According to The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (via dictionary.com), a computer is "an electronic device that stores and manipulates information. Unlike a calculator, it is able to store a program and retrieve information from its memory. Most computers today are digital, which means they perform operations with quantities represented electronically as digits."
What is an operating system? A simple definition is "software designed to control the hardware of a specific data-processing system in order to allow users and application programs to make use of it" (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language). In other words, the operating system is what we refer to when we are talking about the entire collection of a computer's software. The OS manages communication technology, input/output, device storage, and program operation. Examples of operating systems include Leopard or Snow Leopard for Mac, Windows Vista for PCs. There are operating systems for PDA's as well. For example, many PDA's operate on Windows Mobile and Blackberry has their own operating system. An operating system allows the user to operate and access the computer's different functions.
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Apple has recently released a new operating system named Mac OS X Snow Leopard and they believe that it's the "world's most advanced operating system." However, Microsoft will soon be releasing a new operating system as well, named Windows 7. After receiving bad reviews for Windows Vista, Microsoft is hoping that Windows 7 makes a giant leap forward and can compete with Apple's new OS.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to think about how much control the OS has on the actual hardware. For example, many can recognize that the sleek and simple titanium design of the MacBook is what makes an apple computer an apple computer; however, Macs can run the windows OS on the same hardware running the Mac OS, yet would still have similar issues and features of the Windows OS running on an hp or Dell.
ReplyDeleteI've heard rumors that Windows actually runs faster on some Mac laptops than Leopard does. I'm not sure if that's a lie, but if it's true, it seems to be very counter intuitive.
ReplyDeleteGoogle is said to be releasing around 12 phones this year with their Android OS. It's an alternative option to the Windows, Blackberry, or iPhone systems. It's also open source program which is pretty awesome for anyone who likes programming
When the personal computer first was introduced, each brand had its own operating system. IBM introduced its PC some time after the market was established, and its reputation immediately made its product the leader. Bill Gates made his fortune by creating an operating system for the IBM, called DOS (disk operating system), and other manufacturers joined the bandwagon, becoming hardware only manufacturers, and over the years, IBM's dominance waned. The only successful holdout was Apple, which developed the first commercial operating system based on the GUI. Atari and Commodore followed suit, but their versions didn't last, whereas the Macintosh persisted and is still with us today, and Apple continues to produce operating systems that only work with their computers, and computers that (mostly) work with their operating systems.
ReplyDeleteI'm no programmer, but a few of my roommates are CS majors and they are big fans of the Linux operating system. does anyone know any reason for this?
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