Operating System

An operating system is a software component of a computer system that is responsible for the management of various activities of the computer and the sharing of computer resources. It hosts the several applications that run on a computer and handles the operations of computer hardware. Users and application programs access the services offered by the operating systems, by means of system calls and application programming interfaces. Users interact with operating systems through Command Line Interfaces (CLIs) or Graphical User Interfaces known as GUIs. In short, operating system enables user interaction with computer systems by acting as an interface between users or application programs and the computer hardware. Here is an overview of the different types of operating systems.

 Operating system types

As computers have progressed and developed so have the types of operating systems. Below is a basic list of the different types of operating systems and a few examples of operating systems that fall into each of the categories. Many computer operating systems will fall into more than one of the below categories.

GUI - Short for Graphical User Interface, a GUI Operating System contains graphics and icons and is commonly navigated by using a computer mouse.Below are some examples of GUI Operating Systems.

MS Windows (All Versions) , Linux Red Hat, Mac OS-X

Multi-user - A multi-user operating system allows for multiple users to use the same computer at the same time and/or different times.Below are some examples of multi-user operating systems.

MS Windows (All Versions) , Linux Red Hat, Mac OS-X

Multiprocessing - An operating system capable of supporting and utilizing more than one computer processor. Below are some examples of multiprocessing operating systems.

MS Windows (XP, Vista, 7)

Multitasking - An operating system that is capable of allowing multiple software processes to run at the same time. Below are some examples of multitasking operating systems.

MS Windows (All Versions) , Linux Red Hat, Mac OS-X

Multithreading - Operating systems that allow different parts of software program to run concurrently. Operating systems that would fall into this category are:

MS Windows (All Versions) , Linux Red Hat, Mac OS-X