What is an operating system? What is its purpose?

In today’s world, almost all devices, from televisions to phones, from appliances to electronic home products, have become “smart.” These devices require software, known as an operating system, to function. So, what is an operating system? In this article, we will answer questions such as what an operating system does based on computers, and what are the types of operating systems?

What is an operating system?

With the advancement of technology, electronic devices that have entered our lives can now be managed through specific software. In the 1940s, electronic devices developed did not have any operating systems. Manchester Mark 1, developed by Alan Turing in 1949, is considered the first device with an operating system.

Approximately seven years later, GM-NAA I/O was developed for the IBM 704, marking the first specific operating system in history. IBM, in collaboration with General Motors, introduced its operating system written in Assembly language for public use.

In 1960, the foundations of Unix, which is the basis of today’s operating systems, were laid at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Dennis Ritchie rewrote the operating system using the C language, which was released in 1970. Today, operating systems such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Minix, Sun Solaris, and macOS still utilize the Unix infrastructure.

Microsoft released the first operating system with a graphical user interface (GUI), Windows 1.0, in 1985. Later, Linus Torvalds developed the Linux kernel in 1991, laying the foundation for modern Linux-based operating systems.

The layer that transfers the operations and applications performed by users to the hardware is called the operating system. Computers, tablets, mobile phones, modems, web servers, and many smart devices operate using an operating system.

What is the purpose?

The operating system is responsible for facilitating communication between hardware and applications. In addition to well-known operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, Pardus, Android, and iOS, there are also operating systems used in embedded systems, such as FreeRTOS and VxWorks.

Operating systems allocate system resources for multiple operations, enabling users’ requests to be fulfilled faster and more securely. GNU/Linux-based operating systems, especially preferred in embedded systems, ensure the smoothest and most efficient operation of devices with very low hardware specifications.

Types of operating systems

It is possible to categorize operating systems into three main types: Unix, GNU/Linux, and Microsoft Windows. The Unix project underwent significant changes in 1978 and started developing in two different branches with its 7th version.

The team at the University of California, Berkeley, made approximately 90% changes to the Unix source code and developed the BSD system. The version called System V was commercially licensed by Bell Laboratories. Operating systems such as HP-UX (HP), IRIX (SGI), SCO UNIXware, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and macOS are Unix-based.

The concept of GNU/Linux is the combination of GNU, developed by Richard Stallman in 1983, and the Linux kernel designed and coded by Linus Torvalds in 1991. GNU/Linux is considered open source and free.

Despite being open source and free, GNU/Linux is preferred by a relatively small number of users as a desktop operating system. However, GNU/Linux has millions of users in areas such as servers and embedded systems. Operating systems like Pardus, Kali Linux, Ubuntu, Arch, and Fedora use the GNU/Linux kernel. Additionally, the Android operating system is also based on GNU/Linux.

Windows operating system, developed by Microsoft in 1985, first appeared with the Windows 1.0 version. Microsoft subsequently released Windows 2.0 (1987), Windows 3.0 (1990), Windows 95 (1995), Windows 98 (1998), Windows Me (2000), Windows XP (2001), Windows Vista (2007), Windows 7 (2009), Windows 8 (2012), Windows 8.1 (2014), and finally, the actively updated Windows 10 (2015) operating systems.

We have answered the question ‘What is an operating system? What is its purpose?’. Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments.