstraction of a machine
(at least if they are written for different kinds of machines).
So “applications” can run on different machines and do not need to know all the complicated parts of using the hardware. This also enables developers with no knowledge of the hardware to write “applications” that run on it.
manage resources.
Multiple “applications” usually want to use the same things (storage, devices, etc.), the operating system manages access to them.
provide common services for “applications”, infrastructure.
This is partly about reuse. A more important part is about communication among “applications” and between applications and the outside world (e.g. networking). Another big part is maintaining persistence (e.g. data storage).
There are a lot of other services. Most services are also an abstraction of some real things (e.g. network packets). Resource management and hardware abstraction are also abstracted by such services.
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