Operating System: the code responsible for managing the hardware and all the other running programs. An OS:
- loads and manages processes (a running program in an OS is called a process)
- provides “interaces” for processes to the hardware via system calls
- provides a filesystem, an interface for processes to the storage devices
- provides a basic interface for users to launch and manage programs
The most popular OS’s today are Windows and Unix. Unix is actually an umbrella term referring to OS’s which follow a set of conventions established by the orignal (now defunct) OS called Unix. Apple Mac OS X and Linux are two example Unixes (or Unices, if you prefer).
