Operating Systems (OS)

The operating system (OS) is the basic set of software used on a computer, but it is not required for the computer to run. Most users have an OS installed on their machines because it manages the various hardware components for the machine. From a computer science/electrical engineer/computer engineer viewpoint, the OS makes new software and hardware development easier through the Application Programming Interface (API).

OS Components:

• user interface
• libraries – collections of common routines
• kernel
• device drivers

Common OS:

There are many different operating systems. Some of the more popular are:

• Windows
• Mac OS X (renamed to macOS)
• Linux (technically a kernel used by other OS)
  • Android (Linux-based mobile OS)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (used at NC State)
  • Ubuntu