Operating system

In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. Additionally, it provides a foundation upon which to run application software such as word processing programs and web browsers.

Other operating systems

Mainframe operating systems, such as IBM's z/OS, and embedded operating systems such as QNX, eCos, and PalmOS, are usually unrelated to Unix and Windows, except Windows CE, Windows NT Embedded 4.0 and Windows XP Embedded which are related to Windows and several *BSDs and Linux distributions tailored for the requirements of an embedded system.

Related Topics:
IBM - Z/OS - Embedded - QNX - ECos - PalmOS - Windows CE - Windows NT Embedded 4.0 - Windows XP Embedded - BSD - Linux - Embedded

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Older operating systems which are still used in niche markets include the Windows-like OS/2 from IBM; VMS from Hewlett-Packard (formerly DEC); Mac OS, the non-Unix precursor to Apple's Mac OS X; RISC OS, which is specifically designed to run on ARM processor architectures; and AmigaOS, the first graphical user interface (GUI) based operating system with advanced multimedia capabilities available to the general public.

Related Topics:
OS/2 - VMS - Hewlett-Packard - DEC - Mac OS - RISC OS - ARM - AmigaOS - Graphical user interface

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Research and development of new kinds of operating systems is an active subfield of computer science.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Examples of operating systems

• Mac OS
• Microsoft Windows
• MS-DOS (and its fore-runner CP/M)
• Unix (including BSD and its derivatives, and "unix-like" OSes such as Linux and GNU)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For more examples, see the list of operating systems.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~