<
operating system> (OS) The low-level
software which handles
the interface to
peripheral hardware, schedules
tasks,
allocates
storage, and presents a default
interface to the
user when no
application program is running.
The OS may be split into a
kernel which is always present
and various system programs which use facilities provided by
the kernel to perform higher-level
house-keeping tasks,
often acting as
servers in a
client-server relationship.
Some would include a
graphical user interface and {window
system} as part of the OS, others would not. The {
operating
system loader},
BIOS, or other
firmware required at {boot
time} or when installing the
operating system would generally
not be considered part of the
operating system, though this
distinction is unclear in the case of a {rommable
operating
system} such as
RISC OS.
The facilities an
operating system provides and its general
design philosophy exert an extremely strong influence on
programming style and on the technical cultures that grow up
around the machines on which it runs.
Example
operating systems include
386BSD,
AIX,
AOS,
Amoeba,
Angel,
Artemis microkernel,
BeOS,
Brazil,
COS,
CP/M,
CTSS,
Chorus,
DACNOS,
DOSEXEC 2,
GCOS,
GEORGE 3,
GEOS,
ITS,
KAOS,
Linux,
LynxOS,
MPV,
MS-DOS,
MVS,
Mach,
Macintosh operating system,
Microsoft Windows,
MINIX,
Multics,
Multipop-68,
Novell NetWare,
OS-9,
OS/2,
Pick,
Plan 9,
QNX,
RISC OS,
STING,
System V,
System/360,
TOPS-10,
TOPS-20,
TRUSIX,
TWENEX,
TYMCOM-X,
Thoth,
Unix,
VM/CMS,
VMS,
VRTX,
VSTa,
VxWorks,
WAITS.
{
FAQ
(ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/comp.os.research)}.
Usenet newsgroup:
news:comp.os.research.
[
Jargon File]
(1999-06-09)