Operating Systems

An operating system is a system that directly controls all of the basic operations and hardware within a computer, while also providing a basic foundation on which to run applications, and as a result they are the first thing that is loaded when the computer is started up. They normally come with pre-loaded programs. Overall  there are 2 different types of operating systems, command driven and graphical driven. Command driven is when the user inputs commands into a terminal. This type of operating system is easy to use provided that you know all of the commands. The second type, the graphic driven is what we are most used to, this type of operating system uses a graphical user interface that uses windows. Some examples of graphic operating systems are;

Windows 7
Windows Vista
Mac OSX leopard
Linux
Sun Solaris

There is also the option of a command driven interface for Linux.


Mac OSX

The Mac Operating System is provided by Apple and is mainly used for graphics work. It is a main competitor to Microsoft Windows.

Along the bottom of the screenshot is the quick access toolbar that lists the most used applications while along the top is the menu that contains various options to help the user, such as file, edit, view, window and help.


Linux

Linux is a freeware operating system loosly based of the Mac OS system, and as such contains many of the features of the same system. It is however based around a central Kernel. Linux comes as both a command driven and Graphic driven interface

This is the command driven interface for the Linux OS system, as you can see. Depending on the user, the command driven interface can be very fast to use but for new users, it is quite difficult to use.

This is the graphic user interface for linux, depending on the version they differ, in this version, the user interface looks more like windows but in other versions it will look like MAC but it depends on the type of linux being used, some examples of Linux are Ubuntu, Puppy, Kubuntu.

Windows 7 and Windows Vista

These two versions of Windows are produced by Microsoft, and are the main contender to the MAC OSX system. they use a graphical user interface using the concept of windows for each application. It is one of the main operating systems.