Five Major Responsibilities for any OS

By Raul Bernardino

Introduction:

An operating system is a group of computer programs that coordinates all the activities among computer hardware devices. It is the first program loaded into the computer by a boot program and remains in memory at all times.  The operating system is a vital component of the system software in a computer system. Application programs usually require an operating system to function.  The three major OS responsibility are:

Boot a computer:  It is responsible to process the start or the restart the computer machine.

Device Management:  The management of devices is to control all peripheral devices which are plugged in the computer system and operating by giving them instructions into its own proper-language or interface. The soft application which knows how to operate each of the interfaces that is attached and integrated in the personal computer machine calls driver. The OS requires drivers for each of devices that are plugged into the computer machine.

Any new peripheral devices that are going to add or to plug, these devices drivers are required to install into the operating system in order to operate normally.  In other word, without soft application/drives, the operating system itself cannot communicate or operate the peripheral devices.  

The management of device is an essential part of operating system, because it is organizing all system devices on computer machine.

Provide user Interface: This can be a command lines or graphical user interface (GUI)

Job Management:  Any executing of the program in the computer system calls Job. The job management controls every orders and locking the time for each of programs to run. To simplifying in the operating system, it will begin with a program setup as a transition between the jobs. It can be a collection of the job in on a single batch without an interaction with the user. The batch processing systems, reads base on the First In First Out (FIFO). FIFO will be executing job in the queuing line.  

Far before today sophisticate OS, the IBM's job control language had developed in a decades. In a personal computer situation, batch file can be written to perform a sequence of jobs that can be scheduled to start at a given time. It’s also an essential part of operating system, simply because organize all application and program that are running on the system and it is including orders from user to execute.

Data Management: The management of the Data or file keeps track and retrieve of the information on the hard-disk, in the memory, and on the optical-storage devices. These files can be distinct by names or been grouped in the folders. The OS's file system knows where those data are located or stored physically on sectors of magnetic - disk and interact among soft - application and OS are through programming interface.  

This is a very good example of shells and kernel in the operating system. In Window very much use Graphic User Interface (GUI) to interact with user and Application Program Interface to interact with kernel.

No	OS Category	Criteria	Supported	Windows XP	Windows 7
1	Input / Output	To organize, execute devices and drivers and including files	Microsoft	Intel Pentium III 600 MHz or higher processor 256 MB of RAM 15 GB hard drive SVGA display adapter and Plug and Play monitor Keyboard, mouse, or other pointing device CD-ROM 12x of faster Network adapter	Architecture:   32 bit      64 bit Processor     :  1 GHz    1 GHz Memory      :   1 GB      2 GB Graphic       :  Directx9 HDD use     :     16 GB   20 GB Optical        :       DVD media
2	Program Execution	Execute  and  terminate program and loaded to memory	Microsoft	Office 2007	Office 2007
3	Error Detection	Detect error, from keyboard, printers, while processing request from user	Microsoft	yes	yes
4	Resource Allocation	Manage the available recourses	Microsoft	yes	yes
5	File Management	Hierarchical Filing Systems – NTFS,  FAT32,  FAT,  Ext2 Metadata – Permissions, Size, Location, Attributes including Read, write, modify, rename, or even delete	Microsoft	Windows Explorer, Hard to search	Powerful Searching engine, easy to view and organize
6	Accounting	Setup profile for each users	Microsoft	One user  per log in	Multiple users log in at once
7	Security	Authentication, firewall, etc	Microsoft	Weak	Strong including Bit locker

Reference List:

• Basic functions of an operating system [On-line]. Available from: http://hsc.csu.edu.au/info_tech/compulsory/os/4014/basic_functions.htm  (Accessed: 20 February 2013)
• List 5 major functions of a operating system [On-line]. Available from: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/List_5_major_functions_of_a_operating_system   (Accessed: 20 February 2013)
•  FUNCTION OF OPERATING SYSTEM [On-line]. Available from: http://www.blurtit.com/q938183.html    (Accessed: 20 February 2013)
• J. Glenn Brookshear, (2009) Computer science: An Overview and Operating System. 10^th Edition, Boston: Pearson Addison Wesley, Ch 3, Sec 3.1-3.2, P.140-149